Description
ABOUT THE BOOK
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Memories of Belonging can be read as a collection of slightly offbeat musings on certain aspects of over a century and a half of India’s history. Whether the photograph, lithograph, painting or cartoon is the focus or illustrates a point or an argument, the visual is integral to each piece. A rough historical sense divides the volume into three sections: the first sets the stage for the appearance of the colonial state – not through the usual tropes of political and economic domination but more with vignettes about institutions, people and unusual choices. The second section is a whimsical journey through the country while the final section is all about modes of travel used by a century and a half of people on the move, beginning with the palki and ending with experiences of the railways. Through its easy style, well-chosen visuals and details peppered with anecdotes, the reader will quickly journey through colonial India into its more recent past, garnering interesting and often little-known facts and snippets along the way.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
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MALAVIKA KARLEKAR has been a university teacher, researcher, editor and, since 2001, curator of archival photographs. Educated at the Universities of Delhi and Oxford, she is co-editor, Indian Journal of Gender Studies and curator, Re-presenting Indian Women: 1875–1947: A Visual Documentary, both at Centre for Women’s Development Studies, New Delhi. Dr Karlekar writes a regular column for The Telegraph (Kolkata), often focussing on the archival visual. Her recent books are Re-visioning the Past – Early Photography in Bengal (2005), Visualizing Indian Women (2005) and Visual Histories – Photography in the Popular Imagination (2013). She lives in New Delhi and in Ramgarh (Kumaon) with her husband and four dogs and is an avid – though not always successful – gardener.
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