An Imperial Vision: Indian Architecture and Britain’s Raj

This well-researched book examines the relationship between culture and power expressed in architectural forms employed by the British in India. From the grand monuments of New Delhi to the more quotidian functional structures of smaller towns, these buildings reflect the choices made by the British in their politics as imperial rulers. Much of this architecture drew on European classical forms, for these had long evoked a vision of empire in Europe. But, after 1857, the British also constructed a vision of themselves not as mere foreign conquerors but as legitimate, almost indigenous rulers, linked directly to the Mughals and hence to India’s own past. In so doing they created the distinctive forms known as Indo-Saracenic architecture.