Empire Building - The Construction of British India, 1690¿1860

''Empire Building'' is a new account of the East India Company''s impact on India, focussing on how it changed the sub-continent''s built environment in the context of defence, urbanisation, and infrastructural development. Rosie Llewellyn-Jones examines these initiatives through a lens of ''political building'' (using Indian contractors and labourers). Railways, docks, municipal buildings, freemasons'' lodges, hotels, race-courses, barracks, cemeteries, statues, canals--everything the British erected made a political statement, even if unconsciously; hence this book is concerned less with architectural styles, more with subtle infiltration into the minds of those who saw and used these structures. It assesses, in turn, Indian responses to the changing landscape. Indians often reacted favourably to new manufacturing technologies from Britain, like minting and gunpowder, while the British learnt from and adapted local methods. From military engineers and cartography to imported raw meta