Whose Time Is It? The Pluralization of Time and the Global Condition, 1870s–1940s

Abstract

Vanessa Ogle received a Ph.D. in International and Global History from Harvard University in 2011 and has since been Assistant Professor of Transnational Modern European History at the University of Pennsylvania. Her first book, an argument about globalization, capitalism, and state formation, takes time reform from international conferences to France and Germany, British India, German colonies in Africa and the British Empire broadly, Ottoman Beirut, Muslim scholars in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the League of Nations. Ogle's new projects are an economic history of territory and capitalism, and the question of who has the right to own and access natural resources. In 2013–2014, Ogle is a member at the Institute for Advanced Study (School of Social Science) in Princeton and a Kluge Fellow at the Library of Congress. After what must have been a hot day in August 1909, a journalist for a Beirut newspaper felt inclined to take an evening stroll. Jubran Massuh decided that he would “pretend to be European,” and that meant donning a tie and other European apparel and adopting European behavior. But suddenly it occurred to him that it was entirely un-European to walk around aimlessly “wasting time”; after all, as Europeans said, “Time is money.” Young Jubran therefore turned on his heels to get back behind his desk and spend his time studying something useful. The time-conscious European was one of several temporal identities that Jubran Massuh was juggling.1 Four years earlier, roughly twenty-five hundred miles and an entire ocean farther to the west, another journalist, this one anonymous, had written about time. His article criticized the introduction of standard time (Greenwich Mean Time) to the city of Bombay, where the citizens insisted on keeping local Bombay time. According to the journalist, standard time had no legitimacy. It was British time, tied to the specific circumstances of British rule over much of India. The British traders and bureaucrats who advocated it were not representative of Bombay or of India as a whole.2 In consequence, after widespread protests, a pluralistic landscape of times was not just maintained but enhanced throughout British India as cities such as Bombay (and to a lesser degree Calcutta) followed local time on most public clocks except for a few government offices until 1950.3 These instances illustrate two different ways in which a multitude of different times prevailed in much of the world during a roughly seventy-year period from the 1870s to the 1940s, when, under the advocacy of the North Atlantic world, time was presumably becoming more standardized, or as contemporaries put it, “civilized” and “uniform.” As the episode from Beirut illustrates, by the turn of the last century, social time—notions of how to use and pass one's time in daily life and in interactions with others—had multiplied to the extent of being a consciously comparable and deliberately interchangeable constructed concept. The account from Bombay demonstrates how orders of time multiplied and continued to coexist at a moment when the was to more As a of such with time or of time, until the and the of a of standardized, and of social time, was a in the of a few and The of times and social times was a and as by the that time on in two different the Ottoman and Beirut, on the one and British India and Bombay, on the Jubran different to time and the Bombay of standard time But to were of a with time that social and more of time over the of several the of time on over the as times were specific ways of keeping time and social times by no of the history of and be when it since is not an to such is to of history and the history of as the of and In a world of different in of and colonies and or Global and and different and international account of the history of time reform and other therefore a of and different of from international and to to and local In this a of different to and of time reform would the of conferences and the of local public an account would a of different of the of time the of and the world and social Beirut and Bombay two the of time are local the one in an the Ottoman the other in a the British the one time, the other in the of The two are different to illustrate of globalization, and to be in the first Beirut and Bombay had Beirut was a in a that had under from European In this local the and that Europeans Bombay was a in a European where local were to of British In the world had in in the and the social As a of as as cities were to a local that had in with European and a of in the of and in a public as cities a on the one and a European on the Beirut and Bombay to illustrate the ways in which and a such as time reform in were by local It has a to that interactions the and the to the by of the more social on globalization, local identities a in and time as a of the and The history of time reform in Beirut and Bombay on how local on the on how time on and to and on in consequence, a multitude of times continued to in for much has been the of British India, it to the local Bombay citizens who standard time that this was the time of the British time. In a where with British had been by other by the the introduction of British time a for of rule more In this of that to British time was not of local but of about of the entire and a of of British rule over India. In Beirut, on the other European was to an in the In the of the century, and on in own own and local in for and In a in after a of European and had to be at this The Beirut therefore contemporaries not to European time but to of as a of the European In the of the century, the world was becoming more for and and and the were different of new of and was and time was in different world had interactions and a of and the of to new of and As a consequence, this new world at times to in or as it would be in the of the century, was therefore as the for the of and international and such as the and the International to and The of a of international in the more standard of that would a of in international The of time was the most and time from or other of and “Time as contemporaries it in different of time, from times to to social The most to time was that the introduction of time In and at the the introduction of a of time on the at as as the of a day at at as in at or of the standard time to the of by or time. European such during the but and in the by to reform were another of time. reform as an to the world and to the by the turn of the century, were for the introduction of a and and a that was by the League of of the in time reform have been a But as as the of time from of to and government it on social and more economic such as time were at social as time was as a to such as in the or in after and to a or other after of social and time as to the to the of time the entire to new time was a were to of But Europeans to it was a of that to time. and German government and the and of a at such of time as or times as constructed that would be the of a of the and are with that how Europeans time with a such as standard time or time. to that under the new standard time, had to be to at one in time at the moment in time as The most of such was a in after the introduction of a standard time for German in In to at the in time as had under local time, in a where the new standard time of local time, a that had at was to at such was the that the of would be by time, and that being as and as it would a new of was in as as the in about time. These a European and to of time and to different of time as and other Europeans to by own who to time more In much of the world, times were the more the 1940s, in of the is the of times after the of in as much as a on time was one the of was reform in the to and social times to this in the world had and of in own about different of time, it the reform of the and the of the or the use of clocks and in the of the to the of The of a world had to Europeans were not the who were with time. the of Bombay own about and time. In the of the century, time the of and on the of time and that the of and life but not from about the of and other were of the of and time and time as to at the first the of were therefore no to and other and the city of Bombay the for the of local time and the introduction of the new which was in with the citizens were with a of local and not by the economic the city had during the when to a in the and in and turned to other In the British of Bombay, had to his the of different times and by and local British India. The a of this an was and that the to time to The time of the city and was the standard that had been by most and since the Bombay and were to time as and as the time of a city the of Bombay, who for city the of in a of government offices had time, as had the at and the on local Bombay time. is felt by a of the Bombay an of times that not of which time was but of who would which time. and time, how to that and the one the years in the of time and The to public and his Bombay to local After this first with time, times for roughly In the several the and the British for the of the India in and for an in with time for of India, would the of a to by which own Europeans of time reform by the of times with the of as to to a new time in of but in The government of India to the and of as the standard time. was an as the had for and times to be The therefore that an such as the suddenly when it was to British India a time the with of the and had advocated two one on one But government and in India were of more one time as in it would to more one time in one or a for a of on British India in such an the and in the on one time for of India. The new time was to be on for use by and local British the were at to the use of to in to in the local and to was such for in the government and to the city to local for and local Bombay was not to such and the government of India decided to for government in the city as of But it to it to the local the Bombay to the of standard time to the The back and and after the new time in decided it in In the was the this time with a to two specific public clocks at and on local time was to be at one of the of the Bombay in of the city to the to and in as of was a in had been of the which was in Bombay, and one of the most of to the is not and that the of this be a of the of and the time a by the and of the and an of he It was that the to the new time and for that to standard time were to be in the of and or the time have been but and other of the Bombay not for the it was British time that was being and the of such an was the of the new time as not but are to natural time, the that have been with from times and the new which the of the has the newspaper that must be in this has for to a time has to and which has followed years at the newspaper a few to the and of the new time to of with the of and of on time in one or another to to who that was no time that would to the of under the new standard or time the of who time over standard time for or had no the two as and interchangeable by such and to under standard time. In roughly in of the and to to under the new time standard time with another that had been to the was in the which had from to were suddenly to to of the In a of in and therefore the no time was as another that would the day most the period and the of it would with and of time of when a to Bombay time to a in Bombay on of which as as were In of time more it had been in when it was on and the of the new time. years the local the for the public and of time. the that Bombay was a city a how this of time British had been as the of the new time, it was but a to how were of Bombay and India, and how much to The Bombay journalist who to the introduction of standard time was who in this the Bombay of about are not of are and are of As the newspaper put it, from the but few hundred and all, it was the British in India, who as a for public In the in which standard time was the what would to be as the first of from Bombay the in the of British But of standard time in Bombay with government in own city to the of and the entire of the the one of the first that British for several years and the of local In this to in Bombay on to the new time was as to the of in the to Bombay on the and in the were as of a of after his in and His to be in the of an time was as one of the the of Bombay by the of has that the of and and to history and the that The be for standard time, another of and the ways in which it to time as the time of British rule in India. In as has it was to history as the history of a In of such and the of British in India, at with the new time in such as Bombay and In Bombay, a after the new time had been in it was that a of the of Bombay have the The Bombay not of that the new time had not the in the and that at local it was Bombay time that on of the of standard time in to no of but to the of time the were in but local Bombay time in use until As a consequence, after the introduction of for several In and had to the new time and the with the time a time in the had been as and was But public clocks continued to local time, as after from until as as the In a newspaper that adopting standard time would another of time to an landscape of is of more times what to the to standard time an more of times in cities such as Bombay and as and followed the new time The who to local Bombay time had the of British rule in India. a to and of to a new and economic of time the of local identities that had more and It was that Bombay and most when to as a with a and The to time in British India therefore a in the history of time In an when of for a of such as time were India was no to this In where with had the introduction of time for was as as under the of time and of times in of a new time, it the time of as a as European in as German and tied to about where was and how it and introduction of standard time occurred the of an of as of the a of not with the of the a where it would be to other instances of adopting occurred and a of time, to the and of as as to the of of in an that was by of interactions the and the but to the It is at such that the different of at in the history of most to British at India with the of of specific local that on In this the introduction of the of time in another the with time was a different and Muslim in the Ottoman were by time. the turn of the last century, the of Beirut had from more a to a of and an the world it to European that were for and of Ottoman the time, under from the the Ottoman Empire had on the a of after European about and the rule of the of the the the to the of by the of the European and Ottoman was that and public to and and in turn ways and for to such in what to be as the a of and to and the of the Ottoman Empire to reform In Beirut, the with it the of a local by who were by Muslim such as and were the most of an to and on In to on a of to and to about the and in and to the most such In Beirut, in to Bombay, in time was not by the introduction of by a was to to the city in with the of but was another the at a of of as as a of cities throughout the world and The that it was to the of time in such a and to time in a to that times were not and the of the several in the local to of time was the of times that in the temporal landscape was and Europeans time it or time. The day at the European day at the Muslim the day was by the daily by the of the As in other cities of the Ottoman a in a public of time to the in which was with the clocks of the several to and as as and a of and around an Beirut a city of different the the and the In this local a of European time prevailed in for when the of the new an about the of a for the and one from in his time and were for the about standard time, about or on of time were another of or clocks are the most article in the with on time such as and the of In several local such as and about and times or the of which was in turn by who to the that a different had a different time, and of such In one the newspaper for Muslim an over several with a by the over times and were more local were not an Ottoman or British followed and of with different of and on history to the and times of the and to own a of and one to the of and citizens who were to of the much that time be and the that turned time a that be and in with the of more clocks and throughout the as the of the day in in and other such as the representative for in and from in that he had years in as a representative for the most from as as a to his he with him the in this of in the of it to about the that had the and the of had In the of local such as were tied to more and about time. of on time, was the time of and other time European social and of was a for a he had In a by the of the of the by University of was as an to the in the His in a was who time on for the by the of time for the of the The to the by the use of one's time, and such to the of the was a of the for the of In a of and of the of about had been from the of who in had a such as and as a of and the his a of on that had the on of of the of of are to the that time is but it is much the of it is and of daily on or in to an in a few the time, such get and it of being by for of was as be by by by or but time is in that would the of and that an of it in life that he of The and from to as as and the that in in Beirut and the and in his in in the newspaper was not the which was According to in in in from as as a Ottoman and was more in British India it was in the As as received a from a to from his and by had been more one of the from on the for are the most in and this the to a for the with and received several for the his had on the to was a in the of the the the of and from by of the period the of time as a by it a that be and The in of the the of to time in of time is In an and the to of time. this it in a by a at a in The the of time, from the of it and in it, from the of and It on to or a to be and and and and a and with and in The is the of life and time and the circumstances to this at and to be as not one in time which to the time on and was a to The of time as a for the of such to of time as an and that no on the of the and the the of time with the question of and an it is for him to his to and time, and to studying what is in the who is of and his to is to in of his with a not of were the more of the is on the of the is an of a from the is an of and is but a question of the of the and of is is the of and as is of and In European of were to the of time, a new to the that a of and These of time with the of a and of for in with about time in the of of a time and is in It was to the where was under was at by of the and who that meant and that were for as much as the of the by the not what is in a until what is in In on time and other and are with the of the widespread not to time be as not to one's a for what as the European with time an Eastern where it with a different of As of the history of and the of and on a this European were the of the or when at the such and the of time was to such as and of the first in the had Europeans that to a of time and to and own and was an and of time that was Europeans in this of time are with about the of have his to be a of and But to of his in economic as for a would be to his was a for the of an entire and time would to a of a that would be to under European with time, as in British India, were a and with a that a about time by no other times or a to with of in European a more landscape of time would have been to time Beirut citizens to have in In the the of Beirut on the times he received from the University of for the of local times to one of the several in the which for to the the and the as in Bombay, the of a of time and the of time another of time to which would coexist with and other times and at for several more not until the The on ti

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