London: Hurst Publishers, 2023. xi, 239 pp. (Coloured photos, illustrations.) US$33.00, cloth. ISBN 9781787388048.
In a postcolonial milieu of cancel culture, a monograph on the contributions and difficulties of individuals who built the colonial establishment is rare. Rosie Llewellyn-Jones’ Empire Building is therefore a brave and delightful narrative of the remarkable men who were instrumental in creating the early modern infrastructure of India under the English East India Company. The book is about the enterprises of the company that involved buildings, machinery, and people, and includes relatively unknown ventures, such as the ambitious Silk Investment. To compete with Italian silk, this commercially failed enterprise had four factories built in Bengal, and incentives for local landowners to grow mulberries (80–84). Other ventures like coin presses and gunpowder factories saw spectacular success. Llewellyn-Jones has highlighted several non-British characters and the international nature of the entrepreneurs associated with the East India Company. Some were resident in India, like the Frenchman Claude Martin and the Swiss Antoine-Louis Henri de Polier, while others such as the Italian Theodore Forrestie (56), Prussian Alexander de Lavaux (58), Venetian Edward Tiretta (66), and the Swiss Jacques Wiss (84) were appointed by the company for their engineering and other abilities.
The chapters in the book are in chronological order, named for dominant themes of each period. The introduction explains that the book is about “physical changes that the Company achieved in India,” and the people behind the “mechanism of Company trade, defence and administration” (2). The introduction also examines “political architecture” and its meaning in British India (13), including the Indian response to it. The first chapter, “Merchants or Soldiers,” is largely about the decline of the Mughal Empire, when the company was given permission to construct factories and small settlements. Fortified factories became the point of contention between the Mughal imperium, regional potentates, and local zamindars who leased land to the company. Many of the Bengali zamindars benefited from company trade, and their wealth financed the construction of Calcutta through taxes and contributions (49). Their imbricated role within the operations of the company was mirrored by Indian contractors (52). In 1765, the company received revenue rights for the regions of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa, from the Mughal court. Thus, the East India Company did not fill a power vacuum after the Mughals, but was part of that establishment. Fortifications, warehouses, and several other uninspired utilitarian buildings were the built legacy of the company in this period.
The second chapter, titled “Engineers Architects and Builders,” is about those who built institutions, buildings, and various enterprises of the company. The capacious role of the “engineer” encompassed everything from nautical surveying, minting coins, to designing and constructing buildings; for example, St. Mary’s Church in Madras (1681) was constructed by a master gunner to resist artillery fire (55). To train astronomers and engineers for carrying out survey work (62), a school was established in Fort William in 1783. Colourful characters like Reuben Burrow, Edward Tiretta, and Richard Blechynden were appointed. The “transmission of information from west to east” with ready drawings proved problematic, as designs were unsuitable for the climate. European buildings (such as the Residency in Lucknow) were completely modified with awnings, loggias, shades, and porticos for the monsoons. Eventually, the lower storey was found to be more habitable in the unforgiving summers, and ground floor rooms were increased in height (69). The engineers and designers made adjustments for local craftsmen and their tools. The “meticulous, but slow, Indian craftsmen who couldn’t translate an image from The Builders’ Magazine into something three-dimensional” therefore required several intermediaries (72). The absence of paper documents for design and construction suggests that models conveyed information to builders.
The next chapter deals with the Enlightenment and technologies that were brought to India. Sir William Jones established the Asiatic Society for research on the nature and culture of India, along the lines of the Royal Society. Robert Kyd put in efforts to lay out botanical gardens, for scientific research towards commercial and economic benefit (98). In the spirit of the Enlightenment, wherein “collecting, enumerating, cataloging the natural world and its inhabitants” was the mission, the Great Trigonometric Survey was established, and observatories were set up. Modern and public institutions, such as hospitals and orphanages, were established (100–115). Printing presses followed, along with newspapers and other publications.
The fourth chapter, “Joining the Parts Together,” is about cartography and transport linkages to supplant native efforts at mapping and travel. The difficulties of running steamships in Indian rivers, procurement of coal as fuel, and the transportation of commodities for running the railways are detailed, along with the problems of land acquisition from illiterate populations (146). Beginning with three discrete presidencies, the company now required the subcontinent to be connected conceptually and physically.
Chapter 5 is about cantonments and hill stations, developed to accommodate larger number of troops and officials. While initially limited to the Gangetic valley, later cantonments were constructed in newly annexed areas, such as Murree in Punjab (181). The construction of hill stations, meant to replicate quaint settlements back home, resulted in large environmental and social changes, and “the decimation of wildlife and uncontrolled deforestation” (184).
The concluding chapter, “The Passage of Time,” discusses the changing attitudes of the company and its employees, connected with events in England. The introduction of the Gregorian calendar, and standard time with public clocks, transformed society completely. As the author notes, the “East India Company often got things wrong; but it got some things right too” (207).
The book highlights the great efforts and human costs (both European and Indian) of English East India Company projects, as they succumbed to climate, disease, and war. The book focuses mostly on Calcutta and the Bengal Presidency. The overarching narrative is therefore slightly askew, as the story of early colonial India and its built environment is limited to eastern India and until 1860. However, the work is an extremely engaging read and informative about the period under its purview.
Pushkar Sohoni
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune