[Reader-list] an interesting archival photo

[Anand Vivek Taneja]

Dear Yousuf,

Interestingly, the 'Hindu' category is further subdivided, in this picture,
into 'Hindu Striyon ke Liye' and 'Hindu PurushoN ke liye', a diffrentiation
of gender which we don't see for 'Mohamadan' and 'General' categories.

Anand

On Dec 9, 2007 10:33 AM, Yousuf Saeed <saeed.yousuf at gmail.com> wrote:

>  I am attaching an archival photo of the Allahabad railway station
> platform dating back to the British period (roughly 1920s) that I found on
> an archive on Minnesota university library (Ames) website. Its a photo of a
> newly opened "Indian Refreshment Room" at the station - the most striking
> thing to notice is the separate rooms or doors for Hindus and Muslims! Some
> doors which say Mohammadans or Ahle-Islam (in Urdu), while others say "Hindu
> yatrion ke liye" (in Hindi). There's one door for "General" too, I guess for
> others. There maybe something for British officers which is not seen here.
> If this is one small example, I wonder what other formal divisions may have
> existed in those days. And one wonders if such divisions were there in our
> society for ever, or were they invented by the British.
> Any comments
>
> Yousuf
>
> This image comes from:
> http://digital.lib.umn.edu/IMAGES/reference/ames/amp00204
>
>