At The Edge

"[…] the annexed Chinese Map of India, originally copied by M.Klaproth from the Great Japanese Encyclopedia for the illustration of the Foe koue ki. Although in some particulars it differs from the narrates of Hwan thsang and Shy fa hian, being the compilation of some unknown Chinese geographer, who probably gathered his materials from many and conflicting accounts. it will be found both useful and interesting at a time when public attention is directed to China for the most authentic particulars of the early history of this country." ~ Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Volume 17, Part 2, 1848. It was an addendum to Alexander Cunningham's detailing of Hiuen Tsang's route in India.

Ritwik Ghatak's Subarnarekha (1962) -0- Subarnarekha (1962) is often described as Ritwik Ghatak's critique of Partition but that is just an understatement. There is a lot more actually happening in the film. A lot more that is said without being said. The film is in fact Ghatak's meditation on human beings and their condition under cyclic churning wheels of history. It about people going through same deceptive loops over and over again. According to the film, the wheel of history is mechanised, predictable. People would go through the same story over and over again. Failures leading to hopes, false hopes and fallen hopeless people getting up and and running again towards the golden shore, beyond which lies a paradise. We only make fresh mistakes with every fresh beginning. The cycles forever going. In the first few minutes of the film the directors lays before us the process by which the film will emphasis this cyclic churning of history....

A parody poster starring Nirad Chaudhuri as Churchill. 1983. Published in Weekly SUN. It was in response to Attenborough's Gandhi. Came across it in 'Laughing Matters: Comic Tradition in India'  (1987 ) by Lee Siegel. -0-

Came across it in 'Art and Nationalism in Colonial India, 1850-1922' by Partha Mitter (1994) -0-

From 'Costumes of the East' (1971) by Walter Ashlin Fairservis, Jr.

These may look a bit Japanese for their bizarreness but these are Hindu afterlife punishments for adulterers. From the book 'Cults, customs and superstitions of India. Rev. and enl. ed. With illus. from photographs and from drawings by William Campbell Oman' (1908). The author picked these at Pushkar fair. -0-

"Do cheezon ke liye main banoo musalmaan. Ek seekh kabab aur doosra Waheeda Rahman" ~ Tom Alter in Kashmir -0-

A few pages from ' The music of India by Herbert A. Popley '. Published 1921 by Oxford University Press. -0-

from Basu Bhattacharya's Tumhara Kalloo (1975) A folk song used in a bunch of Hindi songs but right now online I could find only one: Shabbir kumar song Jawani Ki Rail Kahin from Coolie (1983). Can't recall others. As for the original, online the Chutney version is the closest one can get.

The foot of a princess From 'India, by John L. Stoddard, illustrated and embellished' (1902) -0-

Recently finished reading a slim booklet  based on a series of lectures given in 1989 by K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar titled 'The Man of Letters and The Doomsday Clock'. The thing that I found interesting is that while the words from west presented on this subject had all kind of emotions like indignation, guilt and almost paranoidal fear, the only corresponding Indian voice on the subjects offered is that of Sri Aurobindo. And lines from his poem 'A Dream of Surreal Science' kind of sums his opinion on the subject: "Thus wagged on the surreal world till A scientist played with atoms and blew out The universe before God had time to shout" It seems that while writers in west people were almost loosing their mind thinking about the bomb, mystics in India were predicting doom that was in any case was foretold. While the influence of Aurobindo on Iyengar is known, still it all sounds dubious and all these words m...

1984 -0-

From title credits of Carry On film, released in 1968 Life Magazine 12 May, 1941 -0-

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Not from wet dream of ultra-nationalist Indians and indo-pak peaceniks From 'This is India' by Peter Muir. Maps by Frances Muir.1943. It's a funny little book [ read here ], sample this from a chapter titled Gandhiana: "If Gandhi were on trail and under oath, he would unquestionably stick to what he believed to be the truth, but his technique of circumlocution, indirection, and irresponsible self-contradiction gives the impression that evasion, not clarification, is his aim.There is no necessity to interpret the language of Rajagopalachari, whose vocabulary in English is no larger that Gandhi's. But few Indians, even, would volunteer to translate the meaning of Gandhi's utterances, his style is so successfully abstruse." While in a chapter on Jinnah titled 'Mr.Jinnah rolls up a Rug' Peter Muir say's had Jinnah been head of a Christian organisation, he would have been named Jesus Christ Jones. Actually the chapter is a take on caste pol...

Vyjayanthimala in Amrapali inserted into a comic panel based on story of Hamsavali from Somadeva's Kathasaritsagara. -0-

Photograph by great Brian Brake published in 'India, by Joe David Brown and the editors of Life', 1961 [complete book  available at Hathi ] as a visual aid to the text that deals with relevance of Gandhi in India, The Nation's Unsilenced Conscience. It would have you believe Gandhi was alive, in heart and spirit of Indians. As I looked at this beautiful picture, something about it made me realize that this can be a case study about  disjointedness of images, context and text. About giant sweeps of history. Of loss of footnotes. Of lost in footnotes. Of seduction by images. About loss. One may ask why. After all it does look like a perfect picture for an article on Gandhi. Children = innocence = unsilenced Conscience. Children in love with Gandhi = The Nations's un-silenced conscience. Simple and brilliant. The problem is with the details. The book only tells you that it is by Brian Brake and appears courtesy of Magnum. Place wh...

Beena Roy in Anarkali (1953) Madhubala in Mughal-e-Azam (1960) Raj Kumar in Neel Kamal (1968) -0-

Hero travels to a place called "Naag gram", Snake Village, to research on snake venom that will save life of millions. He drives through a road that looks like poplar avenue of Baramula in Kashmir to arrive at a valley populated by a tribe of snake worshipers. Soon after arrival, forgetting all about research, Hero falls in love with a woman who is training to be a Naag Dasi, a woman who claims to be 'daughter of Naag Devta' and a 'Vish Kanya' whose mere touch can kill a man. And yet there are feelings of anti-animism budding in her heart, she doesn't understand a god that offers poison.  Love booms. Noorjahan sings. Father goes - Babu, Naag Dasi say prem karna paap hai . Violence erupts. Noorjahan sings. Lovers try to run-away. Get caught. Father goes - Shalaka ko Beti say Zyada Dharam pyara hai . Hero gets bitten by a snake. Heroine sings and dances to an idol of Snake god to save her love. God obliges, takes back the venom. In comes ...

Cross-posted from my Kashmir blog . A young Mani Kaul in Basu Chatterjee's Sara Akash (1969). -0- Complete film available here -0-