ABSTRACT
This chapter explores ideas surrounding urban space in Banaras between the late eighteenth and early twentieth century as they developed in the context of a revived religious sphere. In nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Banaras, conversations occurred both among equals, and simultaneously also occurred with and among unequals. Patronage for religious activity and religious space was a way to accommodate various groups within the framework of both sets of relationships. By the early decades of the twentieth century, indigenous elites in Banaras had begun to shape not only the city’s built environment, but also narratives relating to its identity, as part of the larger experience of urban modernity there. Beginning in the late eighteenth century, and continuing until the early decades of the twentieth century, Banaras was reorganized, physically and imaginatively, to reinforce its role as a premier pilgrimage destination within the Hindu belief system.
