The Alkazi Collection of Photography brings forth in book form a collection of photographs that communicates the visual history of India in a way that is impossible in words. The ACP is a rich repository of Photo Archives, and photographs in India are as old as photography itself. This is because of the presence of the East India Company in Calcutta (now Kolkata) matched with the invention of photography in 1839, and we have a record of instruments making ‘true likenesses’ in the city within a year in 1840.
We have been witnesses to the images of colonial rule, be it the record of the 1857 revolt documented by Felice Beato or the later landscape images by Samuel Bourne of the famous Bourne & Shepard studio from the Alkazi collection in the form of exhibitions and publications.
The book gives us a rich peep into an important chapter of India’s freedom struggle. The Civil Disobedience Movement, though a countrywide effort, had its epicentre in the western parts of the country with Mahatma Gandhi breaking the Salt Laws in Dandi, Gujarat. This sent ripples across many cities, but Bombay (now Mumbai) took the lead in showing the country how a nonviolent protest that lasted through 1930 and 1931 could bring the colonial rulers to their knees with the disruptions it caused.
The book comes out of a photo album that was lost to the world and stumbled upon by the Alkazi Archives from an antique shop in Mumbai, quite close to the place where two hundred photographs nearly a hundred-years old or more were located. The Nursey Album as it is called is a black hardcover book possibly in A 4 size whose spine states, ‘Photographs of the Old Congress Party’ and the name attributed below on the spine is KL Nursey. Nobody knows who this KL Nursey is. Efforts by researchers and owners have not yielded any success in finding the person, which is strange as the person who collected such historic photographs and may have photographed them would have been someone with social standing in the Bombay of those times. The fact that the person has not been located adds a dash of suspense. The editors of the book assume that KL Nursey is a man; looking at the images I am forced to raise a doubt and ask why such a certain assumption? The visual narrative of the photo album comes through as female-centric and is filled with pictures that show the participation of women labelled here as ‘Desh Sevika’ in the Civil Disobedience Movement. Couldn’t Nursey have been a woman collector and sympathizer of the Movement? The Parsi community in Bombay was very progressive and had engagement with the media of the times. Homai Vyarawalla was by now starting her photographic career. So, it may not be entirely wrong to assume that KL Nursey was not a man but a woman.
In the nine chapters written by distinguished scholars, we are drawn into a canvas of 1930s Bombay which seems to be living on its streets. Crowds in their hundreds are featured, photograph after photograph with the architecture of the city as the backdrop. The turmoil is visible, and the tension of protest is palpable with either a sea of humanity surging towards a posse of baton-wielding policemen or silent women activists holding a banner against the sale of liquor in front of the Town Hall surrounded by a group of uniformed white officers wielding lathis and carrying pistols. The cover photo of the book has two white police officers closest to the camera; they look distinguishably superior in their white breeches, Sola hats and black boots. Turned back, they seem to be giving orders to the native sepoys in black knickers to be ready to take action on the group of local women who hold flags and look calm and resolute. Beyond them, on the extreme right of the frame, there are onlookers, local men who seem more anxious than the protesters and are ready to take evasive action. The floor of the street with its embedded tram tracks and the block of buildings in the background are the ideal Bombay stage of the 30s where this drama is staged.
The first couple of chapters are a build-up to the Swadeshi Movement against the topography of the city. Typed captions stuck below the photographs, often misspelt, give us the flavour of the times, like ‘Mohammedans of Bombay in sympathy with their Hindu brethren….’ or ‘A Takli Procession organised by the Congress to Encourage the Art of Hand Spinning’. Such descriptions make the photographs speak to us and give an insider’s view into the mood of the nation. Manufacturing salt as a form of protest is so well documented that one finds these series of pictures a learning manual in salt making! Predominantly women but also men are shown congregated at the Chowpatty beach as well as other sea fronts of Bombay collecting brine. Many photos have pots of salt water boiling in the foreground with the crowd looking on and even tasting the product. Two lovely photos that are posed for the camera on the street are described as those of ‘Gujrati Women’ carrying water on their heads to their homes for making salt. This chapter of the book, ‘Salt of the City’, certainly takes the reader to the pinnacle of the Civil Disobedience Movement as it spans across Bombay from its central areas to the suburban salt pans. Apart from photographs, the chapter incites interest in the media approach to the Salt Satyagraha. A poster from the Bombay Chronicle sympathizing with the Congress exhorts citizens to Arise and Awake, whereas on the other hand, the Illustrated Weekly of India, a British sympathizing publication shows photographs calling people ‘Salt Law Breakers’.
The next chapter titled ‘The Suburban Congresswomen’ brings to the forefront many names that we may not have been familiar with but who were the heroines of the era. Here the publishers of this collection serve the purpose of introducing these great women by using photographs from other publications of those times. Names like Sofia Somji or Sakinabai Lukmani or Ratnaben Meishri and many other protagonist women remain anonymous. Interestingly, amongst all these stalwarts is one lady who seemed to have had a photographer in tow to record her activities. She was Leelavati Munshi, the wife of Congressman KM Munshi. Her confidence and sartorial elegance are evident; even though her saree looks ‘swadeshi’, one is left to wonder why the bag in her hand looks so European! She appears in almost a dozen of the photographs of the album and is always looking ready for the camera.
Boycotting of western goods by picketing in front of the English department stores in the Fort area of Bombay gives us a peep into the shopping culture of the elite of the city. Evans Fraser and Co. and Whiteway Laidlaw are stores that we see as backdrops where a dhoti-clad picketer is being arrested by a white officer.
The last chapter of the book dedicates itself to photographs of the many public rallies held in the maidans of Bombay with prominent leaders like Nehru, Sardar Patel and Sarojini Naidu along with the unknown addressing the milling crowds. Leaders standing on a makeshift stage, speaking into a prominent large microphone, typical of the times, give a sense of public participation and fervour.
This book is a precious tribute both by an unknown character KL Nursey whose persona remains a mystery and the Alkazi Collection of Photography, towards the memorializing of a very important chapter of India’s Independence movement. It serves as an important document to the academic as well as the aficionado looking into the image culture of India’s Independence movement.
Sohail Akbar is Associate Professor, Still Photography, AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.