Crafting the Nation in Colonial India

280 Pages·2009·1.95 MB·English

by  Abigail McGowan

Crafting the Nation
in Colonial India
This page intentionally left blank
Crafting the Nation
in Colonial India
Abigail McGowan
crafting the nation in colonial india
Copyright © Abigail McGowan, 2009.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States -
a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the
world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers
Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN: 978-0-230-61267-9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McGowan, Abigail.
Crafting the nation in colonial India / Abigail McGowan.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-230-61267-9
1. Decorative arts—India. 2. Industries, Primitive—India. 3. Cultural
awareness—India. 4. India—History—British occupation, 1765–1947.
I. Title.
NK1047.M38 2009
306.4'70954—dc22 2008055761
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Macmillan Publishing Solutions
First edition: August 2009

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America.
In memory of my father.
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
List of Figures ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1 Demanding Knowledge, Documenting the Body 23
2 The Culture of Difference: From Colonial Knowledge
to the Problem with Crafts 67
3 Developing Traditions: Preservationist Design and
the Independent Artisan 103
4 Modernizing Artisanship: Rationalization, Efficiency,
and the Cult of the Craftsman 149
Conclusion The Long Life of Difference: Gandhi and
the Politics of Crafts after 1920 187
Notes 205
Bibliography 245
Index 261
This page intentionally left blank
List of Figures
1.1 The Indian Court at the Great Exhibition, 1851,
color lithograph by Joseph Nash 24
1.2 Examples of Indian ornament taken from the
displays at the Great Exhibition and published
in Owen Jones’s The Grammar of Ornament as
lessons in good design 32
1.3 Illustrations of jewelry in Birdwood’s The Industrial
Arts of India 47
1.4 Jaipur gateway to the Rajputana Courts, Colonial
and Indian Exhibition of 1886, London 59
1.5 C lay models of artisans, with details of embroiderers
and potters, Victoria and Albert Museum, Bombay 61
1.6 M etal worker from the Jaipur School of Art,
Journal of Indian Art and Industry, 1894 62
3.1 Vases prepared by students at the Sir Jamsetjee
Jeejeebhoy School of Arts in the late 1880s 113
3.2 Illustration of the ceiling from “Jodh Bai’s Palace,”
Fatehpur Sikri in the Technical Art Series, 1894 120
3.3 Pinjra designs in wood from the Punjab, drawn by Ram
Singh under the direction of Lockwood Kipling 121

3.4 Sketches for Anglo-Indian furniture, drawn by Ram
Singh, under the direction of Lockwood Kipling 122
3.5 The Bombay Room at the Delhi Durbar Exhibition
of 1903 129
3.6 Bench prepared by the Ahmedabad Wood Carving
Company, late 1800s 135