Overview
The photo album I selected is titled the Northwest frontier [1910-1912]. Jean S. Sharf, an executive from the London office of the Church Missionary Society (CMS), created the photo album along side the CMS in 1912. The CMS was founded in London in April 1799 by a group of evangelical Christians. The CMS founded missions to teach Christianity in various countries around the world. The album I chose documents an official visit to India, the purpose of which was to observe CMS progress in cities of Peshawar, Amritsar, Mussoorie, Simla, and Lahore. The various images in the album show how this British organization was instilling Western ideology into Indian society. When scrolling through the photo album, I couldn’t help but notice the significance in the clothing worn by people in the photographs.
Cohn writes, “[The] nature of authority in the Indic world is crucial for any understanding of the widespread significance of cloth and clothes, as they are a medium through which substances can be transferred. Clothes are not just body coverings and matters of adornment, nor can they be understood only as metaphors of power and authority, nor as symbols; in many contexts, clothes literally are authority.” The regulation of Indian clothing was a systematic control to assert British dominance over the inferior position of the colonized Indians. “The British construction of the rules governing the wearing or non-wearing of shoes was that Europeans did not have to conform to Indian custom, but Indians had to conform to European ideas of what was proper Indian behavior” (Cohn, 134). By controlling what Indians wore, the British controlled the means by which Indians could express themselves in public. This idea of “proper” Indian behavior is underscored in photos throughout the album, in which we can see how Indians are being “civilized” with Christian “tradition” while remaining in “traditional” Indian clothing. I am referring to the word tradition loosely as Cohn has shown us that traditions are often constructed from ambiguous contexts.
On a tangent note, the album also depicts how colonialism in India was a “knowledge project.” The Church Missionary Society’s impact in India was not unilateral. Although they sought to spread Christianity, Cohn’s writing suggests that they would probably form their own knowledge and perception of India and its people. The photo album suggests that the Church Missionary Society participated in the investigative modalities presented by Cohn in the first chapter. In particular, the historiographic modality and the survey modality. The photographs include the Railway bridge at Attock and the Indus River, which suggests that the person documenting the trip was eager to investigate Indian territory, partaking in the survey modality. Pictures of Indians partaking in Christian celebrations would depict the historiographic modality, showing us how the missionaries instilled (or rather imposed) their own ideology into Indian society.
Images & Descriptive Analysis
http://digital.wolfsonian.org/WOLF037711/00001/17j?search=northwest+%3dfrontier
I was particularly captivated by the divergence in dress between the British and the Indians in the lower picture. The British women are dressed in white, covering their heads with very elegant hats. The Indians are seen to be wearing turbans, even though this is a Christian missionary. That strikes me as quite odd at first glance, but after reflecting for a few minutes and remembering the analysis in Cohn’s chapter 5, I realize that even though the missionaries wish to teach Christian dogma, they are still adhering to system of dress constructed and enforced by the British. So while this British organization is trying to create similarities between the two groups, they are celebrating their differences and basking in their own superiority.
http://digital.wolfsonian.org/WOLF037711/00001/5j?search=northwest+%3dfrontier
These two pictures set a foundation for a theme that remains prevalant throughout the album. The British individuals seem to not “fit in” with the surroundings. It almost feels as if they were photoshopped into the photograph. Their elegant attire such as a suit and tie or a fancy gown juxtaposed with the jungle-like background evoke a feeling of disparity, inconsistency, and imbalance. In addition, the women in smiling in front of a tomb, probably where Indians were buried, which further shows how the British stigmatized the Indians.
http://digital.wolfsonian.org/WOLF037711/00001/9j?search=northwest+%3dfrontier
This photograph shows that ordinary Britons engaged in their own versions of investigative modalities. In this one, the photographer is engaging in the survey modality by discovering the Indian territory around him. In the top photograph, the area looks desolate with an entrance to what I am assuming is a missionary? The photographer was probably trying to show how the Indians need the British to create structure in their otherwise “despotic” society.
http://digital.wolfsonian.org/WOLF037711/00001/10j?search=northwest+%3dfrontier
Viewing this picture in comparison to the one above shows how the British organization wanted people to view its impact in India. The picture of the “watering place” and the Indus River where Indian people would probably be getting their water is presented as inferior to the beautiful wells created by the British Reverend. In the top picture you can see the superior quality of the construction of the well. In the bottom picture you can the Indian people using the well and enjoying it.
http://digital.wolfsonian.org/WOLF037711/00001/11j?search=northwest+%3dfrontier
The top image is particularly interesting to me. It is called “Tarn Taran Church & Passers by,” which lets us know that these people who look cold, upset, and hungry are only passers, who are not taking advantage of what the missionary has to offer. The picture is strategically placed near the extravagant inside of another church during Easter. This once again emphasizes British supremacy over the colonized Indians. Also, on a holistic scale, comparing the top picture with the other pictures in the photo album we can visually analyze just how important clothing was in British India.
For example, in this picture: http://digital.wolfsonian.org/WOLF037711/00001/12j?search=northwest+%3dfrontier, the Indians who are learning English are dressed to more closely resemble the British.