While most of the now common histories of the East India Company (EIC) and British India discuss the politics, conflict or culture of empire, Rosie Llewellyn-Jones’s Empire Building: The Construction of British India, 1690-1860 focuses on the physical construction of British India through the buildings that were constructed, the background to their design, the political and economic constraints that shaped their design and how these colonial constructions influenced India’s society, economy and polity. In her own words, the book is an
attempt to integrate several different disciplines to produce an analysis of how Company-directed initiatives affected both the built environment of India and the lives of its inhabitants.
The British India in question is that of the EIC, for the Raj was only established in 1858, just two years before the book draws to a close. This focus is predominately on Bengal—the largest, richest and most important EIC territory—and within that on the great colonial city of Calcutta. Llewellyn-Jones shows in great detail how the EIC built an empire, not in regards to military campaigns or political horse-trading but the physical buildings of empire.
The creation of colonial Calcutta is outlined, starting with the creation of Fort William and how Job Charnock, who in the late 1600s was instrumental in creating Calcutta as a colonial city. Llewellyn-Jones details how he navigated treaties and battled malarial weather to build the EIC’s first permanent base and military garrison. Yet this initial construction was fraught with danger as initial attempts to fortify EIC outposts had to be taken covertly, lest they threaten the paramountcy of then ruling local leaders. Yet the initial Fort William was not provided with adequate support or materials to build proper fortifications from its headquarters back in London, and as a result, it fell to the Nawab of Bengal Siraj-ud-daulah. When the EIC finally drove out the Nawab’s forces, their next attempt at constructing Fort William would not suffer the same fate and was well fortified.
Llewellyn-Jones also introduces the EIC’s construction of major infrastructure, some of which was more successful than others. Road-building efforts for example remained nascent and never took off under the EIC. Yet much more successful was the introduction of railways to India, which started with the EIC but expanded after the 1857 mutiny and the advent of the British Raj. The construction of the railway involved the complicated and time-consuming process of land acquisition for land to be used by the railways, which involved numerous disputes over land certificates and ownership. Equally successful was the introduction of the telegraph system, hastening communication within the sub-continent as well as back to London: no longer would EIC staff have to make decisions by themselves or have to wait months to get a reply from EIC’s offices back in London.
The EIC also built museums, colleges, poor houses, hospitals, libraries and lunatic asylums. While these buildings were designed for public use, they were beneficial to the EIC and were not solely altruistic endeavors. Colleges taught young Indian and British men how to work for the EIC, and the establishment of hospitals was initially to treat EIC employees and soldiers. She also details how India’s many famous hill stations came to be, which are now bustling tourist attractions and were created to find healthier environs for EIC workers, who were dying at high rates in the warm malarial plains.
The book is well grounded in the political context and explores the idea of ‘political architecture’, whereby Llewellyn-Jones argues that every structure or building built by EIC had a political statement.
The book is replete with interesting facts, such as that Calcutta was the first city in Asia, she writes, to establish its own chamber of commerce and just the third city in the world that had its central streets lit by electricity. Llweyellyn-Jones explains how in the early days of the EIC, the average life expectancy was no better than 30, meaning many engineers or architects died long before their grand plans could come to fruition, leaving a litany of half-finished construction sites along the plains of Bengal. Llewellyn-Jones describes how after the infamous Clive captured the French Indian settlement of Chandannagar, he ordered it to be dismantled and the bricks sent from the fortifications at Fort D’Orleans down to Calcutta to improve its the fortification of Fort William and to make much-needed repairs, such as the EICs dire need for materials.
A book about construction runs the risk of being a somewhat dry list of dates, bricks and building materials but this book focuses on the politics and economics of construction, how financial issues and strategic priorities shaped how British India was built and how the social impacts of their construction continue today. It helps illuminate the constraints and conditions in which the EIC operated under and explains many of the decisions they made. It is a fascinatingly novel approach to studies of empire that is as illuminating as it is enjoyable. It is far more politically engaged than might be first assumed, she writes how “the empiricism of the enlightenment: the rise of the Evangelical movement; changing attitudes to race, sex, slavery, corruption and native dress: as well as scientific advances” all had a huge impact on British in India, and their construction efforts. These construction efforts changed the social and economic fabric of India forever. As she concludes