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Title
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Technical writings as political : building manuals and pattern books from British India (1880-1947)
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Author
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Abstract
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| This paper presents an analysis of building manuals and technical texts on construction authored in unofficial capacity by Indian engineers employed in British India’s colonial Public Works Department (PWD). These texts were published between 1880 and India’s independence in 1947, and thus emerged in parallel to the Indian nationalist movement. The paper aims to explore whether the two phenomena were related and, if so, seeks to reveal the specific nature of relationships between nationalist sentiments and technical writings on construction. In order to do so we examine a number of texts in terms of their intended audience, authors, content, and form, but also investigate the extent to which they borrowed or deviated from the government-published practical handbooks compiled for use in the colonial Public Works Department (eight editions between 1876 and 1931). While the latter were authored in English and have been well known, the former were also published in regional languages and have been largely forgotten. |
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Language
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English
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Source (book)
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Timber and construction : the proceedings of the ninth conference of the Construction History Society (CHS), 1-3 April, 2022, Cambridge, UK
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Publication
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Cambridge
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Construction History Society
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2022
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ISBN
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978-0-9928751-8-3
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Volume/pages
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p. 343-357
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