Empire Communications, Inc.: Nineteenth-Century Imperial Pageantry and the Politics of Display

Abstract

The essay examines two specific instances of imperial spectacles: the 1877 imperial durbar in Delhi and the 1911 Pageant of Empire in London. It argues that these spectacles enabled the Empire to incorporate the natives as subjects into the symbolic hierarchies of the Raj, and the English into an imperial sensibility of ownership and shared destiny. It suggests that through these spectacles the power and majesty of the Empire was conveyed to their subjects but also to their own countrymen in the form of an imperial improvisation. In the case of the Delhi durbar imperial improvisation was made possible through the participatory nature of the spectacle where the native princes and aristocrats, by participating in the Durbar, implicitly endorsed it, accepted it as 'Indian', and located themselves within the imperial structure. The 1911 Pageant was an aesthetic spectacle that forged a sense of connection, for all English visitors to see themselves as a part of the large 'British' imperial family and served the educational purpose of introducing the empire's possessions. © 2010 Mudra Institute of Communications.