Colonial public spaces
What role did the street serve as a public space
A central site for social interaction and visibility
Which economic system was leisure tied too?
Capitalism
How were spaces informally segregated?
People were judged on dress, English fluency, manners and companions. Elite Indians could enter is they were able to perform European respectability.
Economic barriers e.g. pricier tickets
where they could go within spaces
What is social interaction?
Public spaces allowed colonial subjects to observe and interact with others.
How was Darjeeling linked to imperial trade?
Tea
What did parks and promenades promote
Leisure
What are some examples of Leisure consumption in Darjeeling?
Tea, clubs, and viewpoints for scenery
How was the colonial social Hierarchy structured?
European elites (governors, officers, and their families)
Middle class Europeans (lower ranking officials, merchants, professionals)
Elite Indians/Collaborators (Wealthy merchants, Parsi shipbuilders, zamindars, professionals)
Middle Class Indians (Clerks, teachers, small professionals, shopkeepers)
Labourers (Domestic servants, plantation workers, porters, construction laborers )
How was literacy linked to colonial power?
Public spaces such as reading rooms and libraries promoted literacy, using education and print culture to distinguish respectable publics from the masses.
What is a hill station?
A town in the low mountains of the Indian subcontinent, popular as a holiday resort during the hot season.
What is the Mall Road?
A public space which symbolised leisure culture and scenic consumption.
What is the heat and disease of the plains?
Hill stations like Darjeeling were marketed as escapes from this aspect of colonial urban life.
Why did social hierarchy matter for public spaces?
It determined
Who could be seen
Who could linger
Who belonged without explanation
Who had to justify their presence
How did leisure spaces promote a display of wealth?
Spaces were designed for visibility, transforming private wealth into visible status.
How was colonial inequality displayed in Darjeeling?
Indian labour made leisure possible but they were largely excluded from enjoying it
Which two locations convey how imperial dominance was naturalised via the embedding of colonial power structures?
Bombay Theatre and Darjeeling hill station
How was leisure tied to class?
Leisure spaces often required disposable income, limiting access to elite groups.
In this context, what is social assimilation?
The way in which Indian elites gained partial access to European spaces, by performing European respectablity.
What is the colonial gaze?
The act of consuming space visually, such as scenic views.
Explain colonial urbanism.
Colonial urbanism refers to the ways colonial powers shaped cities to serve imperial control, economic exploitation, and social hierarchy, using European planning, architecture, and spatial segregation to dominate colonized societies.
Explain the concept of spatial control (or discipline)
the concept through which colonial authorities used design to assert power and reinforce social hierarchies
What is the leisure economy?
This term describes how leisure became a structured economic system in colonial towns.
By dictating how one had to dress and act, reinforcing the idea of European superiority by making these people the most visible in society.
What is social identity formation?
How public spaces shaped how people understood their place in society.
What is colonial domination through urban planning?
The development of Darjeeling demonstrates how colonial leisure spaces ultimately reinforced broader imperial objective by organizing space, labour, and consumption.