This seminar is arranged by the Cluster for Colonial Connections and Comparisons. The nineteenth century saw rapid urban development in the colonial societies of Southeast Asia. This was reflected in new infrastructure and new styles of architecture, but also in new ideas concerning urban culture and ways of being in the city specific to the colonial context
This seminar, a first presentation of an upcoming postdoctoral project, examines those wider developments through the lens of the ceremonial uses of public space in mid-nineteenth-century Singapore and Batavia, major colonial cities and capitals of the British Straits Settlements and the Dutch East Indies, respectively. A close analysis of a few carefully selected case studies of public festivities, such as the 250-year anniversary of Batavia in 1869, elucidates how colonial authorities sought to occupy and instrumentalise the space of the city as a means to inscribe new social and cultural meanings into its architecture and to embody a holistic vision of colonial life in the cityscape. Simultaneously, these top-down visions were contested by various – Asian and European – segments of the population, giving rise to both conflicts and compromises. The presentation will also discuss how a better understanding of these processes can provide a fruitful historical perspective on current debates around the commemoration of imperial legacies in urban spaces, and more widely on questions of citizenship and belonging in multicultural urban society.