Decolonising the Gateway of India

Bibliographic Data

ID11447262
AuthorsRajeev Kumaramkandath (0000-0001-6548-7102, Christ (Deemed To Be University) Bangalore, India, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume43
Issue1
Pages7-17
Publication date2023-02-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSouth Asia Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0262-7280 • E-ISSN: 1741-3141
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/02627280221141045
OpenAlexW4313677410
LanguageEN
References cited14

This article interrogates how a colonial monument, the Gateway of India in Mumbai, former Bombay, continues to carry and be endowed with a title that is a misplaced embodiment of Indian social histories. Built in the 1920s, this monument, definitely a work of architectural grandeur, continues to carry its erroneous rendition and confines India’s vast social histories to the colonial moment, with an anglo-centric focus. As the monument symbolises the memory of the colonial regime, it also signifies its oppression as well as its exit from the subcontinent, rather than witnessing anyone coming to India, except King George in 1911, as the monument’s title seems to suggest. A mnemonic device of colonialism, this misleading label needs to be seriously revisited, for it not only romanticises the colonial past but also fails to lead our memories back to certain crucial episodes in earlier social histories, from which the monument and its specific place, Mumbai, are more or less fully absent

Ancient history · Archaeology · Colonialism · Gateway (web page · Indian subcontinent · Mnemonic · Oppression · Political science · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Colonial History and Postcolonial Studies · History · Law · Psychology · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

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