The term 'Dalit' meaning, oppressed in the Sanskrit language, and 'broken' in Hindi/Urdu, is a 'defiant' self-chosen political name for the members of lower castes in India. (Madan, 2017). The deprivation of this group is associated with the historical processes of economic and social exclusion and discrimination based on the caste. (Thorat, 2009, p1). Tribal groups or Adivasis is commonly translated as 'indigenous people' or 'original inhabitants', and means' Adi or earliest time', and 'vasi or resident of'. ( Das and Mehta, U/K). Regardless of the social categories, they fall into; these two communities were and are segregated socially and ritually from the mainstream and upper caste groups.
Dalits and Adivasis, considered as the 'lowest' in India, often termed as Scheduled caste and Scheduled tribe, are underrepresented in any visual media. The stories or photographs of violations on Dalits and Adivasis are never radiated on front pages and also read from 'safe' distances. Examining the caste structure of India, Brahmins (priests) occupy the highest position, then followed by Kasthriyas (warriors/rulers), Vaishyas (merchants/landowners), Sudras (labourers) and Dalits. Even though there are numerous laws passed by the constitution of India for the welfare of Dalit and Adivasi communities, they still encounter discrimination and unfair treatment in Modern India, which are often hidden in the visual media.
As cameras arrived in port cities from Europe in the late 1840s, photo studios began spreading throughout the country, (Holland, 2019), which was one of the greatest inventions of the era. However, it was also utilised by colonial elites as a part of their colonial propaganda. The earliest ethnographic photography of India, dating from the 1860s and 1870s, emerged in the heydey of physiognomic interest in Indian body types and the early phases of the British conception of caste and Indian social structure. (Francisco, 2003).
For British ethnographers of India, social classification according to "caste" became an obsession, providing the hard cultural knowledge that would justify the colonial presence on the grounds of cultural and congenital European supremacy. (Francisco, 2003). One of the prime examples of this is work by Edgar Thurston, 'Caste and tribes of Southern India.' Photography is a key witness to the problematic colonial explorations of race, nationality and identity. (Jain,2019). The long term impact of this Colonial photographic classification system on Indian society is evident in contemporary documentary photography emphasising Dalit and Adivasi communities.
By analysing works about caste and tribe from colonial India, this article demonstrates how colonial photographs influences modern India's approach towards the 'lowest'. The areas of key research are colonial and contemporary photography, by studying works of Edgar Thurston, Sunil Janah, Sudharak Olwe, Gavin Evans and Marcus Perkins. This paper covers theories of Christopher Penney, Jason Fransico, Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf and Nathaniel Gaskell.
The first chapter explores the Colonial works produced on Dalit and Adivasis, followed by a brief history of how photography as a medium was used during the British raj as colonial propaganda.
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