India by Design Colonial Mistory and Cultural Display Saloni Mathur B UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS. Berkeley © Luz Angeles «London“Univesity of Calelorns Press me ofthe mgt tn ished univensty press in the United Seats, enriches fives arene the weet by adleancingschalershap on the humanities, socal wee and agra sciences Isa Lavines ore supported hy che IC Press Foundation and by ghilanchropic contsibusoas rom: individaske and insta oem. Foe Worelformation, vl waren resnce ‘The following chaprers were previously published in slffeveat een and appear here cenrtey of thew th ‘al publishes chapter 22x “Living Edhnaloyseal Exe lls: The Case of 2888," Cultural Antiropulasy 15 so. (ible dogg Sd chapter 9 an "Ware Ne tive Views Collecting Colonial Posards of India,” in Gander, Sewnaiey, and Colonial Madernaies, el Aa seaneste Hatin, p94 [aalome Reid, 1999) Unieersity of Calfoonsa Presa ‘erkeley and Las Angeles, Caltornis LUntecrity of Cabfoonia Prom, Lad, ‘Lonuloa, En 1 ry by "The Regents af the Univesity of California Aubvary af Congres Cataloging sn Publication Da Maths, Slows. “nda by desi zcolanial heey and cultural display? Salen Mathes 7 laclades bibliographical cefouemersand vale sax grinns304 elude la ar. Viewosiam. 4. vy indi. g- Orienclism in ar England—Linere roth ceazury. 6 Oiratalsm ne Bagiend—Hiteey—aedh century. Tite Nererg.VeeMs8 ac07 yonse—dcss seotoys99 "Manufactured in the Usted Sestex of America Ce Be are a this publication meets the minimom, of asian gran tR egy (Pe of EsperCHAPTER 4 Collecting Colonial Postcards Gender and the Visual Archive pee a ca gees een souvenir, which is ultimately the coniosty. Saran Sawant, On Longing, 1993 ‘With individuals as with societies, the need vo accumulate is cone oF the signs of approachi ‘Waler Benjamin, The Arcades Project, Comvolute death. “The dare of the postcard alhum of Miss Josephine Eppes, preserved in the Oriental and India Office Collections in Londan, is approximately 1900. Bound in a decorative red cloth caver with the words “Postcard Album” -embussed on the front, it contains privare photos, loose newspaper clip- pings, and ether forms of personal memorabilia, as well as seventy two different postcard views of peaple and places in Burma, Simla, Darjcel- ing, Calourta, Lahore, Delhi, Bombay, and Agra. The preciowsness of Josephine’s postcard album reminds us of the Queen's collection of por ‘waits by Rudolf Swoboda, which she similarly viewed as an array of “beautiful things.” But Josephine’s postcard album never received the aesthetic praise given to this nineteenth-cemtury rayal collection, nar did it achieve the privileged status of colonial photography, with its power fal claims to erath and objectivity. Instead, the postcard has remained de- cidedly unscientific, lacking the seriousness, skill, or physical heauty ac- corded to painting and photography. Josephine’s album thus generates several observations tharserve as the point of dcparture for this chapter. The first is that the emergcnee of the roym0 ‘Colleenng Colonial Postcards picture posteard in Europe in the last decade of the nineteenth century ‘occurred ar che height of British political rule in India and Exropean ex- pansionism in other colonies. ‘The extraordinary popularity al the post- sard from roughly 1890 t World War I, a period in which postcards were produced, consumed, collected and circulated with an energy that remains historically unmatched, must be understood within this context of *high” empire. In other words, the golden age of the picture postcard corresponded roughly with “the heyday of invented tradition,” the pe riod in British history during which national and imperial ideologies were reinvented in such a way that the dominant symbols of the British ation became inseparable from imperial ones.! ‘The colonial postcard thes represents a distinctively madecn visual genre—one thar emerged largely a8 a souvenir of public and imperial exhibitions, but chatalso be came the subject of its own peculiar collecting phenomenon throughout Gurope at the turn of the century. My second observation is thar the phenomenon of the picture post- ‘card is not reducible to the history of photography, with which it has too often been conflared. As a representational form, che postcard perhaps hhas the mosr in common with the carte de uisite, a form of photographic portraiture developed by Disderi in 2854 that became-a bourgeois fash- ion during the 186es. As Deborah Poole has demonserated, these mini ture portraits mounted on “firm eardboard backings” were collected, re- ceived, aad distributed by an international hourgeuis class in the second hall of the nincreeath century.’ Like the carte de wisite, the postcard reached the status of a commodity thar could be collected, arranged, and exchanged. Yer not all postcards irom the golden age were photographic representations: some of the most popular, in fact, were colorfal illus- tations. And unlike the carte de visite, whose precise depictions of human beings provided useful evidence for ninctcenth-century racial th orists, the postcard provided views of distant lands and peoples that were far less susceptible ro appropriation by science. The postcard, in general, isnot reducible to the logic that determined nineteenth-century photog. raphy. What distinguish the posteard as a visual genre are its complex cireuits of production, consumption, collection, and travel. Indeed, I sage gest that the ephemerality, collecsibilicy, and availability of the postcard are themselves important elements in the way it functions as a form. My final observation is related to this: the colonial postcard is insep- arable from the thematic of gender, for the postcard, as thers have noted, rcveals a complicated sexual and political economy.* Postcards were not only proaccupied with images of exotic women from diseantCollecting Colonial Pasteards 1" lands, but they also implicated European women, such as Josephine Eppes, as consumers and collectors of their non-Western counterparts. Malek Alloula, author of The Colonial Harem, ignares this later fact in book about images of Algerian women on French picture postcards from the period between 190 and 1930. Alloula describes this archive asa “pornographic one”—"the equivalent of an anthology of breasts"— an archive that history has swept “with broad strokes wut of its wa Claiming that these cards depier the harem as “a brothel,” and that the Algerian women in them have been “raided, possessed” by the European photographer, Alloula undertakes a nwafold operation: “frst, to uncover the aature and the meaning of the colonialist gaze; then, to subvert the stereotype that is so tenaciously artached ro che badies af women.”£ Al- oula presears his comestarory project as an attempt, “lagging far behind Ilistory, to return this immense postcard to its sender.” ‘As one ferninist critic has observed, Alloula's book thus reproduces a voyeurism “even as it artempts to label chat gaze as hegemonic,” bath through its oversized format (most of the images of nude women are blown up larger than the postcards themselves) and in its highly sexual- ized model of colonial relationships that posits che Western male pho tographer as specratoc/violator and the non-Western woman as the ab- ject of his gazefpenctration.” And indeed, Alloulx conceptualizes the encounter hetween the European photographer and his Algerian models as a narrative of heterosexual copulation involving frustration, impo- tence, and eventual violation. He argues chat the veil disables the pho- tographer’s ability co penetrate the woman with his lens, Further, the woman's eyes, like “tiny orifices,” filter through the veil back at the pho- tographer, making him feel photographed. The photographer's response is thus a “double violation,” one thar Mlloula confesses he cannot bear towatch: in the privacy ofhis studio, the photographer unveils the veiled. and represents che forbidden. Alloula’s attempt ta “rerurn this massive postcard £0 its sendee” is thus ultimately a project af retaliation, and echoes an all roo familiar historical competition between nationalist and colonialist parriarchies. That competition leaves no space for the female subject (her silence, in fact, is predetermined by it}, but instead plays self curupon her body.! His women’s bodies, \lloula implies, have been viplated by the colonist’s gaze ‘A feminist reformulation of the colonial posteard must reject Alloula’s nationalist account and the paradigm of “visual violation” that it pre- poses. I argue in this chapter that postcards of India reveal much more about the structure of gender relations than the heterosexualized dramana Collecting Colonia! Postcarde Alloula projects. To understand the gendered economy of the postcard, | reflect om the form in several different ways: I lucus on its origin as an epistolary object, om its production, circulation, and collection practices, «i on the tragically “low? status and historical legacy of this genre. | then examine how colonial postcards functioned in relation ta India by zing some of their social representations, expecially those cards de- picting native human types defined by caste, occupation, and gender- based categories. The empirical site for my study is postcards of Invlia from the heyday period, found in both private and public collections in Britain and the Unived Scares. The images a women that appear on these cards not only show Indian women as sexual objects, but they alse de pict European women in the cola as well as the meeting between women in colonial society. What these postcards of India thus make vis- ible ate differing and hierarchical constructions of womanhood that are defined in parc in relation to each other and through women's different relationships to the colonial public sphere. Furthermore, the tole of Eu- ropean women as consumers of these images malkes the legacy of colo- nial history itself visible within the context of transnational feminist re lationships coday. THE EMERGENCE OF A MODERN GENRE Inis telling thar, in the era of the invention of photography, the postcard originated as an epistolary innawation rather than a visual one, An Aus- trian post office official, Dr. Emanuel Herrmann, was the firet te suc cessfully argue for the introduction of a card, “thin and buff coloured” and uniform in size, that could help relieve the financial burden of postal correspondence on the stare sustria thus lecame the first country to in- teoduce the postcard, in 7869. By the early 18708 the use of these postal mailing cards—eards without piccures—had been adupted by most countries in Europe. Shortly thereafter their production was privatized. In Britain, for example, by 2875 any company could print a postcard, ax long as it aheyed a strict set of rules issued by the British Post Office: the words “Past Card” and “The address only us be written on this side” snust be printed om the frame of the cards. The cards must be white, and not tinted; they “must nothe folded nor cut in any way"; and they must conform to the same sine and thickness as the official post office cards. Finally, in the early 1870s 20 cards were to be sent out of the country."® The early history of the postcard was thus a history of regulating the form—af derertnining the rules that would restrict its functions and sep-Collecting Colonial Posteards a5 arate the card from other kinds of communication, “The infringement of any of these Rules,” the postal authorities warned, “will render the cards liable ro higher postage,” ar, worse, will result in confiscation." While Britain's prohibitions related to the postcard’s size, destination, and the formar of its message, other countries such as Austria and Prance also censured the content of jts message. ‘The Austrian government warned, for example, that a postcard would net be delivered if “obscenities or li belous remarks” were found on the card." Frencls autherities issued a ‘more ambiguous instruction: post office employees were harh forbidden ‘to read postcards and not allowed to deliver any postcard with a “write ten insult or abusive expression." The idca that postcards could improperly exhibit their private mes sages to the general public led come members of the bourgeois classes t0 express their opposition to the new epistolary form. In particular, the postcards lack of privacy was perceived as a thecar 10 the structures of class: Would nor the servants read the messages?” asked members ef the upper serata.!! Others saw it as tuo cheap a form to have any social valuc, arguing that the use ef a halfpenny postcard was an insult co its recipi ent. “Ifa penny was not paid fora message,” they believed, “then it was hardly worth sending at all.” Yet the expediency of the postcard—its ability to convey a shart, quick message—would eventually outweigh the perceived disadvantages of the form. The postcard was efficiene and, as ‘one commentaror noted, “in this busy live, itis just this aspect that makes it dear to people." “The picture posteard is 4 sign of the rimes,* summarized another turn-of the century writer. “It belongs te a period . .. with express trains, celegrams and tele phones.” If long, leisurely lerters belonged to the time of the stage- coach, then the postcard with its nve- or three-line semiments, was the perfect form, temporally speaking, for the modern world, ‘The idea of printing a picture ot view on the postcard, which emerged in the 1880s, made the postcard an even more efficient form by further redhacing the need for written communication, Pictures compensated for the paucity ofcontent in the message, serving as a substitute [or any sub- stantial correspondence. Because illustrations had been incorporated on viviting paper and envelopes for many years, it seemed lagieal 10 extend them to the postcard, At the same time, the ceduction of exposure times in phatography and the arrival of George Fastman’s Kodak in 1888 had ‘enabled high-quality photographic images to be mass-produced and sold cheaply, widening the market for visual images and reshaping che processes by which images were produced and consumed.'* The tech eck een achem4 ‘Collecting Colanial Posteards nology of lithographic reproduction had been also transformed by the new collorype process, a German inventian in color printing, resulting in brightly colored and aesthetically pleasing pictures on postcards. In 1902, when the divided-back format, which scparared the space allocted to the message from the space intended for the address, was introduced in Britain, it hecame possible for publishers t0 use one entire side of the card for a picture, formerly shared by both the inscription and the image, The picture eventually came to dominate the posteard, reshaping it hy the end of the century into a distinctively modem and fundamentally sual pene. THE HEYDAY OF THE MIGTURE FOSTCARD The result of these changes to the form of the picture postcard was a frenzy of postcard activity in the periad between approximately 1899 1918. Postoard publishers in Furope and America scrambled to mest the demands of consumers who claimed to be swept away, in the words of one contemporary enthusiast, by the enormous “attraction af these persuasive little agents." In France, for example, picture postcard pro duction was recorded a1 an estimated 8 million cards in 1899, jumping. 10 60 million by 2902 and r23 million in 1910.” In Britain during 1908, more than 866 million cards were reported (6 have passed through the British pose, a figure thar some claim is unmatched in history! And in Germany, one of the leaders in postcard production, some 786 million cards were sent in 1900, meaning that every member of the German pop- ulation would have sent an average of fifteen postcards that year.” ‘As such figures suggest, postcard collecting became ane of the mast fashionable hobbies in Europe and North America. Membership in mailin clubs such as the Globe Postcard Exchange Club based in Min- ncapolis became a popular way for individuals to circulate, exchange, and acquire new cards. Moreover, dozens of colloctors’ newsletters and magazines, such as The Postcard Connoisseur (1904) and The Picture Posteard and Collector's Chraniele (1905), appeared arwund the turn of the century. “The craze has hada curious effect,” observed ane writer in the summer of 1909, “Wherever you go the picture posteards stare you in the face. They are sald at cigar-shops, libraries, chemists’, and fruit- walls.” People no longer speak to each other, he added with some con cern. Instead, they scat themselves in public spaces with “litle pilee of picture posteards® upon which they monotonously write. Who actually produced these cards? The story of posteard produc on‘Collecting Colonial Posrearde as is roday barely legible; it is elusive, sketchy, and historically scartered. Naomi Schor, in her study of early pwenticth-century posteards of Pars, ‘writes of “the cnigma of those initials,” referring ea the initials on the ack ofa card that, if they appear at all, provide the only trace al a pub- lisher’s identity >The inicials may result in a cervatn uniformity in the Jook and quality of the image, bur they do not operate as the signarure of an author. Even more confusing is the fact thar the publisher of the postcard was usually different from the printer, Most postcards prior to World War [were printed anonyme Jermany of Austria, coun- tries that were leaders in the technology of lithographic reproduction The British publisher Raphael Tuck and Sons, forexample, used uniden tified German printers for many of their cards. The same was true for diam publishers such as the Phorotype Company in Bombay and H. Mizra and Sons in Delhi, whose postcards were printed in Germany and Luxembourg, Like many of the publishers that profited from the boom, Raphael Tuck and Sons were already known as “art publishers to the Queen,” with an established reputation in the printing of greeting cards prior to the arrival of postcards, Unfortunately, the Raphael ‘Tuck post- card factory, and several others like it in Europe, were destroyed during, World War IL This lack of information itself reveals a great deal: postcards were mass produced across mulriple sites, transnational in narure, and anony mously exeeured. Postcard production around the turn of the cemury was an internativnal business, encompassing many large national firms and aneven larger number of tiny, lacal operations. If, as Alloula has sug- gested, “travel is the ewence of the posteard, and expedition is its mnde,"* then che dispersed circuits of pasteard praduction extend the idea of its travel far beyond any simple journey between colonial sender and metropolitan receiver. Even the means of travel itself could become a site for production, as in the ship posteards printed by shipping com panies and issued free to cheir passengers.” For the colonial postcard, the of travel were even more staggering a photograph might be shot in India, produced as an image by a publisher in Britain, sent to Germany to by printed as 2 postcard, sold 10 a colonial officer or traveler back in India, returned to Europe as a souvenir or greeting, only vw find its place ‘on display in a private collection in a European home. The postcard, in short, was always everywhere. Mass-produced, dispersed, and always in motion, it was the quinressential traveler of the madern age. The postcard is therefore both a cosmopolitan formand.a constant remainder of the im ions that establish the basis for modern cosmopolitanisin ly in116 Collecting Colonial Postcards NATIVE VIEWS Although these qualities have Jed one author te deseribe the postcard as having “little regard for nation-state politics,” the themes depicted on colonial postcards in fact suggest that the phenomenon was inseparable from the imperial nation. Images front the golden age of the posteard are by ne means exclusively concerned with the eolonies: on the contrary, they encompass every subject imaginable, from technology, sports, ar chitecture, and politics 10 more specialized topics such as accidents, mil itary history, favorite dogs, ar special events. However, images that be- came known as “aarive views” were especially desirable in Europe and America. A native view postcard relied on a preexisting repertoire of aes- thetic themes and conventions in its depiction of colonial spaces. Ir broughe the romanticized landscape of picturesjue painting, the ethno- graphic portrait enabled by advances in photography, and the humorous caricature of a Punch illustration simultaneously into its aesthetic frame In the case of India, native views depicted Indian buildings or landscapes along with images of colontal bodies defined by caste, occupational sta~ tus, gender, and religion, By definition, « native view postcard displayed the entire human and physical geography of India. ‘Native views of India would often celeheare Britain's archircenural achievements in the colony theough photographs of sites such as a statue of Queen Victoria in Rawalpindi, a post office in Lucknow, ar a railway station in Calcurta. These images of British architecrure—of buildings, bridges, gateways, and arches—functioned as symbols of Britain’s in- dustrial strengrh in the eafony and underscored ideologies af Western progress in India. Other native views displayed precolonial architec ture, especially buildings from the Mughal period, such as Wazir Khan’s mosque in Lahore, the fortresses of Delhi erected by Akbar, and, of course, the Taj Mahal. While imperial architecture was often represented through the authoritarive aesthetic of full-size sepia toned photographs, precolonial architecture in India was more often depicted in a drawing ar painting, somesimes framed by a smoky or fuzay border, evoking a sense of nostalgia (figure 30). Still other mative views depicted interior spaces, such as the hall of a palace in Delhi, or picturesque landscapes froma particular perspective, suchas “View from the Mall, Simla.” The aesthetic conventions of these images—the medium in which they were executed and the manner in which they were framed—served to separate the past fom the present, They suggest a “hefore” and “after” portrait of India, that is, before and after the British arrived. These imagesCollecting Colonial Posscards 7 Figure 30. “Delhi Gate, Agra Fors” (postcard). convey a sense of the distance between the modern, civilizing presence of the British in India and the ancient purity of its traditional culture. They express the triumph of empire in colonial space, the work of civi- Tzation. Such native views zendered Indis (and indeed the whole non-Western. world) in miniature, creating another world of tiny cards that could be collected, arranged, and exchanged, For its European owner, the three- hy-five-inch native view established a visual connection 0 a particular place and transformed thar relation int an act of possessivn, Native ‘views of India thus functioned in the formarion of imperial identities by affirming the capacity of the Western recipient or calleior to possess, mire, of discard “the rest.” In the totalizing wards of one carly Brit collector, “Nothing in print is more universal than the posteard”; n6 17 tive view, “however unimportant, ean escape irs delineation.“ ‘The status of the postcard as a souvenir object is evidenced by the fact that the best native views, those perceived to have the highest value, were those reexived or purchased from the locations they depicted. A native view card sent from Agra, for instance, would be more valuable than a posteard af Agra purchased in London. The Asian Exchange Club, a Tu: ropean postcard club based in Poona, was established precisely in re- sponse to such preferences. For a sinall annual fee, members received a complete list of addresses of the membership and a subscription to its quarterly newsletter, The Indian Philucartist, which featured the latest ‘posteard information. Atthe back of this newslevter (and most other col-1 Collecting Colonial Postcards lectors” magazines) were lises where individuals in search of native views could advertise their postcard preferences. These exchange lists, which operated on the simple rule of “a card for a card,” encouraged reci procity. Ads would typically read, “all countries exchanged, Asiatic views preferred,” “send posteards of your district and | will send same number in exchange,” or, simply, "Wanted Native Views.” Other entries specifically requested that a card be “posted from [the] place depicted.” illustrating that the quality of a native view also depended on its post mark or stamp. A native view card hearing a postmark from India, for instance, was more desirable than a postcard of India purchased in Lon. don: the postmark hocame like “the receipe, the ticker soub, chat validates the experience of the site."”” Publishers participated im this culture of collecting by issuing mative ‘views in thematic scts (usually of six or twelve) and by promoting special collecting aecessavies such as postcard albums, pouches, packers, and boxes. In 1907, for example, Meyers and Company, self-described as “posteard album specialists," advertised their very latest producr, a pocker-sized album called ‘The Little Gem, available in sille or padded leathe: relation to India, the British firm of Gadfrey Phillips pub lished 2 series called “Our Glorious Empire,” which consisted of thirty scenes of India designed primarily for display as collection, Anather pop ular series, “Beauties of India,” boasted “artistic images of the gentler sex of India” and comprised part of a larger callection of wemen of different Asian nations. The thsil forcollecrors was in acquiring all the native views in the series, and they would specify in collectors’ magazines their wants in these terms (indicating, say, “Looking for native views, especially God- frey Phillips, Series Onc to Thirry”). In 1903, Raphael Tuck and Sons, per- haps che largest British producer af posteards ar the time, introduced its “Wide Wide World Oilese” series, which included thousands of native views of India (including Delhi, Lucknow, and Agra) and other colonies, all numbered, captioned, and labeled for the collector (sce figure 31). An- ‘other of its series was titled “Historical India,” sill another “The Rise of ‘Gur Empire Beyond the Seas.” The images, accarding ca the publisher, ‘wereadapted from “real photographs, skillfully colored and worked up by expert artists into a sich facsimile of a real oil painting.” This last series was onc of many that featured native views that were not photographie representations. Such postcards were frequently de- signed as litle paintings, afren printed with fake wood or gilt borders, which added t their preciousness, and hence their cullectibility isee ig- ures 38 and 39, later in this chapter). As mentioned earlier, native viewCollecting Colonial Postcards x19 Figure 51. “lahore Central Museum" (Raphael Tuck and Sons! “Wide-Wide- World Oileme” postcard). postcards were heavily influenced by the conventions of painting and portraiture. Each card of Raphael Tuck's oilette scries (“rich facsimiles of real oil paintings”) was stamped with a trademark symbol of an artist's palette and easel. Significancly, the lage represented the painter's tools, but not a particular painter. In reality, publishers such as Raphael Tuck would employ numerous artists for whom pasteard work was a steady source of income. Most used pseudonyms or remained anony mous, since such work was not seen (a further an artistic career. By che end of the nineteenth century, illustration was considered an acceptable occupation for women, and many women who were already emplayed illustrating calendars, children’s books, greeting cards, and so on ended up in postcard design. The close relationship between postcards and painting was an important factor in the collectiility of cards, trans forming what was cheap and widespread into something perceived acan original product. For only a few pennies it was possible for anyone to: create a gallery of their own oilertes. By the lase decade of the nineteenth ventury such pusteards had trans- formed the fascination with exutic native types chat had shaped the pho tographiceallection The People of India by making the images available ina portable and mare accessible form (figure 32). Yet the portrayal of Indian peuple on posteards was nor just the idealized depiction of a prim=ne Collecting Colonial Pasteards itive culture, apparent on similar postcards of Africa and other parts of the world. Native views also displayed a preoccupation with the social structure of caste in India, itself increasingly considered by colonial an thropologists as an essential component of Indian society." By che late ‘nineteenth century, an individual's caste position was seen to correspond to his o her occupational searus, transforming caste into an observable ueait rather than an abstract principle of the Hindu religion. The post- card's form was particularly well suited t portraying caste as a coher ent system because it displayed supposedly distinct caste types as col lectible cards within a larger series. Native views of India thus offered enuless images of human rypes represented by their religious or eccupa~ rional status (a tailor, a shocmaker, a Sikh, a Muslim). Although some cof these images were printed from photographs, mast ariginated as il- luscrations and skeiches, must likely because of the cumbersome nature cof the camera outside the studio. Instead of using phorographs, publish- ers of nanve views most often depicted Indian caste categories using ar- tractive, multicolored illustrations, in the manner af the postcard called “Hindu ‘Tailor,” shown in figure 33. Qther postcards used humoreus caricatures, such as one in the Fast and West Series that posed an Indian mali (gardener) next to a British farmer under the ticle “How dacs your Garden grow? (figure 44). Still others, such as those in Tack’s oilette se~ ries, also carried didactic or ideological messages on the back. Far ex ample, the back of a pestcard titled “Group of Sikh Native Officers” read, “The Sikhs are a native race of religious origin inhabiting Punjab. In the middle of the nineteenth century they gave the Indian Goverameat considerable trouble, bur since their final subjugation it 184, the Such have been loyal subjects of England.” Such images presented che natives of India chrough their occupations or religions, which were in turn associated with caste position. .\ group of men and women praying under a (ree i thus titled “Mohammedans at Prayer, Delhi” (what isimporeant to know is that they are Mohammedans and not perhaps Parsi or Jain). Together these images could be combined ta construcra larger portrait of Indian society. A collector could have, say, 2 potter, a postman, a gardener, and a cook but be missing a tailor and a Moslim in the collection, Native view postcards thus bocame like the build ing blocks of caste: collectors could organize and arrange the entire caste wystem through these three-byefive-inch representations of natives. With the narive view posteard, this vision of caste and religious difference in Jndia became available for mass consumption in Europe, Posteard images also demonstrate how gender difference is peoduced‘Collectings Cokonial Postcards an through a category such as caste, as many postcards showing Indian women define a woman frst by her caste position. Unlike men, however, Indian women were nen J by their uccupations, and therefore their bodies were made to perform caste differently. In the example of figure 35, a waist-up portrait titled “Bacia Woman,” the woman's costume and jewelry serve to signify her Batia status. Most often, Indian women are shown seated or standing in the studio, with a simple prop (a table ar a chaie), and dressed or adorned in meaningful ways, Unlike the postcard views of Algerian women examined by Alloula, these images depict In dian women fully clothed, and ace occasionally framed by imitatian wood barders that create the eHlect uf a miniature painting, Other cards, as in figure 36, present 2 woman in a supposedly spontaneous and al ways nonphysical activity such as “thinking” or “dreaming. * This ix not to suggest that these images are withomt erotic content of are nat sex ally charged. They are indeed highly sexualized fantasies of Indian oth- emess, and somerimes.a seductive pose or an exposed hand or foot of an otherwise heavily ornamented female body subtly stages an exotic sexu- aliry (figure 37). Yet even the images in the popular series of “Indian Dancing Girls" are subdued: although caloeful and highly adorned, the women are seated in respectable poses, and their likenesses are framed like beautiful paintings (figure 38). Incentrast to these exotic portraits of Indian women, other postcards featured the spectacle of white wamen’s presence in the colemy. The image in figure 39, for example, of a European woman carried by four bearers rided “Darjeeling: A Dandy,” was variously and endlessly re- (produced, In some versions, the Victorian woman who is the subject of this picture is carrying an umbrella to protect herself from the suns in others, a hat fulfills this fanction. Bur in all of them, the woman is car- ried by four native men. The image is a humerous one, the dandy sym= bolizing excess ar folly. The dandy cards become, in effect, a recurring motif for the curious place of white women in the caloaics, Such postcards.alrhough extremely common, were markedly different from native views and thus should be considered a separate category. They are, more precisely, tourist or traycler cards. These tourist postcards represent European womes if India a8 colonial adventurers in exotic lo- ales, Must of them feature photogeaphs taken in public spaces rather than the private space of the studio. If Indian women were portrayed 2s seductive yer traditional, passive, and inactive, then the opposite was true for cheir European counterparts. Here, the immobility of the Indian woman (as inthe zeman, for instance, where she was seen as imprisonedFigure 52. “A Hindu Family” (postcard) Figuee 33. “Hindu Tayloe™ (postcard)Collecting Colonial Postcards 133 BAST AND West seme 2 Figure 34. “How does your Garden grow?" (Fast and West Series postcard}. and secluded by purdat) stands in stark contrast to the traveling Western ‘wcomnan with her pioneering spiritand freedom so movearound."*In many of these cards, however, the European woman appears with her husband. Figure 4o, a postcard cirled “Around the World with Winfield Blake and Maude Amber,” was published by a couple with those names in rgic."The image shows the pair at what is labeled a “Jair Temple, Calcutta,” above which appears theirlogo—a picture of their smiling faces transcribed onto a globe, witha camera, a train, and 2 steamship in the background. “The printing of such tourist cards—at a time when phote still a cumbersame way for average bourgeois travelers to collect images of their joumeys—preserved che modern experience of mass tourism: of any given tourist site. The cards are thus souvenirs of bourgeois travel itself, of the ability and mobility to view different spaces. Thongh they claim to depict particular Indian sions, their real message is “Look st me!” The representation of European women on these cards, however, conveys multivalent mea ings. The modern female eraveler in the colony was legitimized by the presence of her European husband; on her own or in relation tu native men, she was srenasa “dandy,” a symbol of excess er folly. In shis way, these cards reveal the anxieties that were generated by the uncertain place of white women in the colonics, The Victorian woman's proxim- iy ta “rhe natives” was a constant chreat to a colemial patriarchy intent aphy wet mare than it did the specific detFigure 35. "Butia Woman” (postcard) igure 36, “Thinking” (postcard).Figure 37." Hinds Lady” pastes. Figure 58. “Indian Dancing Giel” {postcardi,76 Callecting Colonial Pasecards Figure 3g. “Darjeeling, A Dandy" (postcard). ‘on protecting her perceived sexual purity. These pasteards assured their massauidicners at home char European women were being properly man- aged within the precarious relations of race and gender that structured the colonial public order. Ar the same time, these postcards mark the cultural boundary be- ween European and Indian notions af wemanhood, which are defined art through their relation to each other and through their gendered inceraction with the patriarchal public sphere. Postcards partzayed the Western woman asa modern and active presence in colonial public space while representing the Indian woman, hewnd by caste and tradition, as inactive and confined ta domestic space. Yet these undersrandings were also hierarchical, as is demonstrated by a thied and final type of colon postvard, the missionary card. Postcards were perfectly suited for celi- gious propaganda, and thus were widely printed by missionary societies, which used the cards—in sAlloula’s terms—as the “fertilizer of theie colo- nial vision.” Such pustcards were circulated tw gain support for overseas missionary projects, 1 recruit individuals into the church, and to dis seminate a positive and exotic picture of missionary work in India. And since women led the Christian reform practices in health and education, missionary work was largely equated with women’s wark by the turn of the century.>* The domain of missionary activicy is thus a highly femi nized one, and the images we sce on missionary postcards arc the only cones that depict Furopean and Indian women together.Collecting Colonial Posteards aay Figure 40. “Around the World with Winficld Blake and Maude Amber” pestearl. Above all, missionary postcards dramatize the reism that structured the relations hetween wamen within the bencvolent context of the Chris- tianizing mission. Like native view postcards, they too offer before-and- after imagery—in this case, before and after conversion to Christian In figure 41, for example, a posteard titled “People of Darkness among, Whom We Work,” we sce a group of villagers who appear pathetic and impoverished before their encounter with Christian after” pic ture, a postcard titled “Khushi and Her Girls” (figure 42), we see what can happen after conversion and the ministrations of the white woman missionary. Khushi, the Western missionary wich rounded by a group of smiling Indian girls, the epitome of good healeh and cleanliness with their crisp white uniforms and musical instruments. ‘The girls have miraculously been brought aut of the darkness of their past and placed into a sunny present. Missionary postcards such as this one depict the encounter between European and Indian female subjects asa benevolent transaction. In another card, a white woman missionary is seated crosslegged facing an Indian woman whom she is teaching 10 read: they stare at each ather eye to eye, a profile of a gentle encounter onan even plane. Together the women symbolize the triumph of Chris Tianity, the victory of order and hygiene over the tragedy af chans and filth, These images thus dramatire the inherent racism of the evangelical Indian name, is sut-Figure 41. "People of Darkness among, Wom We Work” (missionary postcard. Figure 42. “Greetings from India’s Coral Strand: Khushi and Her Cirle” {missionary postcard).Collecting Culuniul Pustesedls ray mission while staging a portrait of cooperation between women that erases the relations of power between them. What these images do sot represent are women's political and economic horizons, their conflicted relationships to their communities, their daily activities, their passions, or the dignity of their private lives. A “LOW” CULTURAL FORM ‘To read che often hastily scribbled messages an the backs af colonial postcards is to find oneself, ns Naomi Schor has suggested, “in the posi- ton of the voyeur, or better yet the cavesdrapper on everyday life. Such inessages are occasionally personal bur more often generic, and they are frequently at odds with the viwal image in a predictable kind of illogic: “Arrive Marseilles, Jane Tr, 1905” might appear, for example, alongside an image called ~Ear-picker,” or “Merry Xmas and Happy: ‘New Year" might be written next ce an image of the Jeypore Girls Cal lege in Rajasthan. Acather times the message will refer co the image, such as “This is Benares where the brassware comes from, love Jim,” or “Here ours Karen.” A large number also comment on the activity of collecting: “Here's anorher for ‘your album,” or (my favorite) "You must let me know when you get tired of these postcards.” In the cas¢ of native view postcards, the sense ‘of voyeurism is doubly felt: one participates in a colonizing gaze at a highly differentiated racial and culeural other while also pecking ar che inseriprion made by its European sender. What Schor calls the “two-sided specificity” af the posteard, that the fact that both the front and the back of the card operate in its ex terior as a cultural object, chus takes on new significance in the transac tion of colonial relations. Postcard hacks are in fact not silent and «: challenge the meanings of the dominant front image. No postcard hacks are entirely alike: the printed iconography of the word “postcard,” for instance, can have as much variation as the picture it displays, leis rempr- ing to view the native view posteard as structured by a tidy binary: the back as bearing an imprint of the modern West (represented by its print- ing, travel, and postal technologies), in egntrast to the traditional other- ness depicted visually on the front. Bur in its unique archive of persumal messages, in ils compelling transactions hetween the picture and the scribble” (that is, between viswal and written colonial narratives}, the postcard asa form disclases a more complex display af the tensions and negotiations of modernity’s raced and gendered relacions, is where Mother lived when she was over here,130 Collecting Colonial Postcards The great paradax of the colonial postcard is that while it evokes che tciumph of the imperial gaze, its life is also stamped by sadness, Its exis~ rence is cruelly brief, itis devalued, disposable, unimportant, and kitsch. Ieis frequently indistinguishalle feom ies siblings an the rack, Its pro- ducers prefer not to be associated with its praduction. It is neither a real sift nor a full leeter. Ir is quick, “abundant, systematic and cheap,” and it hasa marginal standing within the archive," Unlike other printed col- lectibles such as baschall cards or stamps, posteards are very rarely val- ved at more than a few dollars. In short, the posteard is a notoriously fow cultural form. Early cal- lectars’ magazines were committed to the task of trying ra raise it out of its degraded status as a product of mass culture. In 1904, the cditars of The Pasteard Connoisseur wrote thar the task of their journal was to “disparage carclessness and vulgarity in the art” and to “arouse a more intelligent interest.” But the posteard would escape all attempts to cre- area high culture af connoisseurship around it, And like other products of mass culture such as the ramance navel and the relevision swap opera, it would become unmistakably associated with che feminine. ‘The feminization of mass culture—that is, the relegation of mass cul- ture to the inferior sphere of women—has its origins in the nineteenth century and is paradigmatic of modernism,” Postcards, too, were delin- cated as low hecause of their association with women. It was “the fea inine love of omament,” according to male writers, that explained rhe pasteard craze.t"In 1907 another stated, “The pasteard hay always been a feminine vice. Men do not write posteards to each other. When a woman has time to waste, she writes a letter, when she has no time to waste, she writes a pusteard.“‘! Such judgments were levied not only against the writing of posteards, but also against the activity of collect- ing. Even the hobby itself was identified as a woman: it was referred to as the “Cinderella of collecting,” and viewed with disdain by her elder bling, stamp collecting, Indeed, my sucvey of posteards in private and public collections eon- firms that European women were major collectors of postcards during the heyday period. Several museum collections have been constituted largely of donations by American and European women, and women's names appear in large numbers on the exchange lists in journals from the period, Little is known about these female collectors (who bear such names as Miss Emestine Klasmre of che German Rhine, Mes. Ashleigh Ardem of Cheltenham, and Miss Frieda Guttman from St. Petersburs,Collecting Colonial Postcards Russia) except that they resided all over the Western world and partici- pated enthusiastically in postcard collecting? Posteard journals were alse filled with advertisements for products directed at female con sumers, such as a Christmas “Lady's Postcard Album” or Bertrand’s Tand Balm for “softer, whiter hands.~ Although it is difficult to deter- ‘nine with historieal peceision, it is probable that women also had a si nificant presence in the anunymous field of postcard illustration. For Malek Alloula, at least implicitly, European women neither collested nor produced nor appeared on colonial postcards. fur contrary to his as- sumption, the pussession af images of Indian women was not simply an activity of the colonizing white male. Eurapean women figure centrally in the life of the postcard, from the processes of its production to its cal lection and display. Even in the tragedy af its lowness the postcard is, in Schor’s terins, “the very example of the feminine colleceable.”!3 Reading the colonial postcard chrough rather than around this lens of gender of fers a perspective that restores European women as historical subjects, d producers of postcard “The inclusion of Western women the sphere of the posteard al- ters the historical picture considerably. Indeed, it reveals a cultural and his- torical encounter very different from the “drama of penetration” perceived by Alloula. Posteards reveal more about the structure of gender relations in colonial saciery than the obvious fact that they somerinses depict sexu- alized images of women’s buslies; they show competing and hierarchical constructions of womanhood that were simultancously embedded in im- perial pacriarchies. In another sense, these postcards document a female subject whoxe presence has been historically eclipsed by the lagic of a male- centered nationalist response tu colonialism. Unlike Alloula’s French postcards of Algerian women, the surviving Brirish eolonial postcards of Indian women do not commenly feature nu~ diry. The Vietorian morality of lace nineeenth century Britain may par~ tially account for such a difference, hur what is relevant here is not merely the difference between French and British notions of sexuality. [Although these images of Indian women are indeed sexually encoded, co. constirure the archive as entirely poruographic would depend om a spe~ cific, that is, masculine and nationalist, relation to history. An alterna~ ve reading simated ar the juncture of feminist and postcolonial prob- lematics reveals a rather different portrait of women across the complex hierarchies of colonial worlds, These postcard images stage salvation, benevolence, cooperation, and contempt, and are stamped with women’s consumers,12 Collecting Colonial Pasteands desire, fascination, racism, and revulsion—relations that require histori izing as part of the vexed colonial history in which the problemaric fem- inise project of slobal sistechood was formed. Bringing this history into visibility may have more importam political implicarians for women than any misguided attempt to, in Alloula’s words, “recum this immense postcard to its sender.”Notes to Pages 103-173 387 53. Guha Thakures, ~The Period of Colonialism and Nationalism,” pe 114, 54. EM. J. Venaiyoor, Raja Kart Varma (Kerala: Kerala Lalit Kala Acad emis, 3981), ps 30 s5- Neumayer and Schelborger, eck, Raja Ravi Vavona, p. 6 58. Cited in Venniyoor, Raju Ravi Varma, p. 52- 57. Thid., p. 33. 58. Ibid... 36. sy. Kapus, When Was Madensient p. 161 CHAPTER 4. COLLECTING COLONIAL POSTCARDS +. David Cannadiae, “The Contest, Performance, and Meaning of Rinial The Bintish Monarchy and the Invention of Teadition s820-1977," im Eeic Hobs ‘baw and Tereact Ranger, eds., The irvention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cam- Jpridge Uiniverary Press, #983}, pp. 101-6. 2. Deborah Poole, Vision, Race, and Madersity: A Viswal Economy Andzan Image World (Princeton, SJ: Psinucwwn University Press, 1997). 43. Malek Alloula, The Colonial Harem (Minneapolis: University of Min -nesota Press, #986); Geary and V. Webb, eds.,.Deliveramg Views: Dastant Cru tures.in Early Postcards (Washington, [1C: Smithsonian Instiation Press, 1998): Salon Mathur, “Revicwalizing che Missionazy Subject: History, Moderaity, and Jadian Women,” Third Text 37 {1997h 314-815 David Prochaska, “The Archive of Algerie Imaxinaire,” Histury and Anbropology 4 lis9o}: 373-420. 4. Allonla, The Colonial Flarem, pp. 125, 5 5. hid. 5 6. Ibid 7. Anne Maxwell, “Native Women and Tourism: A Contested Site of Ori -caralism,” Third Text 25 (1993-941: 21732. See also Deborah Cherry, Beyord the Prantes Feneinisme and Visual Culture, Dvitals, 1850-1900 (London and New York: Rautledge, 2005. . See Lata Mani, Contentious Traditions: The Debate am Sati in Colontal India (Berkeley: University of California Press, ryt: and Gayatri Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak?" in Cacy Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg, eds., Marxism: ‘gad the Interpresation of Calacax (Chicago: Univenity of Hina Press, 1983), pp. 273-341, See Feank Staff, The Fiesure Pasteard anal Lis Origins (New York: Ereder ick A. Pracser, 1966). 0, Notice Issued by the Postmaster General, June 1872, in Staff, The Pie- there Pasteard and Its Origins. appeadise IV, p. 85. ar. Ibid. ta. Austrian Post Office Regulation, Vienna, 1860, in Staff, The Picture Postcard and tte Origins, appendix TL, p. 84. 15. Stall, The Picture Postcard and Ite Origins, p. 83. 4. J. Laver, “Foreword,” in Stall, The Picture Postcard amd lis Origins, af the488 Notes 20 Pages 113-125 15. Stall, The Picture Postcard and Its Origins, p. 47. 16, C, Lauterbach and A. Jakuvsky, Posteand Albu: Also a Calltcral Flee tory (New Youk: Universe Books, 1961}. 37. “A Sign of the Tienes," The Picture Postcard: A Magazme uf Travel, Phi- lately, Aet 2, 20, 7 (January T9STK 9 TE, See Suren Lalvani, Phofograpity, Vision, and the Production of Modern Badies (Albany, NY; SUNY Press, ray}; Poole, Visio, Race, and Modernity: and Vidya Dehejia, ed., India through the ems: Photography, 1840-2917 (Washinguon, DU: Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Lastitution, 2006). 19, ‘The Picture Postcard Bulges and Collector's Magazine x, no. 2 (Fcbeue ary #904) 20. Pruchasks, “The Archive of Algerie Imaginaine.” 1. A.W. Cosh, The Dictionary of Picture Postcards ia Britain 7894-1939 London: Baron Publishing, 1984). ‘22, Laurecbach and Jakovsky, Pesteard Adbumt: Also a Cultural tlistory. 25. “Mr. Guo. R. Simm on Bicture Postcards,” The Pielure Posteard: A Marge azine of Travel, Philately, Art 1, no, = (August 1990); 22. 24. Naomi Schor, “Collecting Pacis,” in |. Elsner and R. Cardinal, eds. The Cultures of Collecting (Cambridge, MAz Harvard University Press, 1994), PP- asr74 25, Foran attempe ta reassemble this historical porrrsit, sve the collectine of essays in Geary and Webb, eds., Delivering Views 36, Alloula, The Colonial Harem, p. 4. 27. Marian Klamkin, Picture Postcards (London: David and Charles [Hold- ings, e974) p24 28. See also James Ryan, Picturing Enqpire: Photography aid the Visualiea sion af the Britis Emrpire (Chicago: University of Chicago Pres, 1993). 29. G, Warson Cole, Fostearder The World in Miniature, A Plax for their Sys tematic Arrangement (privately published, 1955), P- 5. 30. Susan Stewart, On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Saspenir. the Collection (Durham, NCs Duke University Press, 1995), p. 138. 31. One known postcard artist was Ellen H. Clapsaddle, a woman born in New York in 1865. She begaa her career illnstrating preeting cards and children's books, anu Laeer entered postcard dessye in 1905, when the craze hit the United States. Unlike most postcard artists, she signed ber work, and her name is asso- -ciared with hundreds of postcard paintings and skerches. Nomerous other artiste ‘were likely hired to color or finish the images she designed, Ske worked for sev- eral publishers at one time, including Raphael Tuck and Sons. See Klambin, Pic- sure Posteards. examples, see Geary and Webb, cds, Delivering Views: and Prom the Archive of Algerie Imuginaire.” 35+ Michulus Dirks, Castes of Mind: Colomialiom and the Making of Mod- certs India (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007), 44. Christopher Pinney, “Classification and Fantasy in the Photographic Coastruction of Caste and Tribe,” Visual Anthropology } (1990) 259-88, 35. Indecpal Grewal, Honre amd Harem: Nation, Gerler, Empire. aid the Cultures of Travel (Ddarham, NC: Boke University Press, 1996]Notes to Pages 126-136 rig 36. Antoinette Barton, Busufens of History: British Feminists, Indiare Wormer and liperial Calttre 1865=r9 rs (Chapel Hill: University of North Casolina Press, ro9q); and Kumari Jayawardena, The White Woman's Other Burden: Western Women and Sauth Asia during British Rule (New York: Routledge, 19951 37. Schur, “Collecting Paris,” p. sox. 38 Ibid. p. 252 39. [refer here to the basic premine of Andreas Huyssen’s important angs- ‘ent in *Mass Culture ac Woman: Modemisun’s Other,” in After the Great Die vide: Moderaism, Mass Caltnre, Postrmdermisn (Sloontaxgtom: Indiana Univer: sity Press, 1986), PP. 44-62. 40. “A Chat with the Foundeess of a Ladies" Postcard. Club,” The Picture Pasteard: A Magazine of Travel, Philately, Art x, a0. 5 {t900h 71-72. 41. Cited in Schor, “Collecting Paris,” p. 263. 42. One exception is Mine A. Reackert from Portland, USA, a member of the Asian Exchange Club, who wrote to The Indien Philveartist requesting “just a line of description om all historic cards sent to me... . Asa teacher, I sball get sswoch interesting help fram it.” The leidiam PBilocartist r,no. 4 (1908): 55- 43. Schor, “Collecting Paris," p. 262. 44. ‘That the heterosexual logic of Alloula’s drama generates hommophesbia should aot be surprising. The suggestion of intimacy between women of tbe poseards brings forth a vocabulary of disgustin his ascount: “lascivious Tamination,” “noxiousness,” “pernicuasness”; see Alloula, The Colomial Harem, p. 193. CHATTER 5. A PARABLE OF POSTCOLONIAL RETURN 1. Jawaharlal Nehru, The Diceourry of India (1946s repr, New Delhi: Ox ford University Press, 1989), p. 297. 2 Rickard Davis, Laves off Indian Images (Princetwa, NJ: Princeton Univer- sity Press, 1997), p. 5+ 3» Ihid., pp. 6-7 4, Tapati Guha-thakurra, Monuments, Objects, Histories: Instinutioms af “Art in Colonial and Posteulomeal India (New York: Coluiubia Universiny Press, ls B20. 5. On she “biography uf objects” appreach tothe history uf South Asian ma- ‘terial culture, see Arjun Appadurai, ed., The Social Life af Things: Commodities in Cualewral Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986}; Tim Barringer and T. Flynn, eds., Colondalisns and the Object: Empire, Material Cale sure amd the Muscum {Londoa and Mew Yoru Routledge, 198}; Bemard ‘Cohn, Coluenialisns and its Forms of Knowledge: The British in India (Princeton, ‘Nis Princeton University Pres, 1996). 6, Jordanna Bailkin, The Culture of Property: The Crisis of Liberalismt it Murder Britain (Chicago: University of Chicago Presé: 2004). 7. bid, p. 7; On the historical conditions of Nazi-era looting, soe Hector Feliciano, The Lost Museums The Nazi Ganspinacy t0 Steal the World's Greatest Works of Art