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100			_aMulgund, Deepti _953488
245			_aBeyond conservation: Royal picnics at elephanta and the legitimization of empire
260			_aModern Asian Studies
300			_a58(1), Jan, 2024: p.163-192
520			_aHistories of conservation suggest that from the nineteenth century onwards, the custodianship and conservation of colonial antiquities enabled European powers to legitimize imperial claims. This article complicates this view by focusing on a series of visits made by British royals to the Caves of Elephanta, near Bombay, as part of their tours of India. Of particular interest are the visits in 1870 and 1875, which were essentially picnics, including fireworks and feasting, with little showcasing of ongoing conservation efforts. The article argues that these early visits also sought to advance a narrative of imperial legitimization through the British heirs’ presence at an Indian monument. Rather than acts of rational governance, such as conservation measures, these picnics were transactions within the ceremonial economy that privileged consumption as a means of legitimizing empire. They present a register of imperial engagement with an Indian monument that is neither ‘plunder’ nor ‘preservation’. Instead, they are posited as predecessors of the durbars (courts/assemblies) produced by the British administration from 1877 onwards. As acts of imperial political communication, the Elephanta visits drew upon the popularity of the picnic as a form of leisure, and consumption, and the long-standing aesthetic resonances of the site, such as the island’s picturesque framing and the Caves’ Romanticist associations. These enduring aesthetic frameworks made the acts of consumption legible as imperial political communication. The picnics at Elephanta demonstrate that colonial antiquities featured in imperial narratives of legitimization based on political pageantry, exceeding conservation and rational governance.- Reproduced https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-asian-studies/article/beyond-conservation-royal-picnics-at-elephanta-and-the-legitimization-of-empire/EA93DA9E68403B95656C35EC653EE069
650			_aElephanta Caves, British royal visits, Conservation history, Colonial antiquities, Imperial legitimization, Ceremonial economy, Political pageantry, Leisure consumption, Romanticist associations, Durbars, Rational governance. _953489
773			_aModern Asian Studies
906			_aCAVES
942			_cAR