Colonial urban spaces became sites of anti-colonial protest and performance
Historical mobilisations used city streets, parks and public squares to transform colonial symbols into nationalist spaces of contestation.
According to The Hindu, various anti-colonial movements in India used urban civic arenas to challenge colonial authority through public demonstrations.
These mobilisations included the mill workers’ general strikes of 1919-20, the 1930 Gandhian civil disobedience movement, and Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s 1938 farmers’ rally against the khoti system in Bombay.
Following World War I, new rituals of collective resistance emerged, such as processions, flag hoisting, public meetings, marches, boycotts and hartals.
Activists and volunteers utilised spaces like maidans, seashores, streets and iconic colonial buildings to stage protests and create confrontations with the colonial state.
These actions defied the politics of spatial segregation and public behaviour, re-territorialising these areas as nationalist spaces.