[Reader-list] The Indian Memory Project

[Kshmendra Kaul]

For those who might be interested in the "The Indian Memory Project", it can be found on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=20939823252
 
Kshmendra
 
 
"The Indian Memory Project"
 
(Anusha S Yadav, documentary photographer and lately enthusiastic photo archivist, on her experiment to trace the history of India.)
 
By Anusha S Yadav
Published: 5:51PM BST 29 Apr 2010
 
Photographs are my favourite place in a museum or in someone's house. I was brought up in Jaipur, royal capital to the ancient Kings. Our houses were filled with images of their royal families, alongside those of our own. For every picture there was a story. I wound find myself time travelling; imagining myself in their place. I found it a tickle to think that what seemed old to me was contemporary to the people in the photographs. 
 
Many years later, the photographs I and my friends posted on Facebook gave me the beginnings of an idea for a book on Indian weddings, where I would research the old and also photograph the new. We have innumerable diverse cultures within India - invasions and settlements from almost every possible external civilsations made it so - and I knew that many of them would have photograph albums they could post on my site. But then an interesting thing happened. People began posting all kinds of old photographs - not just weddings - and every one of them with a riveting anecdote about their lives; their families; their griefs; their accomplishments. I became lost in all of them.
 
Many of the simple but worthwhile accomplishments of people and our ancestors go unnoticed beyond the living-room room/cocktail conversations between families. But these people did what they knew best; worked; married; studied; earned; made sure their children were healthy; travelled and in their own way influenced our future. 
 
It was interesting to note how photography too had changed. Introduced by the British, it was once only afforded and therefore patronised by the Kings and Queens of the Indian states. Gradually it trickled down into general society, for special occasions, Festivals, weddings, deaths and especially for match-making. 
 
Whilst the British were comprehensive in their documenting of the days of the Raj, most of their proof lies in National Archives or Private Collections, not open to public. I want this project to be shared by one and all. For me it is an experiment with no exact presumption of what I or anyone else may find. 
 
This project will most definitely become a life-long one. I intend to collect as many pictures as I can, cross reference them all, pester people for more information about them. I hope in time it will emerge as a visual and oral history of India by its own people. 
 
Contribute or donate via The Indian Memory Project. 
 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/photography/7652620/The-Indian-Memory-Project.html