South Asian Urban History

South Asian urbanization during in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries up to the present. Study of Calcutta, Dacca, Bombay and Lahore. Themes include history of colonial and postcolonial architecture and public works, shifting relationships between Hindu and Muslim communities in urban contexts, connections between urban centers and hinterlands, port cities and trade, poverty and privilege, the new middle classes, and problems of mass population migrations due to partitions and internal displacement. Literary and cultural texts also used to explore the meaning of the South Asian city. Manjapra