I visited the Victoria Memorial yesterday morning with my flat mate Tony. The Victoria Memorial, a tribute to the Empress of India, is a magnificent white building in the middle of gardens in the middle of Kolkata. It is fairly easy to forget you're in Kolkata whilst you are there. There are even parts inside where you can't hear car horns hooting.
It was interesting to match up the portraits and statues with the historical figures I've been reading about in a book about the history of Kolkata. Some of the governors really messed things up in a way that had serious consequences that we see even now. The historical material inside the new museum within the memorial was perhaps a little too generous to the British.
The thing that I found most stimulating were the paintings of familiar Kolkata streets from the 19th century. It really looks like paintings of places like Pall Mall from similar times - huge wide streets and well spaced ornate building. London is of course a long way from this now and Kolkata, well, even further. The most true to life pictures were of the area where the native population lived surrounding the regal interior. This was known to the English as the 'Black Town'. They also had a full room replica to give you the impression of life on a Black Town street. Both Tony and I agreed this was redundant as it felt very close to the streets today, especially the sense of lives being lived out in the open.
I think if the Memorial was built for a more romantic and less colonialist reason it would be far more prestigious. But, ultimately, this was a building built for 11m rupees in a city which has always had starving and homeless people. The actual funding came from a tax that mostly fell on the local native population. All this to commemorate some person who claimed authority from a million miles away and sent some real vindictive fuckwits over to do the job. You start to realise why telling someone you are British here hardly fills them with excitement.
It was interesting to match up the portraits and statues with the historical figures I've been reading about in a book about the history of Kolkata. Some of the governors really messed things up in a way that had serious consequences that we see even now. The historical material inside the new museum within the memorial was perhaps a little too generous to the British.
The thing that I found most stimulating were the paintings of familiar Kolkata streets from the 19th century. It really looks like paintings of places like Pall Mall from similar times - huge wide streets and well spaced ornate building. London is of course a long way from this now and Kolkata, well, even further. The most true to life pictures were of the area where the native population lived surrounding the regal interior. This was known to the English as the 'Black Town'. They also had a full room replica to give you the impression of life on a Black Town street. Both Tony and I agreed this was redundant as it felt very close to the streets today, especially the sense of lives being lived out in the open.
I think if the Memorial was built for a more romantic and less colonialist reason it would be far more prestigious. But, ultimately, this was a building built for 11m rupees in a city which has always had starving and homeless people. The actual funding came from a tax that mostly fell on the local native population. All this to commemorate some person who claimed authority from a million miles away and sent some real vindictive fuckwits over to do the job. You start to realise why telling someone you are British here hardly fills them with excitement.
