The Materials of Home: Studying Domesticity in Late Colonial India

Abstract

Abstract In this essay I argue for opening up South Asian historiography on the home to explore not just ideals of middle-class domesticity, but also the material goods and spaces of home lives. This helps to rethink class, as ideals of middle-class respectability were often worked out in buildings and through goods shared with lower classes, deploying caste hierarchies to articulate definitions of proper home life. At the same time, taking materials and spaces seriously allows attention to the role of men in shaping and experiencing homes, whether as designers, retailers, planners, or residents themselves. Drawing on the specific example of the iconic firm Kamdar Ltd., which created modern home interiors in mid-century Bombay, I argue that thinking through the materials of home allows attention to the global engagements of home life defined in class and caste terms, by men and women alike.