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Agency of Labor Resistance in Nineteenth Century India: Significance of Bulandshahr and F.S. Growse’s Account

Mallick, Bhaswar
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1543581416769978

Abstract Details

2018, MSARCH, University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture.
Hasty urbanization of non-metropolitan India has followed economic liberalization policies since the 1990s. To attract capital investments, such development has been compliant of globalization. However, agrarian protests and tribal Maoist insurgencies evidence resistance amidst concerns of internal colonialization. For the local building crafts, globalization has brought a `technological civilizing’. Facing technology that competes to replace rather than supplement labor, the resistance of masons and craftsmen has remained unheard, or marginalized. This is a legacy of colonialism. British historians, while glorifying ancient Indian architecture, argued to legitimize imperialism by portraying a decline. To deny the vitality of native architecture under colonialism, it was essential to marginalize the prevailing masons and craftsmen – a strain that later enabled portrayal of architects as professional experts in the modern world. Over the last few decades, members of the Subaltern Studies group, which originated in India, have critiqued post-colonial theory as being a vestige of and hostage to colonialism. Instead, they have prioritized the task of de-colonialization by reclaiming the history for the subaltern. A similar study in architecture is however lacking. This thesis thus proposes to initiate this work through an enquiry anchored on F.S. Growse’s, 1883 book, Bulandshahr: Sketches of an Indian district. The book is appropriate, as it argued that architecture in India remained a living art, especially identifying the agency of masons and craftsmen. The colonial government saw the book as advocating for native autonomy. Further prints of the book were prohibited, and its author subsequently transferred. This thesis would focus on situating the architectural subaltern in 19th century India, not as timidly transitioning and transforming, but in dignified confrontation with colonialism. It aims to establish the continued vitality of non-metropolitan Indian architecture, by legitimizing the role of local masons, craftsmen and architects – the subalterns of contemporary architecture. It would show British administrators facing similar resistance, and question if a working compromise then established, can be a guiding light now. The research, although aligning itself with the Subaltern Studies group, finds their literary methodology insufficient. However, their way of understanding history as “storying” – or “historying”, and alternate history as an alternate storying, particularly insightful. As such the research would read Growse’s book with the intent of: discerning and documenting facts versus observations and propositions. A commentary of the situation described, steps undertaken and goals idealized, will then help critiquing Growse’s proposed model for its colonial advocacy as well as its implications for urbanism today. The situation of architectural labor in 19th century India would be established as a vital instrument that confronted colonial rule. Removing the stigma associated with supposedly backward building practices and uncivilized labor would facilitate decolonization of colonial Indian architectural history. This would help ignite a discourse on labors’ significance in architecture, not just as a mode of production or idealized form, but as an agency essential for its continued vitality. In doing so it would encourage further critical history-writing, for the marginalia in India, and for architecture everywhere.
Rebecca Williamson, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Aarati Kanekar, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
67 p.
Architecture
Subaltern Studies; Architecture; Colonial India; Growse; Bulandhahr; Labor

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Citations

  • Mallick, B. (2018). Agency of Labor Resistance in Nineteenth Century India: Significance of Bulandshahr and F.S. Growse’s Account [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1543581416769978

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Mallick, Bhaswar. Agency of Labor Resistance in Nineteenth Century India: Significance of Bulandshahr and F.S. Growse’s Account. 2018. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1543581416769978.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Mallick, Bhaswar. "Agency of Labor Resistance in Nineteenth Century India: Significance of Bulandshahr and F.S. Growse’s Account." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1543581416769978

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1543581416769978
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