ABSTRACT
This chapter examines, in depth, the writings of Babu Bireshwar Mittra, a prominent member of Banaras’s municipal government and a noted reformer. Mittra was in favor of constructing new technologies for sanitation in Banaras, including a centralized water supply and sewerage infrastructure. He also consistently advocated for taxation reforms in the city that were ostensibly modern yet also found their basis in accepted, traditional practices. This chapter places Mittra at the heart of debates over how best to improve the hygienic state of Banaras and the at-times difficult relationship between local, municipal governance and higher-level colonial administrative oversight. In this respect this chapter also examines Mittra’s political views, and how he envisioned India’s material progress within a colonial system.
