Along with the English language, and the colonial legal and administrative institu- tions in which it has remained enshrined, the buildings of British India and Ceylon are arguably among the most tangible and enduring legacies of the European colo- nization of South Asia. The material evidence of this is ubiquitous. At one end of the architectural spectrum there are the bungalows, barracks, institutional and technical infrastructure originally built to accommodate the everyday operations of the colonial administration and the droves of both “native” and “European” employees that served in its civilian and military branches. Countless examples of these humble structures are still in use today, particularly in smaller towns and settlements, where time and familiarity have woven them into the local fabric as if they had emerged from vernacular building traditions (Figures 1.1–1.5).

At the other end of the spectrum are the monumental architectural and urban legacies of imperialism, none so conspicuous as the capitol complex and ceremonial vistas designed by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker for Imperial New Delhi (Figure 1.6). Prized by politicians and preservationists alike, the spectacular stone structures of “Lutyens’ Delhi” continue to be the seat of government, and to represent the ideology of a paternalistic power embodied in centralized authority as intended by the former colonial regime.

In recent scholarship, the export to colonial India of the architectural forms and debates of “modern” Britain, and its ideological economy, have been relatively well studied. However, the actual building of this colonial architecture and its recep- tion and inhabitation in the colonial-modern context have not received the equiva- lent attention required to fully appreciate the significance of this built legacy. Indeed, as the essays collected in the present volume explore, the building scene of colonial South Asia was not just a provincial theatre for the playing out of metropol- itan ideas and fashions. It was a particularly distant stage on which representations of the modernity associated with the European imperial core – no matter how stilted a caricature – could assume a self-important authenticity merely by contrast to local practice. But imperial ideals of stability and purpose belied the progressively  shifting social and political realities of colonial-modernity. In complex and often contradictory ways, the architectural and engineering hubris of modern Britain was engaged in and mediated by the peculiar theatrics of the colonial-modern situa- tion. In the process, the cultural norms, aspirations and delusions of both the colo- nizers and the colonized were materially and symbolically embodied in the walls and spaces of their buildings. In turn these buildings framed their inhabitants in specific ways. In other words, the buildings – and, therefore, “the building” – of British India and Ceylon are not only critical parts of their respective colonial histo- ries, but also particularly felicitous frames of inquiry through which those histories can be interpreted critically.

Whilst interpreting the roles of building and dwelling in processes of cultural construction and re-production, the present essays also underscore the creative implications of architecture within colonial social histories. The walls and fences of the built environment were among the most concrete and explicit means by which colonial administrations attempted to divide and rule. But buildings also served to define and frame “in-between” spaces within the colonial social field – places of cultural contact and intersection where hybridity and innovation were enabled. Colonial architecture and building comprised a framework in which the values and identities of the new colonial-modern social classes that emerged under colonial rule found form.