Thursday, February 01, 2007

History in black and white

A photography exhibition brings alive a period of history.

For four days between January 27 and 30, the University of Hyderabad community and citizens of the twin cities were treated to a rare exhibition of over 250 archival photographs. They were not only `moments frozen in time but... aids to understand a country's multifaceted history'.
`Representing India Women 1875-1947,' came in five sections. Visualising the Family, The Learning Experience, Worlds Beyond, The National Movement, and finally Towards the Midnight Hour. Additionally, there were four panels on specific women: social reformer, Pandita Ramabai, two early women photographers, Debaleena Mazumdar and Annapurna Dutta, a pioneering doctor Dwarkabhai Kamlakar and school teacher Sarah Massey.
The foyer of the University's DST auditorium was the venue. At the inauguration, Rama Melkote, Meenakshi Mukherjee and Malavika Karlekar of Center for Women's Development Studies, underlined the importance of the exhibition. The exhibition was the brainchild of Malavika Karlekar.
Her 2005 publication Re-visioning the Past: Early Photography in Bengal 1875-1915', OUP, provided the base for the 2001 exhibition. The idea of the travelling exhibition of these photographs was then born. The ICSSR, the NCERT, the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies as well as over twelve noted organisations have supported the present exhibition.
The exhibition has now travelled to Ajmer, Mussoorie and Dehradun. From Hyderabad, it would move to Chennai and later to Mysore, Bhubaneswar and Guwahati. "The response of the audience everywhere has been very rewarding. The effort now is to try and incorporate some of the visuals in the existing courses in history, culture and gender studies. The problems are many: lack of awareness today about the Freedom Struggle and the history of the colonial rule in India as well as a demand to get the captions translated into Indian languages," Karlekar said.
"We should not be over-ambitious. We should think of the target audience," she concluded
At the DST auditorium, the panels with rare black and white photos looked fantastic; chosen and curated by Karlekar, each picture captured the spirit of the era. Changes in pose, posture, backdrop and contexts lent historical and cultural significance to the portraits.
You marvelled at the march of the Indian women and shared their trials and tribulations, their triumphs and tragedies. From the coy Bengali bride sitting next to the successful ICS husband, from the intrepid Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain to the legendary singer M.S. Subbulakshmi, from the brave Kadambini, the first woman doctor of the British Indian Empire to Kuntala Kumari, the charismatic Oriya poet and feminist, each spoke in many voices and carried many resonances. They underlined the significance of the women's experience in the making of the modern Indian nation.

credits: SACHIDANANDA MOHANTY - http://www.thehindu.com/mp/2007/02/01/stories/2007020101140300.htm