This present places colonial images underneath lens

{A photograph} freezes a second, sure, nevertheless it additionally freezes which means. A putting new exhibition at Bikaner House, introduced by Delhi’s DAG, asks guests to take a second take a look at these meanings.

Titled “Typecasting: Photographing the peoples of India, 1855–1920’ and open to the public till February 15, the show brings together 166 rare historical photographs that reveal how early photography was used as a colonial tool to classify, categorise and “type” Indian communities, and the way these photographs as we speak complicate that very mission.

Curated by Sudeshna Guha, the exhibition traces the intersection of images and anthropology from 1850s onwards, a interval when the digital camera grew to become a key instrument of colonial documentation. Rather than treating pictures as impartial data, the present invitations viewers to see them as constructed photographs formed by energy, perspective and objective.

Over the previous decade, DAG has constructed one in all India’s largest collections of early ethnographic images, together with prints, cupboard playing cards, cartes-de-visite, albums, postcards and uncommon books.

The exhibition spans communities from the Lepcha and Bhutia of the Northeast to the Afridis of the Northwest; from Parsi elites and ‘talukdars’ to coolies, barbers and snake-charmers.

The rise of images in India coincided with the aftermath of the 1857 Uprising, when the British intensified their efforts to survey and research the subcontinent’s folks.

Early tasks like ‘The Peoples of India’, initially conceived by Lord Canning as a private assortment however later taken over by the colonial authorities, sought to visually map India by way of racial, caste and occupational classes.

Speaking to The Tribune, Guha defined that these photographs have been much less about reality and extra about typology.

“Typology and typecasting are actually invisible, and are social constructs,” she mentioned. “Photography was widely used to document people, especially after 1857, as a form of surveillance. But these photographs tell us much more than just colonial control — they are also aesthetic objects, commercial products and cultural artefacts that travelled, circulated and acquired

different meanings.”

She mentioned {a photograph} alone didn’t outline a “type”.

“If you removed the captions, you would not know who these people were supposed to be. That ambiguity is important: it reminds us that identity cannot be read simply from appearance,” she mentioned.

The exhibition is structured round 4 thematic segments: ‘The Peoples of India’, which showcases early state-sponsored photographic tasks; ‘Tribe, Community and Anthropological Field Photography’, which highlights photographs linked to the rise of anthropology; ‘Trade, Caste and Occupation’, which visually classifies folks based mostly on labour and career; and ‘Beauties and Dancing Girls’, which focuses on representations of ladies, efficiency and the colonial gaze.

At the centre of the gallery stands a big, intricately detailed portrait of a Bohra household — the photographer of which is unknown, however is extensively attributed to celebrated Indian photographer Deen Dayal.

Its richness, intimacy and staging problem the concept such photographs have been purely bureaucratic data.

Nearby are terracotta collectible figurines of 11 Indian tradespeople, echoing the exhibition’s exploration of how labour and caste have been visually codified.

One of essentially the most compelling sections examines how Indian ladies have been photographed, usually as not solely ethnographic “subjects”, but additionally objects of fascination.

Many photographs have been merely labelled ‘Hindu Woman’, ‘Tamil Lady’, or ‘Group of Kashmiri Females’.

Postcards of well-known ‘nautch’ (dancing) women reminiscent of Miss Jomti of Mussoorie and Miss Gauhar Jaan have been circulated extensively, shaping British fantasies of Indian femininity.