The Newsletter 70 Spring 2015

A photographic journey into modern Indian kingship

Souvik Naha

Photography in colonial India has received a fair share of academic attention; this coffee table book is no less important than scholarly interventions as it creatively narrates the story of princely India. The photographs cover a large number of states across every geographical and political variations and generation of modern Indian rulers. Neatly divided into sections, with short notes accompanying every photograph, the book displays vividly the changes as to how the royals negotiated modernity, imperial administrators, the public, technological advances, and the art of producing self-images among things relevant.