"After the merciless grind of a rough day," wrote the Sindhi writer and nationalist Ibrahim Joyo (1915-2017) in his short story In the Name of Allah, "how soothing it is to feel the balmy breeze in Karachi's Burns Gardens, especially on a fresh
In Ali Raza's excellent book Revolutionary Pasts Communist Internationalism in Colonial India (Tulika Books, 2022) there is this note from a police report in 1926: "A public meeting was held . . . under the auspices of the Nau Jawan Bharat Sabha to
Although taken in the firm's studio, with the woman posing upright, one can from this portrait and the wooden beam infer the literally backbreaking work hillstation workers endured.
An embossed frame sets off a rare early postcard of what is presumably the famous Pushkar fair, with the colonial perspective of a onetime owner scrawled across the top: "Does not look much like our Cattle Shows."
This postcard is likely based on a portrait by Johnston & Hoffmann of 22 Chowringhee [also Chourangi] Road, Kolkata, one of the most storied photographic firms in British India.
[Original] A Caravan on Its Way to Peshawar from Afghanistan in the Caravan Serai Landikotal N.W.F.P. [end]
Postcards like this illustrate how enormous the trade through the Khyber Pass once was. The Peshawar District Gazetteer 1897-98 put the value
[Original caption on back] This famous street was built by Jahanara Begum daughter of Emperor Shah Jehan. It extends 1520 yards in length from Delhi Fort to Fatehpuri Mosque, and is 40 yards [wide].
A striking image of a small Parsi girl sitting on a table with her feet on a chair, the "de [of] Bombay" added by the French sender in 1911.
Bhutias are a Sikkimese people of Tibetan ancestry, photographed here most likely in Johnston & Hoffman's Darjeeling studio – compare to A Group of 3 Nepaulese which seems to have the same backdrop.
Note the diagonal leading the eye into a rich scene, the figures in the corners of the frame, the tethered cow on the left, the pots in the coals, the vibrancy of this human space under a hoisted banner.
