India

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Benares (Varanasi), India (1890s)

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Benares (Varanasi), India (1890s)

The Kingdom of Benares was given official status by the Mughals in 1737, and continued as a dynasty-governed area until Indian independence in 1947, during the reign of Dr. Vibhuti Narayan Singh. In the 18th century, Muhammad Shah ordered the construction of an observatory on the Ganges, attached to Man Mandir Ghat, designed to discover imperfections in the calendar in…
Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Bombay, India (1890s)

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Bombay, India (1890s)

From 1782 onwards, the city was reshaped with large-scale civil engineering projects aimed at merging all the seven islands of Bombay into a single amalgamated mass by way of a causeway called the Hornby Vellard, which was completed by 1784. In 1817, the British East India Company under Mountstuart Elphinstone defeated Baji Rao II, the last of the Maratha Peshwa…
Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Delhi, India (1890s)

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Delhi, India (1890s)

In 1757, the Afghan ruler, Ahmad Shah Durrani, sacked Delhi. He returned to Afghanistan leaving a Mughal puppet ruler in nominal control. The Marathas again occupied Delhi in 1758, and were in control until their defeat in 1761 at the third battle of Panipat when the city was captured again by Ahmad Shah. However, in 1771, the Marathas established a…
Vintage: Historic B&W photos of India (19th Century)

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of India (19th Century)

The rush of technology and the commercialisation of agriculture in the second half of the 19th century was marked by economic setbacks—many small farmers became dependent on the whims of far-away markets. There was an increase in the number of large-scale famines, and, despite the risks of infrastructure development borne by Indian taxpayers, little industrial employment was generated for Indians.…
Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Calcutta, India (1890s)

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Calcutta, India (1890s)

Throughout the late 18th and 19th century, the city was a centre of the East India Company’s opium trade. By the 1850s, Calcutta had two areas: White Town, which was primarily British and centred on Chowringhee and Dalhousie Square; and Black Town, mainly Indian and centred on North Calcutta. The city underwent rapid industrial growth starting in the early 1850s,…
Tomasz Gudzowaty: Urban golf in India

Tomasz Gudzowaty: Urban golf in India

Golf is often considered a game of the wealthy (which it normally is), but its modern, elitist form evolved from a simple farm game. The essential equipment consists of a crooked stick and balls, and virtually any area can be used as a course. In this way, golf can be played by people from all walks of life. A group of boys living in…
Biography: Documentary photographer Lala Deen Dayal

Biography: Documentary photographer Lala Deen Dayal

Lala Deen Dayal (1844–1905) was an Indian photographer. An engineer by education, Dayal was drawn to photography as early as 1875. Those were early days of photography, and Deen Dayal used primitive equipment and chemicals. His first patron was Maharaja Tukoji Rao II of Indore, who introduced him to Sir Henry Daly, the British Agent at Indore, which eventually led…
Captain Linnaeus Tripe Photographer of India and Burma, 1852–1860

Captain Linnaeus Tripe Photographer of India and Burma, 1852–1860

This is the first major traveling exhibition devoted to the British photographer Captain Linnaeus Tripe (1822–1902). Between 1854 and 1860, Tripe produced an unprecedented series of photographs documenting the landscape and cultural artifacts of south India and Burma (now the Republic of Myanmar). With few models to follow, he developed a professional practice under the auspices of the British East…
Biography: Raghu Rai

Biography: Raghu Rai

Raghu Rai was born in 1942 in the small village of Jhhang, now part of Pakistan. He took up photography in 1965, and the following year joined “The Statesman” newspaper as its chief photographer. Impressed by an exhibit of his work in Paris in 1971, Henri Cartier-Bresson nominated Rai to join Magnum Photos in 1977. Rai left “The Statesman” in…