The essays in this volume explore crucial intellectual and cultural exchanges between Asia and Eu... more The essays in this volume explore crucial intellectual and cultural exchanges between Asia and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. Examining the increased mobility of people and information, scientific advances, global crises, and the unravelling of empires, Eurasian Encounters demonstrates that this time period saw an unprecedented increase in a transnational flow of politically and socially influential ideas. Together, the contributors show how the two ends of Eurasia interacted in artistic, academic, and religious spheres using new international and cosmopolitan approaches.
Histories of conservation suggest that from the nineteenth century onwards, the custodianship and... more Histories of conservation suggest that from the nineteenth century onwards, the custodianship and conservation of colonial antiquities enabled European powers to legitimize imperial claims. This article complicates this view by focusing on a series of visits made by British royals to the Caves of Elephanta, near Bombay, as part of their tours of India. Of particular interest are the visits in 1870 and 1875, which were essentially picnics, including fireworks and feasting, with little showcasing of ongoing conservation efforts. The article argues that these early visits also sought to advance a narrative of imperial legitimization through the British heirs' presence at an Indian monument. Rather than acts of rational governance, such as conservation measures, these picnics were transactions within the ceremonial economy that privileged consumption as a means of legitimizing empire. They present a register of imperial engagement with an Indian monument that is neither 'plunder' nor 'preservation'. Instead, they are posited as predecessors of the durbars (courts/assemblies) produced by the British administration from 1877 onwards. As acts of imperial political communication, the Elephanta visits drew upon the popularity of the picnic as a form of leisure, and consumption, and the long-standing aesthetic resonances of the site, such as the island's picturesque framing and the Caves' Romanticist associations. These enduring aesthetic frameworks made the acts of consumption legible as imperial political communication. The picnics at Elephanta demonstrate that colonial antiquities featured in imperial narratives of legitimization based on political pageantry, exceeding conservation and rational governance.
Histories of conservation suggest that from the nineteenth century onwards, the custodianship and... more Histories of conservation suggest that from the nineteenth century onwards, the custodianship and conservation of colonial antiquities enabled European powers to legitimize imperial claims. This article complicates this view by focusing on a series of visits made by British royals to the Caves of Elephanta, near Bombay, as part of their tours of India. Of particular interest are the visits in 1870 and 1875, which were essentially picnics, including fireworks and feasting, with little showcasing of ongoing conservation efforts. The article argues that these early visits also sought to advance a narrative of imperial legitimization through the British heirs' presence at an Indian monument. Rather than acts of rational governance, such as conservation measures, these picnics were transactions within the ceremonial economy that privileged consumption as a means of legitimizing empire. They present a register of imperial engagement with an Indian monument that is neither 'plunder' nor 'preservation'. Instead, they are posited as predecessors of the durbars (courts/assemblies) produced by the British administration from 1877 onwards. As acts of imperial political communication, the Elephanta visits drew upon the popularity of the picnic as a form of leisure, and consumption, and the long-standing aesthetic resonances of the site, such as the island's picturesque framing and the Caves' Romanticist associations. These enduring aesthetic frameworks made the acts of consumption legible as imperial political communication. The picnics at Elephanta demonstrate that colonial antiquities featured in imperial narratives of legitimization based on political pageantry, exceeding conservation and rational governance.
[Open Access: Please follow the link for the full paper.]
Histories of conservation suggest that... more [Open Access: Please follow the link for the full paper.] Histories of conservation suggest that from the nineteenth century onwards, the custodianship and conservation of colonial antiquities enabled European powers to legitimize imperial claims. This article complicates this view by focusing on a series of visits made by British royals to the Caves of Elephanta, near Bombay, as part of their tours of India. Of particular interest are the visits in 1870 and 1875, which were essentially picnics, including fireworks and feasting, with little showcasing of ongoing conservation efforts. The article argues that these early visits also sought to advance a narrative of imperial legitimization through the British heirs’ presence at an Indian monument. Rather than acts of rational governance, such as conservation measures, these picnics were transactions within the ceremonial economy that privileged consumption as a means of legitimizing empire. They present a register of imperial engagement with an Indian monument that is neither ‘plunder’ nor ‘preservation’. Instead, they are posited as predecessors of the durbars (courts/assemblies) produced by the British administration from 1877 onwards. As acts of imperial political communication, the Elephanta visits drew upon the popularity of the picnic as a form of leisure, and consumption, and the long-standing aesthetic resonances of the site, such as the island’s picturesque framing and the Caves’ Romanticist associations. These enduring aesthetic frameworks made the acts of consumption legible as imperial political communication. The picnics at Elephanta demonstrate that colonial antiquities featured in imperial narratives of legitimization based on political pageantry, exceeding conservation and rational governance.
The birth of the museum in India takes place in the context of colonial modernity in the early ni... more The birth of the museum in India takes place in the context of colonial modernity in the early nineteenth century.
In this paper, I consider the emergence of two art museums in the early decades of the twentieth ... more In this paper, I consider the emergence of two art museums in the early decades of the twentieth century in the British colony of India: the Bharat Kala Bhavan of Banaras, founded by Rai Krishnadas in 1920, and the Shri Bhavani Chitrasangrahalaya in the princely state of Aundh, built by its last ruler, Balasaheb Pant Pratinidhi, in 1938. As two of the earliest museums devoted to the arts, these endeavours distinguish them‑ selves not only due to their establishment by Indians but also for their insistence on the category of the art museum. This insistence on the art museum deviated from the prevalent model of encyclopaedic museum making, that aggregated materials under the rubric of Indian resources. The paper discusses this shift away from the encyclopaedic, to aesthetic judgement as exercised by these museum founders, in the light of the nationalist impulse. In foregrounding the relationship between art, nationalism, and institutional histories, the paper will unpack a range of questions: What did it mean for Indians to establish an art museum? How did the space of the museum suggest itself to Indians who were yet colonial subjects? Or is the alliance between an art museum and an incipient nation only natural? If so, how is the art museum envisioned and deployed by colonial subjects, and how does it relate to their claims for self‑rule? In exploring this relationship between the art museum and the colony, the paper focuses on the image of the art museum as was envisioned by these collectors in India's colonial period through the narratives of connoisseurship and patronage. Making collections with an eye to the nation that was yet to come, these collectors created diverse collec‑ tions and chose to address this new nation and its citizen populace. Foregrounding the role of collecting in institution formation, the paper will reflect on the processes and discourses of connoisseurship, aesthetic agency, and social transformation that undergird the collections of the two museums at Banaras and Aundh. In the initial section, the paper considers the relationship between the art museum and the nation‑state, in the light of the coming of the museum to the British colony of India; this will bring into relief the valence of creating an art museum in colonial India. Next, it delves into the institutional history of the Bharat Kala Bhavan in Banaras and the biography of its founder. Here the paper will lay out the high‑ art tradition that was being deployed by Rai Krishnadas in Banaras to present one articulation of a nationalist art history. The next section of the paper throws light on the collection at the Aundh museum, particularly its engagements with the western academic style, its collection of casts and copies, and draws attention to the politi‑ cal changes and gestures of self‑rule that were taking place in the small principality. In detailing these institutional histories, the paper will present two articulations of nationalism in the realm of aesthetics in the period before Indian independence.
The essays in this volume explore crucial intellectual and cultural exchanges between Asia and Eu... more The essays in this volume explore crucial intellectual and cultural exchanges between Asia and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. Examining the increased mobility of people and information, scientific advances, global crises, and the unravelling of empires, Eurasian Encounters demonstrates that this time period saw an unprecedented increase in a transnational flow of politically and socially influential ideas. Together, the contributors show how the two ends of Eurasia interacted in artistic, academic, and religious spheres using new international and cosmopolitan approaches.
Histories of conservation suggest that from the nineteenth century onwards, the custodianship and... more Histories of conservation suggest that from the nineteenth century onwards, the custodianship and conservation of colonial antiquities enabled European powers to legitimize imperial claims. This article complicates this view by focusing on a series of visits made by British royals to the Caves of Elephanta, near Bombay, as part of their tours of India. Of particular interest are the visits in 1870 and 1875, which were essentially picnics, including fireworks and feasting, with little showcasing of ongoing conservation efforts. The article argues that these early visits also sought to advance a narrative of imperial legitimization through the British heirs' presence at an Indian monument. Rather than acts of rational governance, such as conservation measures, these picnics were transactions within the ceremonial economy that privileged consumption as a means of legitimizing empire. They present a register of imperial engagement with an Indian monument that is neither 'plunder' nor 'preservation'. Instead, they are posited as predecessors of the durbars (courts/assemblies) produced by the British administration from 1877 onwards. As acts of imperial political communication, the Elephanta visits drew upon the popularity of the picnic as a form of leisure, and consumption, and the long-standing aesthetic resonances of the site, such as the island's picturesque framing and the Caves' Romanticist associations. These enduring aesthetic frameworks made the acts of consumption legible as imperial political communication. The picnics at Elephanta demonstrate that colonial antiquities featured in imperial narratives of legitimization based on political pageantry, exceeding conservation and rational governance.
Histories of conservation suggest that from the nineteenth century onwards, the custodianship and... more Histories of conservation suggest that from the nineteenth century onwards, the custodianship and conservation of colonial antiquities enabled European powers to legitimize imperial claims. This article complicates this view by focusing on a series of visits made by British royals to the Caves of Elephanta, near Bombay, as part of their tours of India. Of particular interest are the visits in 1870 and 1875, which were essentially picnics, including fireworks and feasting, with little showcasing of ongoing conservation efforts. The article argues that these early visits also sought to advance a narrative of imperial legitimization through the British heirs' presence at an Indian monument. Rather than acts of rational governance, such as conservation measures, these picnics were transactions within the ceremonial economy that privileged consumption as a means of legitimizing empire. They present a register of imperial engagement with an Indian monument that is neither 'plunder' nor 'preservation'. Instead, they are posited as predecessors of the durbars (courts/assemblies) produced by the British administration from 1877 onwards. As acts of imperial political communication, the Elephanta visits drew upon the popularity of the picnic as a form of leisure, and consumption, and the long-standing aesthetic resonances of the site, such as the island's picturesque framing and the Caves' Romanticist associations. These enduring aesthetic frameworks made the acts of consumption legible as imperial political communication. The picnics at Elephanta demonstrate that colonial antiquities featured in imperial narratives of legitimization based on political pageantry, exceeding conservation and rational governance.
[Open Access: Please follow the link for the full paper.]
Histories of conservation suggest that... more [Open Access: Please follow the link for the full paper.] Histories of conservation suggest that from the nineteenth century onwards, the custodianship and conservation of colonial antiquities enabled European powers to legitimize imperial claims. This article complicates this view by focusing on a series of visits made by British royals to the Caves of Elephanta, near Bombay, as part of their tours of India. Of particular interest are the visits in 1870 and 1875, which were essentially picnics, including fireworks and feasting, with little showcasing of ongoing conservation efforts. The article argues that these early visits also sought to advance a narrative of imperial legitimization through the British heirs’ presence at an Indian monument. Rather than acts of rational governance, such as conservation measures, these picnics were transactions within the ceremonial economy that privileged consumption as a means of legitimizing empire. They present a register of imperial engagement with an Indian monument that is neither ‘plunder’ nor ‘preservation’. Instead, they are posited as predecessors of the durbars (courts/assemblies) produced by the British administration from 1877 onwards. As acts of imperial political communication, the Elephanta visits drew upon the popularity of the picnic as a form of leisure, and consumption, and the long-standing aesthetic resonances of the site, such as the island’s picturesque framing and the Caves’ Romanticist associations. These enduring aesthetic frameworks made the acts of consumption legible as imperial political communication. The picnics at Elephanta demonstrate that colonial antiquities featured in imperial narratives of legitimization based on political pageantry, exceeding conservation and rational governance.
The birth of the museum in India takes place in the context of colonial modernity in the early ni... more The birth of the museum in India takes place in the context of colonial modernity in the early nineteenth century.
In this paper, I consider the emergence of two art museums in the early decades of the twentieth ... more In this paper, I consider the emergence of two art museums in the early decades of the twentieth century in the British colony of India: the Bharat Kala Bhavan of Banaras, founded by Rai Krishnadas in 1920, and the Shri Bhavani Chitrasangrahalaya in the princely state of Aundh, built by its last ruler, Balasaheb Pant Pratinidhi, in 1938. As two of the earliest museums devoted to the arts, these endeavours distinguish them‑ selves not only due to their establishment by Indians but also for their insistence on the category of the art museum. This insistence on the art museum deviated from the prevalent model of encyclopaedic museum making, that aggregated materials under the rubric of Indian resources. The paper discusses this shift away from the encyclopaedic, to aesthetic judgement as exercised by these museum founders, in the light of the nationalist impulse. In foregrounding the relationship between art, nationalism, and institutional histories, the paper will unpack a range of questions: What did it mean for Indians to establish an art museum? How did the space of the museum suggest itself to Indians who were yet colonial subjects? Or is the alliance between an art museum and an incipient nation only natural? If so, how is the art museum envisioned and deployed by colonial subjects, and how does it relate to their claims for self‑rule? In exploring this relationship between the art museum and the colony, the paper focuses on the image of the art museum as was envisioned by these collectors in India's colonial period through the narratives of connoisseurship and patronage. Making collections with an eye to the nation that was yet to come, these collectors created diverse collec‑ tions and chose to address this new nation and its citizen populace. Foregrounding the role of collecting in institution formation, the paper will reflect on the processes and discourses of connoisseurship, aesthetic agency, and social transformation that undergird the collections of the two museums at Banaras and Aundh. In the initial section, the paper considers the relationship between the art museum and the nation‑state, in the light of the coming of the museum to the British colony of India; this will bring into relief the valence of creating an art museum in colonial India. Next, it delves into the institutional history of the Bharat Kala Bhavan in Banaras and the biography of its founder. Here the paper will lay out the high‑ art tradition that was being deployed by Rai Krishnadas in Banaras to present one articulation of a nationalist art history. The next section of the paper throws light on the collection at the Aundh museum, particularly its engagements with the western academic style, its collection of casts and copies, and draws attention to the politi‑ cal changes and gestures of self‑rule that were taking place in the small principality. In detailing these institutional histories, the paper will present two articulations of nationalism in the realm of aesthetics in the period before Indian independence.
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Papers by Deepti Mulgund
Histories of conservation suggest that from the nineteenth century onwards, the custodianship and conservation of colonial antiquities enabled European powers to legitimize imperial claims. This article complicates this view by focusing on a series of visits made by British royals to the Caves of Elephanta, near Bombay, as part of their tours of India. Of particular interest are the visits in 1870 and 1875, which were essentially picnics, including fireworks and feasting, with little showcasing of ongoing conservation efforts. The article argues that these early visits also sought to advance a narrative of imperial legitimization through the British heirs’ presence at an Indian monument. Rather than acts of rational governance, such as conservation measures, these picnics were transactions within the ceremonial economy that privileged consumption as a means of legitimizing empire. They present a register of imperial engagement with an Indian monument that is neither ‘plunder’ nor ‘preservation’. Instead, they are posited as predecessors of the durbars (courts/assemblies) produced by the British administration from 1877 onwards. As acts of imperial political communication, the Elephanta visits drew upon the popularity of the picnic as a form of leisure, and consumption, and the long-standing aesthetic resonances of the site, such as the island’s picturesque framing and the Caves’ Romanticist associations. These enduring aesthetic frameworks made the acts of consumption legible as imperial political communication. The picnics at Elephanta demonstrate that colonial antiquities featured in imperial narratives of legitimization based on political pageantry, exceeding conservation and rational governance.
Histories of conservation suggest that from the nineteenth century onwards, the custodianship and conservation of colonial antiquities enabled European powers to legitimize imperial claims. This article complicates this view by focusing on a series of visits made by British royals to the Caves of Elephanta, near Bombay, as part of their tours of India. Of particular interest are the visits in 1870 and 1875, which were essentially picnics, including fireworks and feasting, with little showcasing of ongoing conservation efforts. The article argues that these early visits also sought to advance a narrative of imperial legitimization through the British heirs’ presence at an Indian monument. Rather than acts of rational governance, such as conservation measures, these picnics were transactions within the ceremonial economy that privileged consumption as a means of legitimizing empire. They present a register of imperial engagement with an Indian monument that is neither ‘plunder’ nor ‘preservation’. Instead, they are posited as predecessors of the durbars (courts/assemblies) produced by the British administration from 1877 onwards. As acts of imperial political communication, the Elephanta visits drew upon the popularity of the picnic as a form of leisure, and consumption, and the long-standing aesthetic resonances of the site, such as the island’s picturesque framing and the Caves’ Romanticist associations. These enduring aesthetic frameworks made the acts of consumption legible as imperial political communication. The picnics at Elephanta demonstrate that colonial antiquities featured in imperial narratives of legitimization based on political pageantry, exceeding conservation and rational governance.