Colonial Lahore

Reviews / Votes

'Colonial Lahore breathes new life into this city's recent history, bringing the local into direct and often intimate conversation with the global, and vice versa. It transforms our appreciation of Lahore's unique past, in effect sealing the city's credentials as one of South Asia's most important, if often overlooked, zones of interaction in the era of imperial globalisation.' * Sarah Ansari, Professor of History, Royal Holloway, University of London * 'A very rich account of colonial Lahore, essential for understanding the place of the city in South Asia's past. It shows the great diversity and complexity of the city Lahore, and importantly, how it stood at the very heart of imperial connections and networks across the empire.' * Yasmin Khan, University Lecturer (Associate Professor) in British History, author of The Great Partition: the Making of India and Pakistan * 'Talbot . . . has become the preeminent scholar of the history of Punjab both before and after independence in 1947... [an] informative . . . superb contribution'. 'Talbot and Kamran have made one of the first scholarly attempts to explore the social, cultural, and, to some extent, the economic, life of Lahore - one of the world's great cities, known to some as the 'Paris of the East'. Focussing on the colonial period, they make good use of evidence ranging from tourist guidebooks to newspaper advertisements. They also succeed in placing the city at the centre of a web of connections reaching out to the great cities of India - Calcutta, Delhi, Bombay and Karachi, but also to Afghanistan, Arabia, Europe and North America. The love which Talbot and Kamran have for Lahore is evident throughout.' * Francis Robinson, Professor of the History of South Asia, Royal Holloway, University of London * 'This is a must read book by two leading specialists on Punjab history, providing a wonderfully rich introduction into the character and cosmopolitanism of Lahore under the raj. The volume is clearly written, well researched, and joy to read. It should be of great interest to the specialist and generalist alike.' * Gurharpal Singh, Professor in Inter-Religious Relations and Development, SOAS, University of London *