Overview:
Welcome to my photo gallery! This exhibit is comprised of select photos from 1899-1901. The photographs were originally from an album titled, “Le tour du monde.” It seems to be a family album taken by the Hobson family who documented their travels to Hawaii, Japan, China, and India over the course of three years. My exhibit focuses on the photographs taken in India. These photographs give us an inside look at what imperialism looked like from the perspective of a tourist.
These photographs illustrate what author Bernard Cohn calls investigative modalities which inform us of the types of information the British collected as well as the end products – things such as reports, encyclopedias, legal codes, and more (Cohn p. 5). For the purposes of this exhibit, we will focus on the observational/travel modality. Through this modality we begin to learn what was significant to the European eye because it is through their lens in which we see their own travels. The typical tourist route through the nineteenth century included traveling “by boat up the Ganges, then to Delhi and either further north into the Punjab or southwest through Rajasthan and Gujarat to Bombay, then down to Malabar, Ceylon, and up the east coast to Madras” (Cohn p. 6). From many travel accounts, historians such as Cohn deduce that there were key elements to any traveler’s itinerary. These included sightseeing in Agra and Delhi as well as seeing the fort at Allahabad. Travelers also documented their interactions with holy men and women, historical sites, and traveling entertainers. It seems to have been wealthier families who could have afforded to travel to different parts of the world and many saw it as a sign of being well cultured. The travel accounts and their similarities depict India as a place where only some things were worth seeing and this may have been due to the process of colonialism taking hold in the country. It was ordinary people who brought back with them what they saw in India, which may have informed others on why it was necessary to colonize what they saw as the “other.”
The nature of the British rule in India was first to understand the society they were entering. The British made sure to learn the language as well as customs in order to prevent depending on any locals. After understanding, they sought to take over what were historically Indian procedures, such as managing the revenue system. The Court of Directors of the East India Company believed that the Indians should be the ones to collect the revenue under supervision of the Englishmen. This would have made the most sense since there were traditions that had not been written down by the Indians as well as some laws that were written in the ancient language – thus not easily understood by the British. By attempting to fully control the system, the British ended up caucusing a large famine (Cohn 59). This is one example of many in which the British through their study of Indian systems were able to morph the society into one in which they fit in (tax revenue was extremely important to English society). The travel accounts show us how both tourists and English officials sought to view India as their own.
The Exhibit:
1.The first image shows us the Hobson family visiting the Amer Palace as well as a Hindu temple. We see members of the traveling party posing in front of various architectural monuments. The first photograph also shows two Indians in front of an elephant, an animal that may have been seen as exotic. These images illustrate the travel modality and show us what monuments as well as temples were part of the tourist itinerary. http://digital.wolfsonian.org/WOLF037637/00001/80?search=tour+%3ddu+%3dmonde
2. The two photos that really stick out in image 2 are the top left photograph and the bottom right photograph. The first shows us a group of Indian men dressed in traditional clothing, including their turbans as well as a horse in decorative garb. The traveling tourists are not part of the photograph and the Indian men seem to be looking towards them. The second photo shows an extremely skinny Indian person. It is hard to tell whether the person is an entertainer, a religious figure, or simply an impoverished person. It is interesting that this was one of the photographs included because as a viewer, it makes me want to cringe and empathize with the person in the photo.
http://digital.wolfsonian.org/WOLF037637/00001/79?search=tour+%3ddu+%3dmonde
3. The first row of images show us everyday Indian people, some which appear to be posing for the photograph. We can see traditional clothing as well as the man in the fourth photo holding some goods. The second row is labeled street scenes in Delhi. Delhi is a key place to travel to according to the travel modality we explored earlier. The street scenes also depict the traveling family next to an elephant monument located in the Queen’s Garden. Their clothing is extremely different than what we see in the first row of photos.
http://digital.wolfsonian.org/WOLF037637/00001/75?search=tour+%3ddu+%3dmonde
4. This photograph is of the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal is still recognized as place of tourists in India and is an architectural marvel. It is not surprising to see this as part of a travel journal because it was probably a key element to all travel itineraries. It is important to consider that this is seen as a key element to tourists from Britain and other European countries at the time, but it may have not had such a huge significance to much of the Indian population. This image illustrates the travel modality.
http://digital.wolfsonian.org/WOLF037637/00001/70?search=tour+%3ddu+%3dmonde
5. This image shows a range of monuments and historic sites. We see tombs, mosques, and palaces in this photograph. It shows us the extent to which the family traveled through India and visited what was deemed as key sites. These are included in our initial description of the travel modality. It would not be surprising to see these same photos in the travel accounts of other tourists of the time.
http://digital.wolfsonian.org/WOLF037637/00001/66?search=tour+%3ddu+%3dmonde
Further Thoughts:
The photographs included in this exhibit showcase colonial India through the lens of an everyday person. Although the British colonized India and changed the dynamic of the society, it is hard to tell whether or not the tourists felt India as inferior or rather as a place of marvel. It is clear that that India was seen as different – as exotic and strange because of some of the images. The photographs also show us places that will come to signify a struggle in keeping control over the land such as the places of religious worship. Please consider the following two questions: 1. Did the British seek to preserve Indian society and customs? 2. Who deemed cultural institutions such as the temples that tourists visited important – was it the Indians or the British?
References
Cohn, Bernard S. Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge the British in India. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1996.
Images taken from the Wolfsonian Digital Library: https://digital.wolfsonian.org/WOLF037637/00001.
Images used: 66, 70, 75, 79, 80