The vintage prints were part of a street photography project christened 'Re-imagining the People of India' and commissioned by governor general Lord Canning and his wife in 1850 for their personal collection. It was later upgraded as a British government project to document ways of Indians.
It was executed by John Forbes Watson and John William Kaye. It manages to give a genuine picture of communities and their daily lives and also gives people a chance to trace how photography developed over the years.
Shot in the 'wet collodion' process, the pictures may be some of first 'street-life' photos to be taken in India ever. Some were also taken inside studios.
The annotations of the photographers are as intriguing as the photos and reveal the biases of the Raj men towards the people of India. In one photo clicked in the 1860s, the photographer describes a Hindu priest as "shrewd, clever, and designing. Their habits are migratory, generally seeking employment in the civil department under Government. They go to any distance to obtain it. They are Brahmins by caste, and a keen-eyed , crafty race" .
Another photographer who shot tribal women for the same project described them as "Sonthal women who are fat and short, and though not pretty according to the European idea of beauty, have a very pleasing expression of countenance" .
"A photographer said in a note that the natives were very fidgety, which is why shooting them was difficult. These insights are very interesting because they tell us a lot about technology in those times," says curator Aditya Arya.
Though the original compilation had photos of Indians from different castes and professions in present day Afghanistan , Myanmar and Pakistan, Arya focused on photos shot around Delhi. "I always try to focus on north India, especially Delhi," he adds. Collecting these rare photographs was very expensive and time-consuming . Over the years,
Arya managed to collect 300 photos from different sources. "I got them from art dealers, antique shops in Europe, in auctions and from junk sellers for a few hundred dollars each," he says.
The exhibition will also have contemporary photographs taken by four photographers on similar subjects. "The idea is to compare pictures taken by the British photographers with those taken by contemporary Indian photographers," explains Arya.
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