There have been a number of studies of colonial Lahore in recent years.
These have explored such themes as the city’s modernity, its
cosmopolitanism and the rise of communalism which culminated in the
blood-letting of 1947. There has also been a study of how the city
recovered from the socio-economic dislocation arising from the
Partition of the Punjab. This work moves away from political history and
the prism of the Great Divide of 1947 to examine the cultural and social
connections which linked it with North India and beyond. It sees what
may be termed as imperial globalisation intensifying long established
connections of commerce and culture despite traditional portrayals of
Lahore as inward looking and a world unto itself. The current volume is
thus reflective of some of the concerns arising from the global history
of Empire and the new urban history of South Asia. These are
addressed in a series of thematic chapters, rather than in a narrative
account of the city’s development during colonial rule. This has already
been done elsewhere to good effect. A number of previously neglected
areas of Lahore’s history emerge in this volume that are suggestive of
new avenues for research.