Exploring South Asian Urbanity PDF
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EXPLORING SOUTH ASIAN URBANITY This book looks at the typologies of cities and ideas of urbanity. Focusing specifically on cities in South Asia, it analyses the unique planning concepts, archaeology, art, culture, life, and philosophy of various cities of ancient and modern South Asia. T he book explores the concept of urbanity and the idea of an ideal city; it interrogates general notions of urbanity by juxtaposing city life in various periods and geographies of South Asia. By analysing the demography, architecture, rituals, and culture of various cities, it looks at the different spatialities of these places in terms of their size, population, commerce, and philosophy as well as the reasons behind the transformation of these places into urban centres. Drawing from various archeological and literary sources, the volume includes rich details about heterogeneity, rituals, festivals, social stratification, penal systems, famines, and insurrections in ancient cities as well as modern cities like Lahore, Dhaka, and Calcutta, among many others in South Asia. T his book will be of interest to researchers and students of ancient and modern history, archaeology, urban studies, urban and town planning, urban sociology, urban geography, cultural studies, post-colonial studies, ancient and medieval architecture, heritage studies, conservation studies, and South Asian studies. Urvi Mukhopadhyay completed her PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies. She is now teaching as Associate Professor in the Department of History, West Bengal State University, Barasat, India. She has authored The ‘Medieval’ in Film: Representing Contested Time on the Indian Screen (1920s to 1960s) and numerous articles on culture, media, and history. Her research areas include politics of representation, urbanity, and communal constructions. Her ongoing research includes inter-community relations in urban India and textile networks. Suchandra Ghosh is a professor in the Department of History, University of Hyderabad. She broadly takes interest in the politico-cultural history of early Northwest India, the Indian Ocean Buddhist and trade network, regional history, and the history of everyday life in early India. She has participated in projects relating to India’s relationship with Southeast Asia. She was awarded the Savitri Chandra Shobha Memorial Prize of the Indian History Congress for the book From the Oxus to the Indus: A Political and Cultural Study in 2017. E XPLORING SOUTH ASIAN URBANITY Edited by Urvi Mukhopadhyay and Suchandra Ghosh First published 2022 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN a nd by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Urvi Mukhopadhyay and Suchandra Ghosh; individual chapters, the contributors T he right of Urvi Mukhopadhyay and Suchandra Ghosh to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested I SBN: 978-0-367-13429-7 (hbk) I SBN: 978-1-032-11428-6 (pbk) I SBN: 978-1-003-21987-3 (ebk) D OI: 10.4324/9781003219873 T ypeset in Sabon b y Apex CoVantage, LLC T his volume is dedicated to our mentors, Prof. Ranabir Chakravarti and Prof. Daud Ali, who introduced us to the various facets of urbanity. CONTENTS List of figures x List of maps xii List of tables xiii List of contributors xiv P reface xviii Perceiving the urban: South Asia—introduction 1 PART I Concept of urbanity 27 1 Urbanity and the city: a note 29 RILA MUKHERJEE PART II Locating urban space: case studies from early South Asia 51 2 Experiencing the urban: neighbourhoods of Ancient Bhir and Sirkap 53 SUPRIYA VARMA 3 Peripheral city of Māgama: a case of tropical urbanism in Sri Lanka 76 RAJ SOMADEVA 4 Nature, knowledge, construction, and medieval archaeology: revisiting the by-lanes of medieval capital city Mandu 101 SANJAY SUBODH vii CONTENTS PART III Texts and images: representing cities 125 5 Elusive borders: the city in Gandhāran narrative art 127 CHANDREYI BASU 6 The city, the Ka¯ma culture, and Dandin: shades and varieties ·· of urban life in the Daśakumāracarita 152 KANAD SINHA 7 Cities as a point of convergence: case studies from early medieval India 177 SUCHANDRA GHOSH 8 The Deccan ports and their hinterlands 195 RADHIKA SESHAN PART IV Making of the cities 205 9 Dhaka – from an obscure urban settlement to a mega-city 207 SHARIF UDDIN AHMED 10 Class in a colonial port city: Bombay, opium, and empire 222 AMAR FAROOQUI 1 1 Lahore: a cultural and literary ‘New’ Delhi for North India after 1857 255 JEFFREY M. DIAMOND 12 From a wilderness to capital city: the making of Agartala 279 ANINDITA GHOSHAL PART V Urban fringes and insurrections 301 13 Slum dwellers as agencies and victims of urbanization in Calcutta from the past to the present 303 SUMANTA BANERJEE viii CONTENTS 14 Locating Metiaburz against the backdrop of urban Calcutta: experiencing marginality 317 URVI MUKHOPADHYAY 15 Insurrectionary city: revolts in colonial Calcutta, 1918–1946 332 SUGATA NANDI Index 346 ix
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