Contested representations of war and heritage at the Residency, Lucknow, India

This paper discusses the contemporary politics of heritage tourism in India and focuses upon contested representations of The First War of Indian Independence/The Indian Mutiny of 1857. The severity of this conflict has been written about extensively from both British and Indian perspectives. One site in particular—the ‘British’ Residency at Lucknow—was and still is remembered as an important memorial to both the British and the Indians who died in this conflict. However, the representations of the conflict are and have been contested. This paper thus examines this heritage dissonance by examining both official and lay representations of the residency.