The National Physical Laboratory in Delhi's postcards

 

I was asked by a friend about how differently Delhi is represented in postcards after independence from the colonial period. I thought I’d write about this in today’s post and therefore the feature on top, a postcard publicising the National Physical Laboratory in Delhi on Dr K.S. Krishnan Marg.

 

This postcard was made by the Government of India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting branch to advertise the laboratory for tourists/visitors in the 1950s. It speaks to one of the changes we see during the Nehruvian era in terms of publicity postcards lionising the achievements of the new Indian state. Scientific development was seen as the path to nation building under India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, a great believer in the potential of science to help India carve place for itself in the world. In some ways then it’s no surprise that the National Physical laboratory, an institute that standardises weights and measurements across the country, would feature in ‘official’ postcards from the time. 

 

While these were some of the newer features in postcards on Delhi there were also familiar tropes. For example, postcard booklets were printed under the titles of ‘Old and New Delhi’ which was actually a colonial construct to showcase a ‘New’ (Imperial) Delhi against the backdrop of Delhi’s ‘Older’ habitations. In the post-independence era, this continued. As ‘New Delhi’ was now reinscribed by the new Indian state to become a symbol of its modernity and progress (places like the National Physical Laboratory would often feature in the ‘New’ Delhi section) it made sense to continue with the ‘Old and New Delhi’ dynamic in printed postcards. A postcard booklet below (from the1960s-70s) which reflects what I have written, would have carried postcards such as the one above. 

 

I’ll see you again next Friday for more on similar topics. 

 

'Views of India': The camel carriage at Safdarjung's tomb.

 

I have an interesting picture postcard here of a camel carriage outside Safdarjung’s tomb. You can see the faint outline of the tomb behind the thatched hut. The postcard is dated to the 1930s and belong to a ‘Views of India’ series. I haven’t been able to find another postcard from the same series. However, the focus on carriages is indicative of a fascination with cultural difference through modes of transport and is representative of colonial photographic trends in the 1930s (I have posted on this previously). 

 

What I’m interested in instead is the path that this camel cart was traversing. Staged or not, the photo captures a route that was taken for hundreds of years to reach the real ‘Old’ Delhi i.e. Mehrauli. Mehrauli hosts several shrines revered by Muslims and has seen continuous habitation since the 12^th century. The site and its shrines were patronised by the rulers of the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughals and therefore were intimately linked with political power before the arrival of the British. 

 

It's no wonder then that there was a stream of traffic heading in that direction on the Mehrauli road. Now, it ought to be mentioned that Safdarjung’s tomb would have also been an important stop in its own right. The tomb had a madrassa and mosque and is/was near the Karbala holy grounds revered by Shia Muslims. Therefore, while we may see the tomb as an isolated ‘monument’ today, it had a greater cultural and social significance at the time. 

 

Beyond the camel cart/carriage then, this postcard alludes to a larger context and social world within which people operated. 

 

Will post more on related topics next Friday. See you then.

A French print of the Lal Qila (ca. 1750)

 

I thought I’d move away from 20^th century Delhi this week and instead share a French print of the Lal Qila (the Mughal palace) from 1750. The image titled ‘Vue du Serrail’ is translated as a ‘view of the interiors of the palace’. Serrail would loosely correspond with the Mughal Seraglio or private quarters. 

 

As you can see, the information and nature of knowledge about India (and Delhi) was quite unique in the 1750s. Despite the political turmoil that engulfed the Mughal state at the time, the image of the ‘Great Mughal’ still piqued the curiosity of an enamoured European audience. In this case the artist may not even have been to India and this is why the architectural representation of the Lal Qila is in a familiar European idiom. I would also hesitate to call this an Orientalist representation, despite the allusion to the seraglio. There is very little in terms of exoticisation or cultural difference that suggests a hierarchy between the ‘East’ and ‘West’ in the picture.

 

In reality, this image would have been a part of a series of prints meant for a magnifying device called the ‘zograscope’. The idea was to generate an optical illusion of a deep recession (which a focus on the straight lines would allow) and enable the viewer to have greater sensory perception. Like the later stereoscopes of the 19^th century (I wrote about these a while ago), these prints enabled vicarious travel and enjoyment of distant places around the globe. The image of Delhi’s palace was perhaps being consumed by an elite European audience as an educational tool.

 

Significantly, soon after the image was created French presence in Delhi grew. This included mercenaries for hire such as Walter Reinhardt Sombre, the husband of the powerbroker, Begam Sumroo. Others like General de Boigne trained the Maratha army so they could hold North Indian cities like Delhi. 

 

Right, on that note, I will see you next Friday.

WW2 guides for American soldiers in Delhi

Picking up from where we left off last week on WW2 and Delhi, here is a guidebook for American soldiers in Indian cities published by the American Red Cross. The Red Cross Guide was given to servicemen who were largely unfamiliar with India and significantly, its preface makes clear that Americans should respect Indian customs, however different they may seem. Whether this held out in practice, this was the official line taken by the American authorities for those arriving in place such as Delhi. 

 

As I mentioned last week, cities like Delhi were transformed during the war and the needs of allied servicemen and women were instrumental in this process.  If you look at the scan from the guide below, it mentions ‘Canteens and Restaurants’ for example, that were recommended for American soldiers. These would have likely seen an uptick in their business (Wengers and India Coffee House continue to remain popular to this day). The reason being that Americans were well paid (better than British soldiers) and with more disposable income they were on the lookout for new haunts and activities. Indian businesses were of course, ready for the challenge.

 

Now, this is not to say that British personnel, of whom there were also a lot in Delhi, didn’t spend on such wartime pursuits. I’ve also got a page from the British Royal Air Force’s ‘Astra’ magazine in 1945, which carries advertisements from similar places as mentioned above (Astra was a dedicated magazine for the RAF signals centre in Delhi during the war. However, more on this another time). You can see Wenger and Co’s advertisement below and so it is quite clear that the British market continued to be a viable one for Delhi’s businesses.

   

Anyway, this is it for me until next week. See you on Friday.