Foreign News

How photography helped the British empire classify India

Published

2 months ago

2026/02/21

Priyan

Female dancers or nautch girls, early 20th Century. The photograph was taken by Edward Taurines, one of the first European photographers with a studio in Bombay (now Mumbai) which specialised in photographs showcasing the city for a Western audience. [BBC]

In the second half of the 19th Century, photography became one of the British Empire’s most persuasive instruments for knowing – and classifying – India.

A new exhibition – called Typecasting: Photographing the Peoples of India, 1855-1920, and organised by DAG, the Delhi-based art gallery – brings together nearly 200 rare photographs from a period when the camera was deployed to classify communities, fix identities and make India’s complex social differences legible to the colonial government.

Spanning 65 years, the exhibition maps an expansive human geography: from Lepcha and Bhutia communities in the north-east to Afridis in the north-west; from Todas in the Nilgiris to Parsi and Gujarati elites in western India.

It also turns its gaze to those assigned to the lower rungs of the colonial social order – dancing girls, agricultural labourers, barbers and snake charmers.

These images did not merely document India’s diversity; they actively shaped it, translating fluid, lived realities into apparently stable and knowable “types”.

Curated by historian Sudeshna Guha, the exhibition centres on folios from The People of India, the influential eight-volume photographic survey published between 1868 and 1875. From this core, it expands outward to include albumen and silver-gelatin prints by photographers such as Samuel Bourne, Lala Deen Dayal, John Burke and the studio Shepherd & Robertson – practitioners whose images helped define the visual language of that time.

“Taken together, this material tells the history of ethnographic photography and its effect on the British administration and the Indian population, in a project which in size and depth has never before been seen in India,” says Ashish Anand, CEO of DAG.

Here’s a selection of images from the exhibition:

DAG Five Indian women wearing saris stand outside a modest house in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1890, balancing neatly stacked cow dung cakes on their heads while additional rounds lie arranged on the ground beside them. — Women carrying cow dung cakes, Bombay, 1890, by Edward Taurines. Here, the women are presented in service to the household, engaged in domestic tasks typically performed within the home – but repositioned outdoors for the camera.[BBC]

DAG An Indian woman in a sari poses for a photograph taken by Felix Morin, published in 1890. — Indian woman, photographed by Felix Morin, 1890. Women feature prominently in the photographs at the show. This carefully composed colonial-era portrait captures both the ethnographic gaze of the period and the formal elegance of early photography. [BBC]

DAG Four Afghan tribesmen, armed with guns and dressed in traditional attire, photographed in 1862. The group - Afridis from the Khyber Pass near Peshawar - stand posed before the camera. — This 1862 photograph – ‘Group of Afridis from the Khyber Pass’ taken by Charles Shepherd – shows men from a Pathan tribe the British described as “fiercely independent” found along the Afghan border.[BBC]

DAG A street barber trims a man’s hair in a small vacant space in India. Both wear traditional dress - a sarong-type dress. A turban lies near a man. The photograph was taken by an unidentified photographer. — *A street barber, by an unidentified photographer. Such images frequently captured street trades and everyday performances, turning ordinary labour into ethnographic subjects. [BBC]*

DAG Two high caste Hindu women in traditional saris pose on the steps of a house in Bombay in 1855 — William Johnson, a founding member of the Photographic Society of Bombay, published this image titled ‘Brahmani Ladies’ in the 1857 issue of The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. The accompanying text named the two women, describing them as young and intelligent, and noted that they were in Bombay – with their father’s encouragement and their husbands’ support – to study English at a mission school.[BBC]

DAG Five men of India's Parsee community, dressed in traditional attire and distinctive headgear, sit on chairs in a garden, with a colonial-style building rising behind them. — A group of Parsis, possibly photographed by William Johnson, sit before a colonial bungalow – asserting their distinct identity through clothing and bearing, while occupying a colonial architectural world. [BBC]

DAG Four men and women belonging to north eastern India's Bhutia community pose in their traditional attire in this picture taken in 1890. — A group of young Bhutias, 1890. The volume includes photographs of people from Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet – regions beyond the British rule. The Lepchas, Bhutias and Tibetans were photographed by Benjamin Simpson. [BBC]

DAG Eight Indian musicians pose outside a cave in India's Maharashtra, holding their traditional drums and pipes in this undated photograph. — *Musicians at ancient Buddhist rock-cut shrines in Maharashtra, photographed by Charles Scott, undated.[BBC]*

DAG A husband, wife and daughter from India pose at an unidentified location in Singapore in the late 19th century, dressed in their traditional attire. — *An Indian family in Singapore, late 19th Century. Some images depict people from the Malay Peninsula, Singapore and Chittagong in Bangladesh.[BBC]*

**[BBC]**

All News Advertisement

Foreign News

Myanmar pardons over 4,000 prisoners, including deposed president

Published

1 day ago

2026/04/18

Priyan

Myanmar's General Min Aung Hlaing was sworn in as president this month [Aljazeera]

Thousands of prisoners in Myanmar have been granted amnesty or had their sentences reduced. The pardon order by Min Aung Hlaing is one of his first official acts since the coup leader became president this month.

The move comes as the lawyer for jailed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi told the Reuters news agency that her sentence has been reduced. Former president Win Myint, detained since the 2021 coup, was also pardoned of his convictions, a statement from the presidency said.

Min ‌Aung Hlaing approved an amnesty for 4,335 prisoners, Myanmar’s state television MRTV reported.

A communique on behalf of Min Aung Hlaing said “those serving death sentences shall have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment”, without naming specific prisoners.

“The President has pardoned Win Myint,” said another statement from Min Aung Hlaing’s office. Win Myint was “granted a pardon and the reduction of his remaining sentences under ⁠specified conditions”, ⁠MRTV said.

Suu Kyi, 80, is serving a 27-year sentence on charges her allies describe as politically motivated. Her sentence was cut by one-sixth, her lawyer told Reuters, but ‌it remains unclear whether the Nobel Peace Prize winner will be allowed to serve the rest of her sentence under house arrest. Min Aung Hlaing placed Suu Kyi under arrest after the coup.

Amnesties ⁠typically happen as Myanmar marks Independence Day in January and its New Year in April.

Among those to be released are 179 foreign nationals, who will be deported. The amnesty also includes the commutation of all death sentences to life imprisonment, life sentences reduced to 40 years, and a one-sixth reduction in term lengths for all other prisoners.

[Aljazeera]

Foreign News

Naples bank robbers hold 25 people hostage then vanish through tunnel

Published

2 days ago

2026/04/17

Priyan

The branch of Crédit Agricole before it was broken into (BBC)

Several armed men robbed a bank in broad daylight in Naples, holding 25 people hostage before making their escape via a tunnel.

Police surrounded a branch of Crédit Agricole in the southern Italian city shortly after the robbery began around midday local time (10:00 GMT).

Local outlets reported that they negotiated with the robbers before the hostages could be released, about two hours into the robbery.

Firemen could be seen smashing in a window with battering rams and helping people climb out from inside in videos shared on social media.

Some hostages simply shook off the shards of glass and walked on.

But others looked visibly shaken, crying and hugging their relatives. Six people, who were in a state of shock, were offered medical assistance.

One man later told local news site Fanpage.it that the robbers had locked them into a room and that, while they were armed, “they did not use violence”.

Nobody was seriously injured. “Thanks to the swift response… all the hostages were freed shortly after 13:30 without serious injuries,” regional official Michele di Bari said in a statement.

A large crowd of bystanders, local residents and firefighters gathered in the square waiting for developments, while ten of thousands of people tuned into a livestream from the scene of the crime.

Members of the special forces of the carabinieri armed police were urgently flown in from Tuscany.

It was not until several hours later that they stormed the bank by breaking a window.

Several shots and the loud noises of stun grenades could be heard on the live feed shortly after.

But by then, the robbers had reportedly escaped through a tunnel, local media reported. It was thought they could have vanished into the sewer system.

The video feed later showed a number of carabinieri and firefighters peering into a manhole nearby as a crowd continued to mill about the square.

Fanpage.it reported that it was not yet possibly to quantify the value of the loot taken because the robbers had seized personal safety deposit boxes rather than cash.

(BBC)

Foreign News

Iran says $270bn war loss must be compensated, as fresh talks with US loom

Published

2 days ago

2026/04/17

Priyan

Photographs displayed in Tajrish Square place particular focus on the eyes of children who lost their lives in the Minab attack, as part of the 'Eyes of Minab' exhibition organised to commemorate the victims, in Tehran, on April 14, 2026 (Aljazeera)

Iran has demanded that it receive compensation for the destruction caused by the United States and Israel’s attacks, as the country remains defiant and regional powers continue their attempts to mediate an end to the conflict.

Tehran’s envoy to the United Nations said on Tuesday that five regional countries must pay compensation, based on his accusation that their territories were used for launching attacks on Iran.

Iran has also raised the idea of compensation for damages to come through a Strait of Hormuz protocol, which would include a tax on ships passing through the waterway.

An early estimate indicates that Iran has suffered about $270bn in direct and indirect damages since the start of the US-Israel war on February 28, Iranian government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said during an interview with Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency, published on Tuesday.

She did not provide further information, such as a breakdown of the damages, but said the issue of compensation was discussed in last week’s negotiations between Tehran and Washington in Pakistan, and will be raised in any potential future talks with the US and mediators.

The government has said it is still assessing the extensive damage dealt to Iran’s critical infrastructure, after oil and gas facilities, petrochemical companies, steel plants, and aluminium factories were repeatedly targeted, in addition to military complexes. These will take years to fully rebuild.

Bridges, ports and railway networks, universities and research centres, and several power plants and water desalination plants were also directly hit, while a large number of hospitals, schools and civilian homes were damaged or destroyed.

(Aljazeera)