SUNY PRESS Ruling Devotion: The Hindu Temple in British Imperial Imagination

Explore the complex relationship between religious architecture and colonial rule in Ruling Devotion: The Hindu Temple in the British Imperial Imagination. This scholarly work, part of the SUNY series (Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century), examines how the Hindu temple existed in a fragile proximity to Imperial governance in India from 1800 onwards. Recognized as a History Today 2024 Book of the Year, this text uses historical, literary, art historical, and archaeological perspectives to analyze the colonial state. It investigates how authorities sought to regulate and extract wealth from large temples, and how imperial scholars classified the vast diversity of Indian architectural forms. By defining specific temples as monuments, the British brought these sacred spaces under the custody of Imperial archaeology. This book provides a deep look into how the perception and management of these religious structures were shaped by the British colonial imagination.