A Portrayal of People: Essays on Visual Authropology in India (An Old and Rare Book)

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Book Description

Foreword

It has often been said that India lives in many centuries at the same time. The complex network of diversity that stretches across time and space has made India a paradise for anthropologists. Not all of them have come from abroad, or represented a colonial relationship; Indias own achievement in this discipline has been considerable, thanks to the outstanding contribution of individual anthropologists and to the Anthropological Survey of India (ASI). Even in the visual field the range of work seems formidable if one takes into account the non-formal, but nonetheless important, study of communities expressed in the documentary film and the fictional cinema meant for the general public, in addition to the visual records for academia made by the Anthropological Survey of India n its 50-odd films and thousands of still photographs. Many streams have thus contributed to the development of visual anthropology in India which is a relatively nascent sub-discipline of anthropology.

However, the entire range of activity in this area has suffered from many shortcomings. The formal part of visual anthropology never received sufficient emphasis to adapt itself to changing technologies constantly simplifying and improving the work of the filmmaker. The non formal, addressed to huge audiences, has naturally used technology most suited to its primary purposes of large-scale information and propaganda or entertainment. Even the ASI, after a glorious start, could not keep pace with the advances in technology. It is here that visual anthropology in the West, being consciously tuned to the importance of the visual experience within the academic discipline, has scored by developing a multiplicity of experiments with the form of visual anthropology by adopting light-weight cameras and sound-recording equipment of considerable sophistication and low cost. From l6 mm to video and now to equipment that is extremely small in size and low in weight, a progressive simplification of the paraphernalia is beginning to make film-making as easy and as solitary an act-s-jean Cocteaus dream-as writing a book.

All you have to know is the language of cinema.

The need for taking the Indian experience forward was articulated by Jaysinhji Jhala, an Indian visual anthropologist working at Harvard, who has made a number of ethnographic films in Gujarat and in North- east India. INTACH agreed readily to his proposal for an international seminar on visual anthropology. With a similar readiness on the part of the ASI the seminar became possible. The Anthropological Survey of India, which has emerged as the largest repository of visual materials, came forward to share its experience not only in formulating the plan for the Seminar but also its resources in organising it. INTACH and ASI are co-sponsors of the seminar and its publications. The ASI seeks to expose its technical experts to the new waves generated in recent years in the field of visual anthropology and looks forward to the experience of the seminar in formulating its own perspective in visual anthropology as part of the larger policy on documentation and dissemination of cultures.

Others who responsed were Dr. Surajit Sinha, Prof. T.N. Madan of the Institute of Economic Growth, Prof. T.K. Oommen of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Prof. K.N. Sahay of Ranchi University, whose advice and help led to the orientation and organisation of the Seminar. It has also been encouraging to note the interest in the Seminar among the media concerned with film-making, such as Doordarshan, Films Division, Government of India (one of the worlds largest producers of documentary films), Directors of Film Festivals and independent film directors.

It was decided to bring together many perspectives-at present somewhat dispersed-in visual anthropology generated by the Anthropological Survey of India, professional anthropologists, filmmakers, etc. In preparing this report on the state of visual anthropology for the Seminar we have amply succeeded. However, one significant dimension that is missing in our effort is the role of the museums of tribal research institutions and some State museums which have done commendable work in building up visual documentation on the people of India. The fictional film, not habitually counted among the forms of visual anthropology, has been given a place in the deliberations of the Seminar. Ashish Rajadhyakshas paper at the seminar will deal with it in some detail, and the presence of some noted feature filmmakers should help consolidate this extension of the area of interest for visual anthropology.

The purpose of the present publication is to provide a glimpse, far from comprehensive, of the state of the art in India on the eve of a gathering of some its outstanding exponents from many parts of the world.

Introduction

I welcome the initiative taken by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage and the Anthropological Survey of India in organising an International Seminar on Visual Anthropology at Jodhpur.

Although anthropologists have long been utilising visual representation-sketches, drawings, still photographs, and later, movie cameras for field research, visual anthropoiogy emerged as a specialised sub-discipline of anthropology only during the last two decades. Its domain of discourse, however, has s