The Nation (Un)Pictured? Chromolithography and 'Popular' Politics in India, 1878-1995

Anthropology and its contributions to studies of mass media

“…Visual forms of mass media have been circulated for at least a hundred years, and written forms for additional centuries (cf. Pinney, 1997). Moreover, and more central to my point, the 'representations' they contain bear significant resemblance to representations in other narrative and expressive forms, such as religious epics, folk tales, and dramatic performances.…”

India and the Culture of Peace: Beyond Ethnic, Religious, and Other Conflicts

“…In 1882, the Hindus started the gaurakSini sabhA or cow protection society, which quickly became the cow protection movement rapidly spreading all over northern India, starting in Punjab, where Arya Samaj was strong (Freitag, 1980 ;Pinney, 1997 ;Yang, 1980 ) . A practical aspect of this movement was to create gaushalas or shelters for cows, much like the animal shelters found today in many parts of the world, which are run much like the Humane Society in the USA.…”

“…This is true even today, and the sentiment must have been stronger in 1890s, 33 years after the fi rst independence movement of 1857. This was captured in many pictures of cow that were created and circulated during the cow protection movement (Pinney, 1997 ) .…”

Mechanical reproduction and the world of the colonial artist

“…Thus the 'coherent' discourse of nationalism would always remain fragile with deep fault lines running through the national fabric. There were alternative modes of popular resistance to colonial rule, which often forced the centre to shift its position (Anderson 1983;Seal 1968;Guha-Thakurta 1992;Greeley 2000;Pinney 1997Pinney , 1999.…”

“…This was the underlying idea behind the secret revolutionary societies in early 20th century Bengal, notably Aurobindo Ghosh's Bhawani Mandir (Chatterji 1992;Hobsbawm 1965;Chirol 1910). A print of the goddess Kali, advertising Swadeshi cigarettes, recasts traditional iconography in the light of revolutionary Hindu ideology (Mitter 1994: 178 and Plate XII;Pinney 1999). Other icons published by the Studio included the Bengali favourite, the goddess Annapuma, the divine nurturing mother and bestower of prosperity; Siva and his family; Krishna and Radha and stories from the Bhagavatpyrana.…”