The Small Spaces of Empire: Long-distance Trade, Anglo-Indian Foodways and the Bottlekhana

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article is an invitation to shift the analytic focus of empire to its small spaces. Bringing one aspect of the trade history of British India – the trade in European provisions and foodstuff – in conversation with the history of colonial architecture and Anglo-Indian foodways, I argue that small spaces might reveal cultural practices and attendant structures of power that are not evident when our attention remains lodged in dominant transactions, large spaces, big events, and bulk commodities. In this article I specifically turn to the bottlekhana, a storage space in colonial buildings in India, and its role in mediating the consumption of European food. This line of inquiry takes the discussion of European imports to India to the realm of servants and women who rarely figure in trade histories of the British empire.