LONDON, U.K., September 30, 2018 (BBC): Picture postcards pieced together stories about life in British Indian cities. In the early 20th Century, picture postcards served as a kind of Instagram, giving Europeans a glimpse of the life their family and friends led in British colonial India. A recent exhibition at London’s SOAS university showcased more than 300 such postcards that were sent from India to Europe between 1900 and the 1930s. This display was drawn from the private collection of Dr. Hughes and Emily Rose Stevenson. They bought postcards on websites such as eBay, and at ephemera fairs, which sell things like antique and second hand books, and manuscripts. ”We don’t want the postcards to be a vehicle of colonial nostalgia. It is the opposite of that,” Stephen Putnam Hughes, a co-curator of the exhibition told the BBC. ”We wanted to provide enough evidence from the colonial past and allow people to look at the images critically.”
One set of postcards belonged to a popular series, called Masters, produced by a Chennai-based publisher in the early 1900s. It was meant as a ”humorous” comment on the master-servant relationship at the heart of British rule in India, according to the note explaining the postcards. But it also played on ”British anxieties” and ”insecurities” about what the ”servant” would do when the ”master” was not around. The result: postcards depicting Indians ”mocking their masters’ lifestyle choices.” They are shown drinking beer, smoking and reading with their feet up, all of which ”were not equal opportunity activities” at the time. The postcards also reflect how Indians were often stereotyped based on ethnicity, gender, religion or caste. Some of these photos were carefully staged in studios, part of a common photographic genre known as the ”native type,” according to the curators. Indians performing menial jobs for Europeans were also a common feature of these postcards.
Many of the postcards on display can be viewed at ”source” above.
INDIA, October 11, 2018 (Incredible India): The Ganges River is a highly revered site by Hindus and an iconic, historical epicenter in India. As hundreds of millions of people visit the Ganges each year, there is a dedicated group of priests, better known as pandits, working quietly behind the scenes. In small offices that line the river, they keep handwritten records of everyone who has visited the holy site. These documents function as historical and genealogical archives that even record births and deaths in each visiting family. With archives dating back 20 generations, it is the largest handwritten family tree in the world.
Short and must-see video at ”source” above.
KERALA, INDIA, October 15, 2018 (The Hindu): [HPI note: With India’s Supreme Court ordering the Sabarimal Ayappan temple to admit women of child-bearing age, it is useful to see the reaction from Kerela’s Sunni community. According to the Islamic Research Foundation International, ”Although the Qur’an and the Hadith, the traditions attributed to the Prophet (Pbuh), allow for women to pray in mosques, in most parts of India, Muslim women are denied this right.” ]
The Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama has warned politicians of ”serious electoral consequences” if they meddle in religious issues such as entry of women into Sunni mosques. Opening a Shariat conference here on Saturday, its president Syed Mohammed Jiffri Muthukoya Thangal said politicians need not air their views on religious matters. ”The recent statements on women’s entry to Sunni mosques by politicians were not in good taste. They have pained and irritated us. We know who should be admitted to the mosques and who should not. Their demand cannot be implemented,” he said.
Mr. Thangal said the bar on entry of women to mosques was not the sign of any discrimination but a ”wise decision” taken by religious scholars considering their safety. The conference was organized by Samastha, the biggest body of Sunni Muslims in the State, in the wake of the recent Sabarimala verdict, the triple divorce ordinance and a bunch of judicial interventions related to the religious practice of the Muslims. ”There is a trend to victimise Muslims for each and every issue and a propaganda against us is on. We are law-abiding citizens and we respect the Constitution. But don’t treat our silence as a weakness, we will respond if there is a need. We will legally challenge any bid to question our religious beliefs,” Mr. Thangal added.
Meanwhile, a coordination committee of Muslim organisations has sought the intervention of Parliament and Legislative Assemblies against recent court orders.
The tragedy of human history is decreasing happiness in the midst of increasing comforts.
— Swami Chinmayananda (1916-1993)
