Re-colonizing spaces of memorializing: The case of the Chattri Indian Memorial, UK

Susan L.T Ashley

doi:10.1177/1350508415605101

Abstract

This article inspects the ways that spaces of war memorialization are organized and re-organized through official and unofficial meaning-making activities. It aims to contribute to the discussion of the ‘value’ of memorializing by examining a multifaceted space of remembrance and commemoration: the Chattri Indian Memorial built near Brighton, United Kingdom. The article brings postcolonial perspectives to explore how memorializing has been organized here, focusing on the activities of once-colonized people and the affective, embodied aspects of organizing practices. Built in 1921 to honour Indian soldiers who fought in World War I, the Chattri evolved from a colonial instrument to symbol and space for ethnic-Indian group activities. The study employed historical, visual and ethnographic methods to study the tangible monument and the changing nature of the memorializing activities carried out around the monument. Memorializing is conceptualized within three inter-related processes: colonizing, de-colonizing and re-colonizing to examine how forms and practices of memorialization constitute a values-laden organizing system.

Highlights

This article inspects the ways that spaces of war memorialization are organized and re-organized through official and unofficial meaning-making activities
It examines a multifaceted site of commemoration and remembrance, the Chattri Indian Memorial near Brighton, United Kingdom, and the ways that this space has been organized and re-organized through physical, spatial and affective meaning-making activities
A study of the Chattri Indian Memorial was undertaken in 2013–2014 as part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s (AHRC) Cultural Value Project

Summary

Introduction

This article inspects the ways that spaces of war memorialization are organized and re-organized through official and unofficial meaning-making activities. It aims to contribute to studies of the organization of memorializing by drawing on postcolonial perspectives It examines a multifaceted site of commemoration and remembrance, the Chattri Indian Memorial near Brighton, United Kingdom, and the ways that this space has been organized and re-organized through physical, spatial and affective meaning-making activities. This article explores how meanings have been enacted at the Chattri Memorial through physical forms, symbolic gestures, embodied practices and affective occupations of space, in their changing historical dimensions It argues that ‘value’ or importance is signified in these memorializing processes through the symbolic sign or tangible representation, and from embodied and intangible practices that mark the sign through felt experiences (Simon, 2010). The conclusion returns to the question of how memorialization as material form or sign, and as embodied or felt practice, fundamentally organizes meaning-making and the shaping of values

Objectives

Conclusion