The scattered court : Hindustani music in colonial Bengal

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Bibliographic Information

Title
"The scattered court : Hindustani music in colonial Bengal"
Statement of Responsibility
Richard David Williams
Publisher
  • The University of Chicago Press
Publication Year
  • 2023
Book size
23 cm
Series Name / No
  • : pbk

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Notes

Includes bibliographical references (p. [203]-221) and index

Summary: "How far did colonialism transform north Indian art music? In the period between the Mughal empire and the British Raj, did the political landscape bleed into aesthetics, music, dance, and poetry? The Scattered Court presents a new history of how Hindustani court music responded to the political transitions of the nineteenth century. Examining musical culture through a diverse and multilingual archive, primarily using sources in Urdu, Bengali, and Hindi that have not been translated or critically examined before, challenges our assumptions about the period. The book presents a longer history of interactions between northern India and Bengal, with a core focus on the two courts of Wajid Ali Shah (1822-1887), the last ruler of the kingdom of Awadh. Wajid Ali Shah was one of the most colorful and controversial characters of the nineteenth century and has had a polarizing legacy. According to political histories and popular memory, he was a failure of a king, who was forced to surrender his kingdom to th

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