About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherSTATE University of New York Press

ISBN-101438499213

ISBN-139781438499215

eBay Product ID (ePID)13073459222

Product Key Features

Number of Pages294 Pages

Publication NameRuling Devotion : the Hindu Temple in the British Imperial Imagination

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year2025

SubjectHinduism / History, Modern / 19th Century

TypeTextbook

Subject AreaReligion, History

AuthorDeborah Sutton

SeriesSuny Series, Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century Ser.

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height1 in

Item Weight14.4 Oz

Item Length9 in

Item Width6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2024-000343

Dewey Edition23

Reviews"In a post-Babri Masjid demolition world, Sutton's contribution is a nuanced history that shows us how the idea of a temple came to be what it is today. It is an important resource for historians, art historians, and scholars of religious studies. It is also an excellent resource for introducing undergraduate students to the intersection of historiography and colonial power." -- American Historical Review "a fascinating exploration of the intricacies of British imperial engagement with the Hindu temple from the emergence through to the end of colonial rule in India. Sutton takes us on a journey of bureaucratic and legal entanglements, destruction and resistance as the colonial state sought to define, control and subjugate this central site of devotion in Indian society." -- History Today "Deborah Sutton's pathbreaking study Ruling Devotion: The Hindu Temple in the British Imperial Imagination offers a new understanding of the modern history of the Hindu temple in India." -- The Wire, "a fascinating exploration of the intricacies of British imperial engagement with the Hindu temple from the emergence through to the end of colonial rule in India. Sutton takes us on a journey of bureaucratic and legal entanglements, destruction and resistance as the colonial state sought to define, control and subjugate this central site of devotion in Indian society." -- History Today "Deborah Sutton's pathbreaking study Ruling Devotion: The Hindu Temple in the British Imperial Imagination offers a new understanding of the modern history of the Hindu temple in India." -- The Wire, "Deborah Sutton's pathbreaking study Ruling Devotion: The Hindu Temple in the British Imperial Imagination offers a new understanding of the modern history of the Hindu temple in India." -- The Wire

Grade FromCollege Graduate Student

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal294.535095409034

Table Of ContentImages Abbreviations Glossary Acknowledgements Introduction The Temple in Imperial Culture Chapter Structure 1. Company Rule and Temples in the Madras Presidency, 1800-1841 Temples and the Topography of War Hindu Temples as the Property of the Company Government The "Accounts of the Church": Company Officers and Temple Revenues Competition, Succession Disputes, and Company Adjudication Assets, Accounts, and Corruptions in Temple Administration Christian Missions and the Ejection of the Company from Temples Conclusion 2. The Hindu Temple in Nineteenth-Century Architectural Scholarship Introduction Early European Accounts Text, Architecture, and Buildings: Ram Raz and the Recovery of the Hindu Temple The "Stone Book": James Fergusson and Ethnographies of Architecture Fergusson's Taxonomies of Temple Architecture Self-reproduction and the Hindu Temple Conclusion 3. Colonial Archaeology and the Idea of the Temple as a Monument Temples as Monuments The Temples of Bhubaneswar Hindu Temples and Conservation Conclusion 4. Siting and Inciting Shrines in the City of Delhi The Shiv Mandir Dispute The Cities of Delhi and Temples as Rubble: The Removal of Shrines Creating Temples and Negotiating New Publics Rumour and Divine Emergence 5. Dark Spaces and the Body: The Temple in Victorian and Edwardian Literature Hinduism and the British Imagination Victorian Adventures Rudyard Kipling and the Hindu Temple Gods in History: E.M. Forster, Civilisation, and War E.M. Forster's A Passage to India Conclusion 6. The World Mountain: Stella Kramrisch and the Hindu Temple Stella Kramrisch and Indian Art Kramrisch and the Hindu Temple The Search for Acceptance: Stella Kramrisch, William Rothenstein, and British Art History A Better Alliance: Kramrisch and the Warburg Institute Exhibition, 1940 Conclusion Conclusion Bibliography Index

SynopsisCombines historical, literary, art historical, and archaeological perspectives to explore the idea of the Hindu temple in the British colonial imagination., Combines historical, literary, art historical, and archaeological perspectives to explore the idea of the Hindu temple in the British colonial imagination. A History Today 's 2024 Book of the Year From 1800 onwards, the Hindu temple occupied a fragile and uneasy proximity to Imperial governance in India. The colonial state sought to regulate and extract the wealth of large temples. Imperial scholars classified the extraordinary diversity of architectural forms from across India, and selected temples were defined as monuments and brought into the custody of Imperial archaeology. Over time, the Imperial literary imagination transformed the Hindu temple from a place of worship and devotion into a space of wealth, sensuality, and violence. However, the Hindu temple also tested the Imperial state. Devotees and trustees manipulated and rejected attempts at governance, and the Hindu temple became a site at which the authority of the state was persistently modified or curtailed. Ruling Devotion combines historical, literary, art historical, and archaeological perspectives to explore the idea of the temple in particular localities, through the formation of pan-British-Indian policy and in the broadest of transnational realms of Imperial culture. Drawing on a huge range and diversity of archival materials, the book explores the preoccupations and frailties of the colonial state in India.