In the club: Associational life in colonial South Asia by Benjamin B. Cohen (review)

Films, novels, and television dramas such as the recent Indian Summers (2015–16) have shaped common perceptions of the club as a reclusive space for coddling and preserving social and political elites. In colonial contexts, this exclusivity and privilege took on a heightened form of racial, as well as class and gender exclusion. The stereotypical club was housed in an imposing edifice featuring a paneled dining room, lounge, library, bar, and billiards room. In In the club: Associational life in colonial South Asia, Benjamin B. Cohen casts new light on this dimension of imperial life, and provides a much more nuanced view of the role of clubs in the social and political life of the Raj. Cohen argues that clubs have played a beneficial, and even progressive role. “Clubs are not ‘excrescences’ in colonial life,” he writes, “but important tools in shaping India’s political and public life” (15). To be sure, many clubs did exclude South Asians in order to preserve social and gender hierarchies, but many others also served as training grounds for leadership and political participation; additionally, as time moved forward, clubs were “heavily involved in promoting cross-race and class socialization” (20).

Cohen’s book provides a typological, largely synchronic analysis of clubbing in India. He offers chapters on the organization and function of clubs, specifically their rules, facilities, financing, and staffing. He then follows with a chapter on race and class, and another on women. He concludes by discussing the fate of clubs in the postcolonial era. In the course of these chapters, the richness and variety of club life emerges. There are sporting clubs, as well as clubs for European men, Indian men, European women, Indian women, and also some mixed-race clubs catering to each sex. These organizations played many roles. They served as a home away from home for European travelers and residents in India, and in another sense, for men and women seeking a respite from the isolation or burdens of their own homes. As centers of socialization and entertainment, they helped forge personal and political connections and establish links between local, national, and international circles.

Much of the value of In the club is its illumination of colonial life at the ground level. In their clubbing life, Anglo-Indians adopted more than they might admit from the host culture. Clubs were oftentimes the place where British men met with Indian language tutors. Food served in the dining rooms was a mix of South Asian and European cuisines, though the finer clubs attempted to provide the comforts of home by banishing curries for blander British fare. One distinctly un-British item was cold drinks, cooled by ice imported from America until the 1880s, when new technology made it possible to produce ice locally. Billiards was the indispensible pastime in European men’s clubs, and a club in Jabalpur is credited for the invention of its relative, snooker.

Cohen’s analysis has its strengths and weaknesses. It constructs a broad synoptic view of the clubbing phenomenon as a whole, and provides a comparative context to observe variations of club practices. This theme of variation is central to the argument. Cohen is able to demonstrate that clubs were not all alike, and in many ways they adapted to local and historical conditions. Some clubs, for example, showed greater interest in including the wider local community in their events, while others were founded as mixed-race or mixed-gender associations. Still others were founded by Indian men and women to promote their own social and political interests.

The weakness of Cohen’s typography is the inevitable loss of emphasis on chronology. Descriptions of club practices and activities from the 1850s sometimes stand side by side with those of 1930s as examples of variation, effectively discounting the historical factors involved. This effect is readily apparent in the chapter on race and class, where Cohen advances his twin arguments...