Photos of the Gods: The Printed Image and Political Struggle in India

"Photos of the Gods," the first comprehensive account of modern India’s popular print culture, reveals the central role of images in the struggle against colonial rule. "Photos of the Gods" fuses anthropological, political, and cultural history to provide a new view of India’s troubled history illuminated by over two hundred illustrations.

Contents:

Introduction: The Possibility of a Visual History 7
1 Indian Images Under the Shadow of Colonialism 13
2 Staging Hinduism: Lithographs and Popular Theatre
in Calcutta, 1870–1885 25
3 Peshwas, Parrots and Bombs: Lithographs and Politics
in Western India, 1870–1885 45
4 Lithographs and the Camera in Bombay and Delhi,
1890–1925 59
5 Pastoral Realism: The Nathdvara Devotional Aesthetic,
1925–1935 79
6 The Politics of Popular Images: From Cow Protection
to M. K. Gandhi, 1890–1950 105
7 Half-Seen in Advance: Picture Production in
Independent India, 1950–2000 145
8 What Pictures Want Now: Rural Consumers of Images,
1980–2000 181
Epilogue: The Recursive Archive 201
References 211
Select Bibliography 223
Acknowledgements 226
A Note on Transliteration 227
List of Illustrations 228
Index 231