Royal Patronage, Power and Aesthetics

Jhala, Angma Dey:
Royal patronage, power and aesthetics in princely India / by Angma Dey Jhala. - London : Pickering & Chatto, 2011. - XI, 231 S. - (Empires in perspective ; 15)
ISBN 978-1-85196-064-4
£ 60,00 / US$ 99,00 (Printausgabe)
ISBN 978-1-85196-074-3
EUR 69,89 (PDF for Digital editions)
DDC: 305.489621095409034

Beschreibung
Investigating the aesthetics of the zenana - the female quarters of the Indic home or palace - this study discusses the history of architecture, fashion, jewellery and cuisine in princely Indian states during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The women of these groups inhabited multiple worlds, equally at home in their often remote semi-autonomous princely states as in the metropolitan cities of British India and Europe or at ‘coming out’ parties in London.
   During British colonial rule, zenana women were avid patrons of European jewellers, architects and chefs, juxtaposing traditional Indian styles with incoming Western trends. Drawing on a wide variety of sources such as government records, cookbooks, design manuals and memoirs, Jhala illustrates how material culture became representative of authority, sexuality, tradition and the idea of the ‘indigenous’ during the high noon of the Raj. In doing so, Jhala provides a portrait of a hitherto under-studied hybrid, cosmopolitan perspective, constructed from a uniquely female world, which has relevance to this day. [Verlagsinformation]

Inhalt
Acknowledgements. ix
Introduction: Cosmopolitan Collectors. 1
1. The Dholpur Jewellery Dispute, c. 1913: State Jewels, Stridhana and Zenana Patrons. 29
2. Trans-Regional Chefs, Kitchens and Cookbooks: Food in the Colonial and Postcolonial Zenana. 69
3. The Tawa’if and the Maharani: The Influence of Royal Aesthetics on Indian Cinema, Tourism and Popular Culture. 101
4. The Pardah Princess: Orientalist Portraits of the Zenana in Merchant Ivory’s Films. 131
Epilogue. 171
Notes. 179
Works Cited. 207
Index. 223

Autorin

ANGMA DEY JHALA, assistant professor, Bentley University, Waltham, Mass. Profile page.

Quellen: Pickering & Chatto; Amazon; WorldCat; ebooks.com