Spaces of Labor in the Social clubs of British India: Obsolescence in Denial

This piece will discuss obsolescence in objects, spaces, and labor practiced within spaces of luxury and exclusivity – the British clubs in India. Certain practices and rituals employing gongs, bells, and servants-in-waiting were constructed to maintain racial, and classist differences in colonial India, continue into the 21st century. This paper asks why colonial practices do not easily become obsolete?