Art historian Preeti Chopra on how colonial Bombay can be understood in terms of its multiple fragments, key actors who shaped the city, and the shared spaces and practices which help its diverse residents cohere.
About the Seminar
Colonial Bombay has traditionally been understood as a city shaped primarily by the state, and as a dual city with a white town and black town. However, neither understanding is correct. Rejecting the dualistic model of colonial cities, which depicts a segregated city in which the colonizers and the colonized lived in distinct worlds, I introduce the concept of “the city and its fragments,” which allows us to see that the city is made up of many diverse parts. These fragments are intertwined in a public arena of shared institutions, spaces, and practices that represented the entire city. In Bombay, differences were subsumed to a sense of belonging and common ownership of public spaces. From the late 1860s there was an increased use of public spaces such as the Back Bay, the Esplanade, and Apollo Bundar by all racial and religious groups. The public believed that these spaces belonged to the entire public and no ethnic or religious group had a right to monopolize them or fragment this public domain. In these shared public spaces Indians glimpsed a promising future that could be theirs if they looked beyond divisions.
Sudhir Patwardhan, Mumbai Proverbs, a painting in seven parts, 2013-2014. Acrylic on canvas. Each panel: 90 x 48 inches. Total size: 90 x 340 inches.
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