Module Two Project

 

1)

This album’s title is Northwest frontier created by an executive from the London office of the Church Missionary Society from 1910 to 1912. The missionary officially visited India to inspect the CMS’s (Church Missionary Society) progress in Peshawar, Amritsar, Mussoorie, Simla, and Lahore. The photographer took a variety of pictures of what the daily life was like in India during the eighteen century. These vivid photographs reflected the reality of the Indian society during the colonial period under the rule of the British empire. Drawing upon Cohen and the nature of British colonial rule in India, we can take the British attempt to change the traditional Indian clothing into a more Europeanized fashion. As a way of imposing their will into the people of India, the British compelled Indians to trade off their traditional costumes, and instead encouraged the Indian people to follow a British style of clothes. The reasoning behind this request was to make the people more submissive and more easily adaptable to British customs by stripping them from their traditional costumes which also represented their identity. A second motive for this was because if the people of India adopted British fashion, it could bring a potential chance to export textiles made by England to India to meet people’s necessities. However, as opposite to British’s willingness, the demands of the Indians toward British clothing didn’t increase due to the fact that to Indians their clothing represented part of their identity. A quote from the author that supports this argument can be found when he talks about how “Another problem arose because the British persisted in viewing textiles as practical or utilitarian objects, suitable for providing profits for the shareholders and officials of the company. The textiles and clothes made by Indians did indeed have a market and a practical value, but there were many other significations involved in the production and use of these objects, which the British defined as commodities.”(Cohen, chapter5, p 6) In theory changing the way Indians dress would make the Indian population easier to rule because they would feel more identified with their European colonizers, this would as well create an opportunity for the chance of opening a trading of textile goods. This, however, didn’t work out so well in practice since the people of India rejected the switch to European clothing based on their own views of the meaning of clothes. The ideological infrastructure of British rule in India refers to the concept that Indian’s were ruled by a “strong hand who could administer justice in a rough and ready fashion” (Cohen, chapter3, p 65), therefore the British took it upon themselves to take the role of benevolent despots in the form of mother/father figures or as guardians of the people and in times of crisis as the fearsome old testament avengers. This would appeal to the Indian people developing a sense of loyalty towards them. In the album the Northwest Frontier there are examples of how ordinary people contributed to Cohen’s idea of the “Ideological Infrastructure of British rule in India”. Most of these pictures show average British people surrounded by Indians who seem to look up to them in the same regard as a mother figure. Such depictions can be seen in page 54 in the album, Miss Ann Hill exhibits her treasure, in page 53, Miss Warburton Booth seats for her picture, and in page 41, En route, in which the Europeans clearly give a sense of authority upon the natives.

2)

This photo was taken when British officers and the photographer were on their way to the capital, Delhi. Along their way, the photographer used observational modality, which reflects the records of historical sites in India that brought Europeans to travel to India. In thIndian people were used to carry a palanquin for British high-rank officers instead of mounting on domesticated animals. The officers and their party were on the way to the capital, Delhi.

 

The British sought to differentiate themselves from the native people by keeping their British dress code to display and show off their superiority and power. The British undertook a historiographic modality as an investigation to collect information about Indian customs. By knowing what people wear,  the British were able to figure out the meaning of the Indian traditional customs and their relation to religion as well as deriving a law system which would make sense to the people of India since religion and law were intrinsically connected in the Indian mindset.

Unlike the Indian people standing up, a British woman sits alone on the chair in the picture. By analyzing this picture and the posture of the people in it, a clear relation between rank and a person’s stance is made. This shows the power between England (a dominance country) and India (a subjugated country) and how the people of England made efforts to keep their authority evident at all times.This picture is more likely to represent the perks of being a European in a world in which people seemed to have a natural affinity for rulers who they seem as father/mother figures.

Many new institutions such as universities and public schools were established to produce governing elites that would remain loyal to the English empire. This method had priorly been used in England to mix the old aristocracy with the new middle class and form new elites, the same result was expected in India by giving the Indian people a form of British education. Through this picture, we could figure out a British ideological framework about the people of India. Despite having the well-being of the Indian population at heart, the British still considered that Indians were an uneducated, and uncivilized race. The British invaded the territory of India by justifying their colonial governance with the purpose of modernizing this nation.

British crowds watch that Indian troops were marching out at ditto. The person sitting on the elephant at the right side of the picture is the viceroy, and the British masses were waiting to see him. One of the ideological framework was from a British belief that Sikhs were strong in a combat. Since 1850, the East Indian company started to recruit Sikhs and keep them for their formidable reputation for combat in the British Army. Moreover, the Sikhs were proud of being recruited, and they enthusiastically and effectively participated in the defeat of their rivals, the remnants of the Mughals.
3)

Interestingly, Indian people in the album seemed to be contempt during the moments in which the photographs were taken. At times, smiling or posing for the photographer. It could be argued that they were made to seem happy But, i believe that the people’s expression in the photos would not be manipulated by a photographer, because they seem natural and the photographer was an ordinary British, not an officer from the government. Also, the architectures which were affected by the British style in the photos were steady, and very modernized. Institutions such as hospitals, schools and churches were made available to the use of the Indian people. Did British imperialism bring a beneficial factor not only to British economic, but also to the Indian’s way of life? What would have happened to Indiana’s economy if Britain hadn’t intervened?

4)

Reference

Bernard, Cohn S. “, Chapter five: Cloth, Clothes, and Colonialism.” Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge. N.p.: Princeton U Press, 1996. 6. Print.

Bernard, Cohn S. “, Chapter three: Law and the Colonial State in India.” Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge. N.p.: Princeton U Press, 1996. 65. Print.

Church Missionary Society. Northwest frontier [1910-1912]. N.p.: S.n., 1912. Web. <https://digital.wolfsonian.org/WOLF037711/00001>.

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