Story in a postcard

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A khidmatgar looks almost regal as he stands in his formal livery. A sweeper works in an oddly picturesque setting. An elderly woman stands tall, bearing pots of water on her head. They may be engaged in manual labour, but these figures have a certain dignity as they pose self-consciously in these images, rendered by an artist during the days of the British Raj.

Today, the occupations they belong to contrast even more oddly with the setting you’ll find their images placed in — against rich velvet, worked with an ornate border, currently showcased at a leading Mumbai gallery.
Their new context has been created by Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar’s 31-year-old daughter Devangana. Coming across old postcards depicting the “labour force” of the Raj in flea markets in London and Kolkata, Devangana was hooked. “I came across these postcards many years ago, and they reminded me of a bygone era,” says Devangana of the beautifully rendered images. “But it was only when I started researching them that I realised there was much more to it.”
The realisation that the artist refers to is that during the early 20th century, the British were using these picture postcards (and sending them around the world) to disseminate a “pervasive narrative of caste”. The title of Devangana’s exhibition — which displays 30 of these images — “Pageants of the Raj; the work force”, is a nod to not just this aspect, but also to the fact that for the colonial rulers, these images of their “work force” were a form of pageantry, of showing off.
Many of the postcards Devangana sourced are believed to have been printed in Germany, with some created as far back as 1901. She would go on to collect over 1,000 of the post cards, finally selecting 30 of the best ones to work on and re-present, three years ago. “These are phototype postcards taken from original photographs. The photographs themselves were taken during the 1840s-1880s, while the postcards were first printed in 1899 and instantly became very popular. This series focuses on the work force and there were a few publishing houses like Moorlidhur & Sons and Clifton & Co. who printed images of natives (against the backdrop of) their occupation. These postcards, sent across the world, flaunted the high status of the colonists — offering proof of their successful labours in civilising the rest of the world, while valiantly shouldering the white man’s burden,” says Devangana.
Devangana says her representation of these images is an attempt to “transform the visuals so that they metaphorically revisit the motives behind their creation.” The images have been given names like Dinanath, Govardhan Gaj Singh, Joseph, Sonmani…but these are not the names of the people who posed so many years ago. Devangana explains why she felt the need to name these long forgotten figures: “The presence of these people indicated a certain function. They were not looked upon as real people with real identities. That is the reason I have given them real names of real people, the names have no historical significance.”
These glimpses into the past certainly do.