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Talk by Prashant Kidambi (History, University of Leicester )

 

Cantonments were a ubiquitous symbol of the military origins and underpinnings of British rule in South Asia. This talk, based on new research, seeks to rethink existing approaches to the study of cantonments. It critiques perspectives that view cantonments as sealed-off sites of untrammelled colonial power, abstracted from the historical processes shaping the wider society. My analytical framework brings politics back into the study of these putatively ‘military’ zones and restores agency to those who have hitherto been construed primarily as the malleable objects of colonial disciplinary power. In the process, I underscore the significance of cantonments in the making of urban South Asia.

 

Prashant Kidambi is Professor of Urban History at the University of Leicester. Professor Kidambi’s research explores how modern South Asia was shaped by empire and nation. He has written extensively on Indian cities, public culture, politics, and sports. He is the award-winning author of Cricket Country: An Indian Odyssey in the Age of Empire—the first work of sports history to be shortlisted for the prestigious Wolfson History Prize—and the editor of Bombay Before Mumbai, a path-breaking collection of essays on India’s ‘maximum city’. He is currently working on a new biography of the controversial Indian nationalist leader Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856-1920).

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