Combining ethnographic and archival research, this book examines the lives of colonial-period postcards and reveals how they become objects of contemporary historical imagination in India. Picture postcards were circulated around the world in their billions in the early twentieth century and remained, until the advent of social media, unmatched as the primary means of sharing images alongside personal messages. This book, based on original research in Bengaluru, shows that their lives stretch from their initial production and consumption in the early 1900s into the present where they act as visual and material mediators in postcolonial productions of history, locality, and heritage against a backdrop of intense urban change. The book will be of interest to photographic historians, visual anthropologists, and art historians.

This thesis analyses the social life of British Indian picture postcards of Bengaluru from their initial production in the early 20th century into the postcolonial present. The research is based upon a mixed methodological approach of participant observation, and archival and digital research conducted over the course of 15 months in Bengaluru. Whilst the current body of literature on colonial picture postcards has been conducted solely from a historical perspective, my research shows that their biographies continue into the present as they act as material mediators in postcolonial experiences of history, locality, heritage and urban renewal. Discussions of Bengaluru, both in popular and academic discourse, often focus on its rise into the 'IT capital of India'. In doing so, the identities and histories of the city that stretch back beyond the 1990s liberalisation of the Indian economy are often obscured. Within this context, this thesis proposes that postcolonial Bengalureans reflexively engage with the ephemeral debris of colonialism as an accessible archive of historical documents as they contend the forces of rapid urban development that are experienced as de-historicising the city. Situated between visual and historical anthropology, the project focuses on the multiple engagements of picture postcards as they are brought into new relationships, forms and contexts in their journey through time and space. Ultimately, I propose that acts of collecting, remediating and displaying picture postcards of Bengaluru are key referents that help citizens understand the city's transformations and, at times, become enmeshed in wider discourses of its future.

"Combining ethnographic and archival research, this book examines the lives of colonial-period postcards and reveals how they become objects of contemporary historical imagination in India. Picture postcards were circulated around the world in their billions in the early twentieth century and remained, until the advent of social media, unmatched as the primary means of sharing images alongside personal messages. This book, based on original research in Bengaluru, shows that their lives stretch from their initial production and consumption in the early 1900s into the present where they act as visual and material mediators in postcolonial productions of history, locality and heritage against a backdrop of intense urban change. The book will be of interest to photographic historians, visual anthropologists, and art historians"--

Catalog of an exhibition of Arpita Singh, b. 1937, Indian painter held at Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi on November 11-December 6, 2006.

Goa easily gets subsumed in the cliche of beach-sun-and-fun. The dominant image of this state is one that is on a permanent holidy, and comprises of Westernised, middle-class inhabitants.While this face of Goa does indeed exist, its dominance in the media sidetracks a whole lot of other issues. Social activist Kalaland Mani and journalist Frederick Noronha look at the issues emerging from the farm and field. For this task, they zoom in on the work of the Madkai (Ponda)-based Peaceful Society in the 25 years that this organisation has been in a close connect with the issues from the heartland.