It was the era of the Raj, and yet A Joint Enterprise reveals the unexpected role of native communities in the transformation of the urban fabric of British Bombay from 1854 to 1918. Preeti Chopra demonstrates how British Bombay was, surprisingly, a collaboration of the colonial government and the Indian and European mercantile and industrial elite who shaped the city to serve their combined interests.
Chopra shows how the European and Indian engineers, architects, and artists worked with each other to design a city-its infrastructure, architecture, public sculpture-that was literally constructed by Indian laborers and craftsmen. Beyond the built environment, Indian philanthropists entered into partnerships with the colonial regime to found and finance institutions for the general public. Too often thought to be the product of the singular vision of a founding colonial regime, British Bombay is revealed by Chopra as an expression of native traditions meshing in complex ways with European ideas of urban planning and progress.
The result, she argues, was the creation of a new shared landscape for Bombay's citizens that ensured that neither the colonial government nor the native elite could entirely control the city's future.

About the Author
Preeti Chopra is associate professor of visual culture studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Reviews

"A Joint Enterprise is an ambitious, original, and interesting book on a valuable topic. Preeti Chopra provides unique interpretations of, among other things, the Indian reception and interpretation of the neo-Gothic architecture of the colonial regime." -Anthony King, author of Spaces of Global Cultures: Architecture, Urbanism, Identity

"A Joint Enterprise is an extremely able and well-informed survey of an interesting subject." -The Times Literary Supplement

"Chopra's monograph is a true contribution to bringing architectural practice and perception into the history of Bombay city." -Journal of Asian Studies

"Offers a skillfully crafted and nuanced reading of the colonial experience that challenges the polemics of racial and cultural segregation while articulating far more complex hierarchies of power." -Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History

"A Joint Enterprise provides a fabulous history of colonial domination and resistance through architectural and urban development in colonial Bombay." -South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies

"One ends Chopra's engaging book wondering if the first major dents to colonial Bombay's famed cosmopolitanism came from these segregating medical and housing policies rather than events like the Hindu-Muslim Riots of 1893." -Hamazor

"Offers a new perspective on urban social history." -Enterprise and Society

"Vital to understanding the architectural genealogy of the city."- Buildings & Landscape

"This book is a valuable addition to the literature on South Asian urbanism. The 'joint public realm' is a useful effort to conceptualize the manner in which Indians engaged with notions like the public." -Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient

"Preeti Chopra's A Joint Enterprise is a detailed, well-researched, illuminating work that makes a clear argument: 'colonial' cities are far less 'colonial' than we imagine. [It] is a major accomplishment, clearly the product of intensive research over many years by a scholar deeply committed to and knowledgeable in her chosen field." -Interventions

"As ambitious as it is imaginative, this book combines critical perspectives on the materiality and visibility of the modern city with an insightful examination of the agency of both colonial rulers and indigenous subjects. Elegantly presented and effectively developed." -Victorian Studies

Book Information
ISBN 9780816670376
Author Preeti Chopra
Format Paperback
Page Count 344
Imprint University of Minnesota Press
Publisher University of Minnesota Press
Dimensions(mm) 254mm * 178mm * 20mm