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Between Objectivity and Illusion: Architectural Photography in the Colonial Frame

Author(s): Vikramaditya Prakash


Source: Journal of Architectural Education (1984-), Vol. 55, No. 1 (Sep., 2001), pp. 13-20
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture,
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BetweenObjectivityand Illusion:
ArchitecturalPhotographyin the Colonial Frame

VIKRAMADITYA
PRAKASH,
Universityof Washington

Inthis paper,I comparethe use of photography rajaof the PrincelyState of Jaipur,and by though they are identifiablyIndian build-
by SawaiRamSingh,the maharajaof the Princely JamesFergusson,the earliestcolonialhistori-
Stateof Jaipurin colonialIndia,andby James ings, in that theirdetailing,proportionsand
Fergusson,the earliesthistoriographer of Indian ographerof Indianarchitecture. Contrasting treatmentare clearlynot accordingto the
architecture.Contrasting the "objective" use of the ethnologicaland putatively"objective" Europeancanon, they arejust as clearlynot
photography by the colonist,withthe maharaja's studies of the colonist with the maharaja's Indian becausethey comb a Europeanvo-
hybridizedandillusionisticimages,I arguethat
photography, on the one hand,helpedfix "India" hybridizedand illusionisticimages,I will ar-cabulary.They are,in a word,hybrids.
intostereotypicalbrackets,buton the otheren- gue that the camerawas a two-edgedsword Thereis, however,a readyexplanation
abledthe colonizedto re-inventhimselfin more thatcouldbe usedbothto familiarize"India" at hand for this. In history books, S. Ram
contemporary andpotentially threateningways.
Foreshadowing the contadictorynatureof bracketsaswellasto disori-
into stereotypical Singhis often referredto as the "architectof
postcolonialmodernity,photography, in other ent and transformits subject'sidentitiesin modernJaipur."This usuallyrefersto his in-
words,enabledthe maharajato simultaneously more playful and potentially threatening troduction of a series of new practicesin
resistthe hegemonicinterestsof the colonizer
whilecovetingandappropriating the instruments ways.Photographyin the colonialframe,in Jaipurthat activelymimickedthose of the
andsigns of the Westto his ownends. otherwords,was both a hegemonictechnol- colonists,suchas his initiationof correspon-
dencewith the Imperialgovernmentin En-
ogy of subjectificationas well as a potential
Introduction conduitof resistantagentialpraxis. glish.3 He also spoke fluent English and
encouragedEnglishmannersamongthe no-
Followingthe rebellionof 1857, the English bilityof the court.4He set up newserviceor-
Sawai Ram Singh's Political ganizations,like the JeyporeSocial Science
governmentdecidedto disbandthe EastIn-
Circumstances Congress,that was intendedto instill con-
dia Companyand to makeIndiainto a do-
minion of the British Empire. Under the sciousnessfor social improvementamong
Crown, the new Britishpolicy stressedthe In 1860, S. Ram Singh, who ruledJaipur people,and revampededucationby opening
from 1852 to 1880, decidedto "reform" the English-inspired institutionslike the Maha-
importanceof creatingand maintaininga
friendlynativearistocracyof landlordsand old building department of the State. rajaCollege,the MaharajaSchoolfor Girls,
Known as the "Imarat,"it was responsible and the JaipurSchoolof IndustrialArt. He
princelychiefsthatcouldadministerand act
as a buffer between the populace and the forallthe engineeringandarchitectural work even had new engineeringprojectslike gas
Colonial government. As long as the orderedby the State.1The new PublicWorks and waterworksconstructed.It was thus as
unannexedPrincelystatesremainedfriendly Departmentwasheadedby SamuelSwinton partof this projectof "modernization" that
and loyal, the official policy was that they Jacob, a well-known Britishmilitaryengi- he had Europeanpublic facilitieslike a free
wouldnot be annexed.At the micro-political neer.ButS. RamSinghdid not takethe next lendinglibrary,a prosceniumstagetheater,a
level, however, the colonial policy was to logical step and disbandthe older Imarat. hugepublicgarden,a modernhospitalanda
maintainthem not only as an ally,but to try On the contrary,the Imaratcontinued to museumbuilt-all in Europeanstyle.
to make them a client of the maharajas thrive,with Singhentrustingit with the con- Ironically,Swinton Jacob may have
structionof most of the majorarchitectural been appointedas headof the PublicWorks
throughmanipulationof theirpoliticalsys-
tem. Thus, betweenthe statedpolicyof con- worksof the city. This doublesystemmight Department,but, as someone deeplyinflu-
ditionalnoninterference andthe de factoone implythat the "reform"of the buildingsys- enced by the artsand craftsmovement,he
of "interference,"and under the cover of tem of the Statewas a meretoken meantto wantednothingmorethanto promotewhat
friendship and loyalty, there was a lot of placatethe English-a way for Singh to si- was "authentic"in the Indianarts.He thus
roomfor interpretation and accommodation multaneouslyelevate and marginalizethe opposed S. Ram Singh's crude hybridiza-
thatenabledbothcolonizersandcolonizedto corruptinginfluenceof Europeanrational- tion and insteadpersonallytrainedand su-
negotiatewith one anotherin variousways. ism.2Unexpectedly,however,one findsthat pervisedselectedstudents of the school of
In this paper, I compare the use of the buildingsconstructedby the Imaratwere art to carefullycopy detailsfrom old archi-
photographyby SawaiRamSingh,the maha- liberallyornamented,usinga crude,hybrid- tecturalmonumentsin and aroundJaipur.
ized Europeanarchitectural vocabulary.Far He reportedlyspoke the local dialect and
Education,pp. 13-20
JournalofArchitectural
from being shieldedfrom the West, the co- worked with the stated objective that the
? 2001 ACSA, Inc. lonial presenceis writtenall over them. Al- students should so imbibe the "spirit"of

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Indian art that they could produce designs To gain some insight into his archi-
that were "no longer copies but creations." tecture, let us examine S. Ram Singh's syn-
Paradoxically, thus, Jacob was more chronous efforts at photography.
interested in native traditions than was the
native maharaja, just as the latter seems to
have wanted to bring the West to India con- S. Ram Singh's Photographs
tra the former. Unlike some other mahara-
jas,5 S. Ram Singh refused to let Jacob, in S. Ram Singh developed at an early age a
spite of the latter's best efforts, in any way passionate interest in the new craft of pho-
influence the work of the Imarat: no Imarat tography and acquired his own camera from
decision was made in consultation with London. Nearly 2,000, 12 x 10 in., glass
Jacob. Thus, if the Imaratwas protected, the negatives from his collection are still pre-
protection was not from the West, but from served in the City Palace Museum in
the colonizer. In 1880, after S. Ram Singh's Jaipur.8 S. Ram Singh's portraits (by T.
death, Jacob exploited a gap in the transfer Murray, his English teacher and friend)
of power to take over the Imarat and ap- found in this mammoth collection are a cu-
pointed one of his own supervisors, Lala rious study in contradictions. A small man,
Chiman Lal, as its head.6 Under Chiman in one portrait he is standing in a suit with
Lal, the Imarat's new buildings were also an sash sporting an elaborate Rajasthani royal
1. Self-portraitI: photograph by S. Ram Singh.
amalgamation of European and "native"ar- turban and moustache. In another he is sit-
chitectural values, but their modernity was ting in what seems like a traditional court
of an entirely different order. They looked dress, ceremonial shield at hand, with a so-
Indian in the sense that their "Indian-ness" lar halo in the background that in the pho- documenting visitors to and members of his
satisfied the enlightened colonizer's gaze.7 tograph seems to emanate naturally from durbar or court (including, what must have
In the work done by the Imarat before the back of his head.9 (See Figure 1.) In a been unusual for the times, the women of
and after 1880, as a consequence, we can ex- third, he is standing in traditional robes, his the royal zenana, along with the nautch
amine the performance of two different right hand on hip and his left leaning on a girls, the infamous "dancing girls" of India.)
claims to an architecture that is simulta- book placed on the table-a position sug- In many of these photographs, S. Ram
neously modern/Europeanand native/Indian, gestive of paintings of English lords of the Singh made his traditionally attired subjects
and that reflectsthe interestsand ideologies of manor. (See Figure 2.) sit in strikingly European poses, for in-
the men at the helm. It is immediatelyevident S. Ram Singh obviously enjoyed play- stance, the woman sitting on a chair with
that, more than that of inherent architectural ing around with trick photography and pro- the man standing with his hand placed ca-
values, the tussle here is for the control of rep- ducing illusions like his haloed self-portrait. sually on the chairback.10Like his self-por-
resentation. Caught in the crisscross of mo- In his collection, one also finds innumerable traits, these unusual, bizarre and hybridized
dernity and tradition, and the West and the stereoscopic photographs that produce the images invite interpretation.
East, and traded for Imperial and personal illusion of twins. (See Figure 3.) Similarly, There is something voyeuristic and
interests, identity here is the negotiating and he took numerous staged photographs with scopophilic about the camera, as there is an
negotiated currency of the transactions be- painted backgrounds. In one, he has a man expression of power sensed in the images it
tween power and ideology. Far from a unified in a Western hunting dress, shotgun in captures. The camera is indissolubly linked
and self-present whole, it is a complex and hand, posed against a painted scene of tropi- to the eye, to the visibility of the seen. In less
secondary effect of the contesting interests of cal vegetation, with a few real plants in front easily visible ways, the eye is connected to
hegemonic institutional practicesand the im- making a feeble attempt at lending real the constitution of the ego-ideal or the "I."
possible desires of binary stereotypical dis- depth to the image. (See Figure 4.) The camera was obviously a toy in S. Ram
course. And architecture and urbanism are When he was not experimenting with Singh's hands, as he himself was a puppet of
right in the middle of its crossfire. trick photography, S. Ram Singh was busy the colonial government. How might one

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"' '"
y.. c- --
,,:.

I1: hotogrph by. Rm inh


2.Selfportrat

3. Stereoscopic twins: photograph by S. Ram Singh.

negotiate and weave a thread between these testimony to the tremendous impression that
"facts"?How is power played out in these the foreign rulersand their technology might
curious images?Who is doing the watching, have had on him. Enthralled by the camera's
and to what effect? strange and curious possibilities, this subser-
vient maharaja, like others who collected
Rolls-Royces, may have simply been amusing
Negotiating "Loyalty"and "Friendship": himself with this new imported toy.
Tod and Ram Singh's manipulations S. Ram Singh, however, was not sim-
ply a passive cog in the colonial hegemonic
S. Ram Singh took every opportunity to project. Indeed, he actively exploited his
demonstrate his loyalty and friendship to the position with the Viceroy as a favored ally to
Imperialgovernment. He attended every Im- centralize his own power and to prevent the
perial durbar, and, when the Viceroy visited Residency from actively interfering in his
Jaipur in 1876, S. Ram Singh had triumphal court. As Stern has argued in his book The
arches, flags, and banners erected in the Cat and the Lion, he did this by capitalizing
streets. In an exaggerateddisplay of affiliation on the Residency's misinformed attempts at
he even had "WELCOME HERE" painted manipulating the Jaipur court.12
with letters fifty feet high with strokes eight These attempts were based on the writ-
feet thick on the hillside above the city." ings of James Tod, an English historian and 4. Manwith shotgun: photograph by S. Ram Singh.
In this context, S. Ram Singh's photo- social scientist. Tod considered himself to be
graphscan, of course, be interpretedas symp- a sympatheticdocumenter of the Rajputs.His
tomatic of his European pretensions and voluminous tomes, TheAnnals and Antiqui-

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ties ofRajasthan,were based on his travelsin S. Ram Singh exploited his protection duction of identity. The camera was not a
the region in the late eighteenth and early by the Residency to reduce the powers of toy to be played with in the hands of the
nineteenth century.13 In these, he painted the the nobility and to centralize power in his colonists. A great new invention, photogra-
system of Rajput clanship as an "imperfect own hands.'" He ensured that no other phy was very much in vogue in the later half
feudalism,"imperfectbecauseit had not quite chieftain or nobleman was able to garner of the nineteenth century. The English
advancedto the level of what he consideredto enough power to challenge him or act as a brought it to India to document and classify
be "true"feudalism-that of the English of check on his activities, as the British might the country they ruled. Contrasted with the
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. have desired. To be able to do this, all he highly subjective drawings that had been
Tod argued that British and Rajput had to ensure was that the Imperial govern- reaching Europe in the eighteenth and nine-
interests were best served by facilitating the ment was firmly behind him. teenth centuries, photographs carried the
advancement of Rajput society to the level of Through his exaggerated displays of stamp of authority as authentic reproduc-
true feudalism. He believed that once loyalty and European manners, S. Ram tions. Under the coveted mantle of science,
achieved, such a true feudalism would Singh ensured that he was considered a ethnographic and racial studies set about
strengthen the Crown because it relied on model ruler in the eyes of the Imperial au- studying the people of India, and photo-
the system of loyalty and protection. As in thorities. An effective measure of this is the graphs were taken of "typical" people to
English feudalism, if the Rajput princes and numerous titles and honors he collected represent various castes and tribes. One of
chieftains relied on the protection of their from the Viceroy. These he encashed when- the earliest studies, initiated by Lady Can-
maharaja,who in turn relied on that of the ever his independence was threatened. Like ning, the Viceroy's wife, was entitled The
Crown, a hierarchicalsystem could be set up a seasoned political player, he used his influ- People oflIndia. With its self-explanatory
that would both further the interests of the ence with the Viceroy to overrule even the title, this album contained 468 photo-
established powers and keep a check on the Resident on occasions."5 graphs, each supposedly representative of
powers of the subordinate princes and kings. Sawai Ram Singh thus was able to ex- the "racesand tribes of Hindustan."''6
Because Tod insisted this was possible ploit the micro-politics of Empire to circum- Official colonial publications such as
only through minimal British intervention, vent, to a certainextent, the macro-ideologyof the Journal oflndian Art and Industryand the
the British policy was to strengthen the Empire. He recognizedthe different pulls be- TechnicalArt Seriesextensively utilized pho-
hand of the maharaja of Jaipur, with the tween the Empire'sdesireto centralizeitself on tolithography to classifyand propagateits fa-
belief that, as long as he personally remained the one hand, and to disseminate itself vored crafts and goods. Photography was an
loyal to the Crown, his own power would through its culturalpedagogyon the other. If indispensabletool for the ArchaeologicalSur-
be kept in check by the princes and chief- by the backward-lookingconservativeideology vey of India that was entrusted with the gi-
tains. All the colonizers had to do was to of Empire the "native"ruler was a key func- gantic task of documenting and organizing
ensure that this system functioned effi- tionary in the preservationand promotion of the history of Indian art and architecture.
ciently and that they were recognized as its traditional,feudalsociety, this functionaryex- For the colonial ethnographers and
legitimate retainers. In this way, the explicit ploited the gap between noninterferenceand historians, photography was a serious and
British policy of noninterference would also manipulation to further his own position by useful science. By the middle of the nine-
appear to have been maintained. transforminghis identity. He did this by ex- teenth century, when the formalists were
Their crucial misunderstanding, as ploiting the middle spacebetween the coloniz- writing their comparative histories of Indian
Stern argues, was that the Rajput chieftains ers and colonized, reconstructingfor himself a art and architecture, accurate reproductions
considered themselves not feudatories who hybrid identity that let him exploit both with- were considered necessary to establish the
owed allegianceto a particularlord, but equals out reallybelonging to either. "objectivity"of their work. Extensive collec-
with equivalent claims to leadership. Conse- tions of images were not only imperative to
quently, although they were linked together the demonstration of proof, but were also
by an elaboratesystem of clanship, they were Colonial Photography: Fergusson the means that enabled them to lay claim to
constantly challenging and siding with one an all encompassing palate."7
another. Their hierarchieswere never clearly In this context, one can review the camera's The first European to write a compre-
establishedand always open to contestation. "eye/I" from the perspective of colonial pro- hensive history of Indian art and architecture,

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James Fergussoncould not praiseenough the
"advantages" of photography that enabled
him to study buildings accurately,to analyze
them comparatively, and to present them to
his audience so that they could judge his
analysis "for themselves." The breadth of
scope, self-assuredclaims to "truth,"and ob-
session with visual presentationof his treatises
can be illustrated by a selective list of their
of theRock-CutTemplesof
titles: Illustrations
India(1845), PicturesqueIllustrations
ofAn-
cientArchitecturein Hindostan(1847), An
HistoricalInquiryinto the TruePrinciplesof
Beautyin Art (1849), TheIllustratedHand-
bookofArchitecture(1859), and Historyofthe
ArchitectureofAll Countries(1867).'8
Fergusson's most important work on
architecture was HistoryoflIndianand East-
ernArchitecture(1876). An expansion of the
Indian section in his earlier History of the
ArchitectureofAll Countries,Fergusson
claimed in the later book to bear out con-
clusions that he felt he had left unsubstan-
fromFergusson,Historyof EasternandIndianArchitecture.
5. Reproductions
tiated in the earlier work. In this effort,
Fergusson noted, "precision of... knowl-
edge" was imperative. Whereas the earlier stitute as an equivalence is that which locates through the complex system of recall and
book was "based upon examination of the in the visual the privileged center of human erasure, differentiation, identification, and
actual buildings," the later by the use of experience:what you see is what there is. The synthesis that is called memorythat one co-
photographs painted a much wider canvas, special quality of the visual is that the eye's heres these images into a negotiable map.
with surer strokes. (See Figure 5.) lens organizes the entire width and depth of The camera, by intervening between
The camerais what made this possible. its field of perception around a single vanish- subject and object and by arresting their
Its virtue lay in its methodology, in its ability ing point. Through the distortionsof perspec- constantly altering inter-relationship to a
to capture an image, at an immediate level, tive, it reduces the three dimensions of space single image, reifies and fetishizes the eye/I-
"accurately." For, and this is the only mo- into the two-dimensional plane of an image. centric economy of the visual. It exploits
ment he notes this, "Fordetecting similarities, By "cohering"realityinto an image that is fo- and exaggeratesthe desire for a sense of con-
or distinguishing differences between speci- cused within the human subject, the eye pro- trol over reality that is produced by visual
mens situated at distances from one another, duces in the latter the sense, or illusion, of perception. This is why, in any metaphysi-
... photographs are almost equal to actual control over a reality that is centered on him- cal system that unquestionably privileges
personalinspection."'"Almost, but not quite. self. The visual, in a word, is eye/I-centric. control and order, photographs-more
Photographs in no way are to
equal personal In the changing time and space of than, say, words-will enjoy the question-
experience;they are in excess to, and they rep- human experience, the transient images of able privilege of being "almost equal" to
resent, the real. This is the fact that is both the mind's eye constantly reform in re- personal experience. They do so on account
marked and masked by the uneasy "almost sponse to changes both in the subject as well of being more than equal.
equal" of Fergusson's claim. The only per- as the objects, and inevitably so for no two Faced with the seemingly insurmount-
spective in which this "almost equal" can sub- moments can be the same. It is only able and dangerous task of administering and

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cohering "India" (especially in the wake of it is not surprising that he would find India economy of the visual, this is what enables
rebellion), the colonial ethnographers and to be an ideal case for a student of architec- Fergusson's text to produce India in a "clear
historians found an invaluable aid in the ture using this methodology, which is what and intelligible" manner.
camera. The "more than 3000 photographs the last sentence attempts to articulate. This The general "feeling"of"even the best
of Indian buildings" that Fergusson boasted sentence, however, is more ambivalent. For- educated Europeans," as Fergusson ob-
he had, enabled him to "masterall the geo- mulated in the form of a chiasmus, it leaves served, was that India's "history is a puzzle;
graphical and historical details necessary to unclear whether it is the characteristics of its literaturea mythic dream; its arts a quaint
unravel so tangled a web as [Indian architec- the country that enable the functioning of perplexity... [and] the names of its heroes
ture], and then . . . to become so familiar the methodology to be "perceived,"or, con- and great men..,. unfamiliar and... unpro-
with their ever-varyingforms as not only to versely, whether it is precisely the "impor- nounceable."'23Through the synthetic lens
be able to discriminate between the different tance" of the methodology that enables it to of the camera, Fergusson's text claims to
styles, but also to follow them through all be easily applied to the "elucidation of the solve the puzzle, explain the dream, dispel
their ceaselesschanges."20More than just "fa- various problems" of the country. the perplexity, and render its great (and not
miliarize"him with architecture, the camera At play in this chiasmus are the inter- so great) men familiar, without even the
gave Fergusson access to Indian civilization relationshipsbetween the architecturalobject need to pronounce their names. It familiar-
itself. Like other formalist ethnographers of and its broadersocial context, and between a izes and produces the great unfamiliar and
his kilt, Fergussonbelieved that the history of methodology and the object of study. It unknown-"India"-within the frames of
the arts, drawn up by the ethnographic could independently be read as articulating orientalism.
method, could serve as a template for map- an ambivalent and mutually constitutive re- Fergusson pronounced Indian archi-
ping civilizations. The nexuses between the lationship between the terms. In the context tecture to be in a state of horrible "decay."
arts, methodology, and civilization are articu- of Fergusson'spassage,however, this ambiva- It had its glorious age in the Buddhist pe-
lated in the following passage by Fergusson: lence is suppressed by the momentum from riod, but over the years it had declined. It
the previous sentence which has alreadycon- enjoyed a brief renaissance under the
In one other respect India affords a structed art as a simple mirror of India's Mughals, but the true Indian (read Hindu)
singularly favorable field to the stu- "faith"and "feelings."The passagecontinues: tradition was now in complete disarray, as
dent of architecture. In no other was thus Indian civilization, which is why it
country of same extent are there so The mode in which the art [of orna- had succumbed to the superior Western
many distinct nationalities, each re- mental building] has been practiced one. The only thing that remained was the
taining its old faith and its old feel- in Europe for the last three centuries manual dexterity of the Indian craftsman
ings, and impressing these on its art. has been very confusing. In India it is who produced excellent handcrafted goods
There is consequently no country clear and intelligible. No one can and exquisite architectural details.
where the outlines of ethnology as look at the subject without seeing its Photography thus served the all-im-
applied to art can be so easily per- importance, and no one can study the portant function of visibly legitimizing colo-
ceived, or their application to the elu- art as practiced there without recog- nial authority by "actually"representing the
cidation of the various problems so nizing what the principles of the sci- "true natives," at their best as at their worst.
pre-eminently important.21 ence really are.22 With its distinctive quality of voyeuristic
distance, it enabled the colonists to "unself-
In this passage, Fergusson first cleanly This reduction of the architecturalobject to consciously" fix the native into a coherent
classifies India into "distinct nationalities" a simple mirror of social identity is an act of and controllable frame. By its ability to dis-
specifying their "oldness" with respect, pre- epistemic violence and homogenization. avow its own presence, it also enabled them
sumably, to the "newness" of the West. He Such homogenizations are produced by to disavow their own interested importation
then asserts that its old "faith" and "feel- methodological imperatives that place the and production of this frame, at the precise
ings" are neatly and unproblematically "im- author in a position of overlordship or total moment when they were doing that. By the
pressed" in the art. Given that this is the control over their discourse and objects of same act, photography also helped mask the
contention of "ethnology as applied to art," study. Authorized by the eye/I-centric inevitability of the colonizers' internalization

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of, and complicit identification with, the ful of members of the family of the white nists, the more authentic and "figurative"
colonial hegemonic project. man who were usually dressed in distin- processes of transformation, as they would
guishing light colors. As self-consciously like to have personally authored. In 1886,
hybridized representations, S. Ram Singh's John Lockwood Kipling, first sub-editor of
S. Ram Singh's Multivalent,Hybridized photographs straddle and contest the sepa- the Journal of Indian Art and father of the
Mimic World rating boundary-between colonizer and celebrated author Rudyard Kipling, pub-
colonized, English and native-the preser- lished an article entitled "Indian Architec-
In this context, S. Ram Singh's self-con- vation and reaffirmation of which was cru- ture of To-Day," focusing his critique on,
sciously illusionistic and hybridized photo- cial for colonial discourse. As deliberate what he calls "Europe fashion" architec-
graphs can be interpreted as a "native's" illusions, they contradict and undermine ture.24Kipling begins by arguing what seems
attempt to break open and transform, ac- the self-certainty of the representations that to him to be obvious: that hybrid architec-
cording to his own desires, the colonial are predicated on the photographs' privi- ture is nothing more than an unfortunate
frame in which he was cast as a feudal native leged claim to reality that was necessary for effect influence. He describes a "Europe
maharaja. Like his manipulation of the gap the construction of the colonial edifice. fashion" house, which he ironically charac-
between the macro and micro ideologies of Perhaps the colonists simply tolerated terizes as one of the "fruitsof advancing civi-
Empire, his hybridized constructions repre- S. Ram Singh's photographic excesses, or lization," as having a great deal of
sent the desire and efforts of a colonized were gently amused, but they could not "decorative intention, but no decided char-
subject, who, in whatever way and to what- have been pleased with nor, I suspect, could acter; the details seem to have come from
ever extent possible, is trying to wrest con- they have encouraged them. Taking a page everywhere and yet to belong to nowhere;
trol of and assert his own identity and out of that chapter of nineteenth-century but it is at least certain there is nothing Ori-
agency. Both Fergusson and S. Ram Singh European history that was systematically ental in it."25Although Kipling does not ex-
are, of course, products of their respective suppressed, I would interpret S. Ram actly specify what he considers Oriental, he
conditions and represent the desire and Singh's photographic antics as carnivalesque notes that, when it was pointed out to the
forms of coming to terms with it. One is gestures, that in their playful parodies (and businessman responsible for the above
symptomatic of the imperatives and fears of gentle amusement) belie more serious and house, that his design was "incorrect" even
governance and the internalization of and potentially threatening possibilities. by European standards, the gentleman did
identification with the hegemonic structure, not understand what was meant. Kipling
and the other of frustrations and possibili- comments, "with the classes stirred by En-
ties of subservience and of the attempt to Conclusion glish education, foreign styles stand for en-
transform and negotiate the future. lightenment and progress." European
If Fergusson's photographs construct Like his photographs, S. Ram Singh's hy- buildings "though occasionally ugly enough,
a coherent, stable, and unified worldview, S. brid "Europe fashion" buildings-messy, are imposing," he notes. "They have the
Ram Singh's posit one that is multivalent corrupt, and impure-posit a worldview prestige of authority," and are therefore cop-
and shifting. Whereas the former capitalizes that is multivalent, ambivalent, and highly ied by the impressionable and hapless native.
on the camera's frozen frame to produce the negotiated. They suture two worlds with a That in a condition of subservience
illusion of a world under a central control, literal manner that stitches through repeti- the sign of the master carries the prestige of
the latter, through the parody of double ex- tion and imitation rather than representa- authority can hardly be denied. Such are the
posure, transforms a reality that he has little tion and transformation. Yet the repetition effects of the master-slave relationship, with
control over into an image that is visibly fic- is such that it ultimately underlines its dif- repetition and imitation their logical out-
tional but ironically closer to the real world. ference from (and parodic subservience to) come. This does not, however, rule out the
In the common event of the depar- the original, rather than its identity. possibility that the subservient act could
ture of a senior colonial officer, like that of Repetition with difference describes a also, in another register, be self-construc-
the Viceroy, a photograph would be taken literal process of adaptation that is of course tive, assertive, and a veiled threat to the
with all the liveried, khaki-clad servants of significantly different from, and generally dominant. In the colonial fantasy, the colo-
the household organized around the hand- considered inferior to, at least by the colo- nizers and colonized are separated and

19 Prakash

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linked together on the basis of their differ- 5. Like the Maharaja of Bikaner. 17. Partha Mitter in Much Maligned Monsters:
6. As did Chisolm to make the palaces of History ofEuropean Reactions to Indian Art (Oxford:
ence; their (dis)connection is seamless. The
Kolhapur and Baroda. Thomas Metcalf, The After- ClarendonPress, 1977) notes that, in the eighteenth cen-
hybrid, by rupturing and inhabiting the math of Revolt: India, 1857-1870 (Princeton: tury, Western artists had produced highly subjective
seam, exposes the fictional construction of Princeton University Press, 1964), p. 118. drawings of Indian art objects and deities directed more
the seam, and thereby constitutes a threat. 7. Jacob maintained that he still did not intend at depicting the "monstrosity" of their subject than at
to interfere with the work of the Imarat, but he made accurate representation. In the early part of the nine-
By occupying and exaggerating the very
sure that all economic transactions were approved by teenth century, as the East India Company grew in
seam that was intended to silently enable
him. Jaipur Public WorksDepartment Report, 1881, p. 6. power and stature, its directors hired artists, known as
the colonial fantasy, the hybrid unearths a The new head of the Imarat was still known by his old the "company painters," to paint scenes from India to
repression, exposes the bald truth, the fic- title of"Darogha," but the man appointed, Lala Chiman take home. Although more accurate than the earlier
tional premise of the colonial stereotype, Lal, had been Jacob's junior clerk for fifteen years. ones, these drawings were essentially constructed to flat-
that should have remained hidden. 8. G. Thomas, "Maharaja Sawai Ram Singh II ter their patrons. Repeating the colonial gesture in his
of Jaipur, Photographer-Prince," History of Photogra- own text, Mitter juxtaposes the drawings with photo-
If imitation is flattery, in a forked
phy 10/3 (July-Sept. 1986): 184. The author acknowl- graphs of the same objects, to "evaluate"the deviations.
tongue it can be very dangerous. As edges his debt to the City Palace Museum Trust, 18. James Fergusson, Illustrations of the Rock-
"Indianized-Europe style" constructions, S. Jaipur (Director, Yadavendra Sahai) for assistance dur- Cut TemplesoflIndia: Selectedfrom the Best Examples of
Ram Singh'sbuildings arehybridizedparodies ing research and for permission to reproduce the im- the DiJferent Series ofCaves at Ellora, Ajunta, Cuttack,
that, as parodyalwaysdoes, carrythe possibil- ages of Sawai Ram Singh. Salsette, Karli, and Mahavellipore (London: John
9. The Jaipur nobility was supposed to have Murray, 1845); Fergusson, Picturesque Illustrations of
ity of double-voicing, of unexpected irony.26
been descendent from the legendary sun king, Rama. Ancient Architecture in Hindostan (London: John
10. European photographers were also doing Murray, 1847); Fergusson, An Historical Enquiry into
much of the same, of course, but there is an irreducible the True Principles of Beauty in Art (London: John
Notes difference between the white man's and a brown man's Murray, 1849), Fergusson, The Illustrated Handbook of
unveiling of the zenana. The brown man's sense of self Architecture(London: John Murray, 1859), Fergusson,
1. In 1860, an official Urdu declaration from is connected to the unveiling, whereas for the white man History of the Modern Styles ofArchitecture: Being a Se-
the Jaipur Durbar announced the establishment of the it is only voyeuristic. So, while it is fair to note that in quel to the Handbook of Architecture (London: John
new Public Works Department as part of the reorga- either case the woman is not heard and is denied agency, Murray, 1862).
nization of the Imarat, the older, traditional depart- S. Ram Singh's act, at least in terms of his context, I will 19. James Fergusson, Historyoflndian and East-
ment of building of the court. It cited as the reasons show, constitutes a limited counter-colonial gesture. ern Architecture(London: John Murray, 1876), p. iv.
for the formation of the new department the "unsat- 11. Jaipur Public Works Department Report, 20. Ibid., pp. vii, 5.
isfactory" functioning of the Imarat and the need to 1881, p. 1, Jaipur State Archives, Bikaner, India. 21. Ibid., p. 6.
12. Stern, The Cat and the Lion. 22. Ibid., p. 5.
separate the administration of building from the ac-
tivities of the court. Rajasthan State Archives Bikaner, 13. James Tod, Annals and Antiquities of 23. Ibid., p. 2.
India, G-1-045, Imarat. Rajasthan Volumes I and II (Reprint 1971) William 24. The Journal oflndian Art and Industry was
2. As Thomas Metcalf in An Imperial Vision Crooke, ed. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, 1829 and 1832). expressly devoted to the purpose of promoting Indian
does argue. An Imperial Vision:Indian Architectureand 14. He selectively supported only those colo- arts and industries.
Britain 'sRaj (Berkeley: University of California Press, nial policies that served his personal interests. For in- 25. John L. Kipling, "Indian Architecture of
1989), p. 135. By contrast, I am arguing that mimicry stance, he actively supported the establishment of To-Day "Journal of Indian Art and Industry 3 (Lon-
is not just flattery, but that it can cut both ways. For Mayo College, Ajmer, where in 1858 the agent re- don: John Murray, 1886), p. 45.
the basic psychoanalytic elaboration of the idea, see ported, with obvious satisfaction, that yearly the pro- 26. This dangerous possibility does not go
Homi K. Bhabha, "The Other Question: Difference, portion of the college's students who were studying in unremarked in Kipling's text. In an unguarded mo-
Discrimination and the Discourse of Colonialism," in English and "thinking in English" was increasing. S. ment, and with an uncharacteristic outburst, Kipling
Ferguson, Gever, Minh-ha, West, eds., Out There: Ram Singh himself, however, was less interested in suddenly proceeds to declaim what he thinks might be
Marginalization and ContemporaryCulture (New York: these institutions as a preparatory place for his under- the ulterior intentions, the forked signification of"Eu-
New Museum of Contemporary Art, 1991), pp. 71- age thakurs to form a noble class than as a place where rope style" architecture: "In the same way as Chris-
87. he might safely park the durbar's wards while it exer- tianity is popularly identified with any denials of
3. The official language of the court, however, cised regental authority over their estates. Stern, The religious obligation, so the essence of European archi-
was Hindi and later Urdu. Ashim K. Roy, History of Cat and the Lion, pp. 155-60. tecture is supposed to consist in a reckless disregard of
the Jaipur City (New Delhi: Manohar, 1978), p. 82. 15. The above analysis of S. Ram Singh's po- all recognized canons of ornament and proportion.
4. Robert W. Stern, The Cat and the Lion: litical machinations is drawn from Stern, The Cat and Any outcast is dubbed a Christian, and any ugliness in
the Lion. a building is accounted European." Kipling, "Indian
Jaipur State in the British Raj (New York: E. J. Brill,
1988), pp. 115, 123. 16. Thomas Metcalf, An Imperial Vision,p. 146. Architecture of To-Day," p. 5.

September 2001 JAE 55/1 20

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