Traditions

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India

  • The Survey of India was established in 1767 – just a decade after the Battle of Plassey (1757), which reshaped political power in the subcontinent. In other words, mapping came on the heels of conquest, as British authorities sought to document and manage the land they now ruled. What began as military and administrative necessity soon became one […]
  • The original promise of social media platforms was not only reach, but connection. For cultural institutions, they offered a way to speak in a more relatable voice, connect with audiences and invite participation (beyond the limits of geography). Until around 2022, this felt genuinely transformative. At a time when many institutional websites were clunky and newsletters […]
  • In Kerala’s colonial photography archives, people gaze back at us – some named, categorized, but many left entirely unrecorded. These photographs from British-era Kerala capture moments of stillness: people working, posing, witnessing. But behind each frame lies a pressing question that colonial visual records often fail to answer: who were these people? Hands crossed; gaze […]
  • Have archival photographs ever looked back at you? Dragged you into its frames? Made you pause not just to see, but to feel, to guess, to remember, or to imagine? There is a strange alchemy when one is looking at colonial photographs. A photograph can certainly freeze time. It can, however, also disrupt time. It […]
  • In 1877, when Queen Victoria (r. 1837–1901) assumed the title of Kaisar-i-Hind, British officials sought to monumentalize her as a figure of peace and imperial stability. In India, however, her image emerged as a divine sovereign across sections of society. Her likeness appeared as traditional handmade dolls, in temple reliefs and reports from the late […]
  • For most residents of Mumbai, the word ‘bandstand’ evokes the popular image of Bandra’s seaside promenade, fondly referred to as just the ‘bandstand’ in the neighbourhood. But for an older generation, it also recalls the city’s once-ubiquitous spaces for live music – structures that stood in gardens, maidans, and neighbourhood parks. As Mumbai grows into […]

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