Corpographies of Public History:

“Corpographies of Public History: The Sequester of Statues in Flagstaff Gardens, Barrackpore, West Bengal” Asian Review of World Histories ISSN: 2287-9811 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/22879811-bja10107 Abstract: Public history means contested interpretations in public. Yet complicated discussion of colonial-era events can be restricted behind heritage façades. At the same time, the question of whose history, and indeed what and who deserves commemoration and renovation in that history, raises issues of the shape and content of history in embodied form. This article explores a set of “corpographic” monuments in a colonial garden—Flagstaff House and environs in Barrackpore, West Bengal—in order to scrutinize the motivations behind heritage renovation and renewal of its public promotion. Risking some sloganeering, I will borrow from Raminder Kaur, Tapati Guha-Thakurta, and Michael Taussig and say that uncanny relocations of old colonial figures invoke occult occlusions of traumatic pasts…