The Experience of Color

Abstract

Colour serves a variety of purposes in society, from identifying groups, to conveying symbolic meanings, to providing aesthetic pleasure. More subtle effects of colour can be found in the environments that human communities construct around themselves. At Doon School, an elite boys’ boarding school in northern India, colour is intimately associated with the students’ activities, social relationships, and sensory experiences. It defines their status and shapes their everyday lives. The uses of colour at the school are consistent with a wider social aesthetic emphasizing restraint, logical thought, and the training and presentation of the body. Many of these values can be seen to have their origins in the school’s colonial history and postcolonial aspirations