The Religious and Racial Geography of Late Nineteenth-Century Bombay

Abstract

The spatial separation of European colonialists and the local population was long seen as the defining feature of colonial cities. In recent years, the literature has moved toward a more ambivalent and contingent view of this spatial separation. This paper attempts to look beyond imagining the colonial city in terms of stark dualities or revisionist ambivalences, addressing both religious and racial separation. The paper analyses the street-level religious and racial geography of late nineteenth-century Bombay, using data from the 1881 Census. Results suggest moderate to high levels of racial and religious segregation in nineteenth-century Bombay at the street level, varying across groups, coupled with the existence of enclaves, and expressions of preference for segregation in diverse domains. The paper concludes that religion and race were meaningful social categories inscribed in urban space.