Willem van Schendel

Barak Kalir and Willem van Schendel, 'Introduction: Nonrecording states between legibility and looking away,'  Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology, 77 (2017), 1-7.        freely downloadable from
http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/fcl.2017.770101

Cambridge University Press, 2015.

The Camera as Witness lifts the veil off the little known world of Mizoram and challenges – through unpublished photographs –core assumptions in the writing of India's national history. The pictures in the book establish the transformation of this society and the many forms of modernity that have emerged in it. It emphasises how 'indigenous people' in Mizoram used cameras to produce distinct modern identities and represent themselves to themselves, consistently contesting outsiders' imaginations of them as isolated, backward and in need of upliftment. The authors demonstrate how mostly amateur photographers used visual images to document a historical trajectory of heady change and continual reinvention, producing distinct modern identities. By virtue of its use of visual sources and its engagement with a wide range of important discourses, this book is relevant for students, historians, social scientists, political activists and general readers looking for a fresh approach to Northeast India.

    Revisits the history of Mizoram, northeast India, contesting stereotypes about the region and its people
    This full colour book has almost 400 unpublished photographs from the 1860s to 2010
    Visual sources and text are supported by archival documents like correspondences, diary entries and early news sheets

Abstract:



    Bangladesh is the world's eighth most populous country. It has more inhabitants than either Russia or Japan, and its national language, Bengali, ranks sixth in the world in terms of native speakers. Founded in 1971, Bangladesh is a relatively young nation, but the Bengal Delta region has been a major part of international life for more than 2,000 years, whether as an important location for trade or through its influence on Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim life. Yet the country rarely figures in global affairs or media, except in stories about floods, poverty, or political turmoil. The Bangladesh Reader does what those portrayals do not: It illuminates the rich historical, cultural, and political permutations that have created contemporary Bangladesh, and it conveys a sense of the aspirations and daily lives of Bangladeshis.

    Intended for travelers, students, and scholars, the Reader encompasses first-person accounts, short stories, historical documents, speeches, treaties, essays, poems, songs, photographs, cartoons, paintings, posters, advertisements, maps, and a recipe. Classic selections familiar to many Bangladeshis—and essential reading for those who want to know the country—are juxtaposed with less-known pieces. The selections are translated from a dozen languages; many have not been available in English until now. Featuring eighty-three images, including seventeen in color, The Bangladesh Reader is an unprecedented, comprehensive introduction to the South Asian country's turbulent past and dynamic present.

    About The Author(s)

    Meghna Guhathakurta is Executive Director of Research Initiatives Bangladesh, a nonprofit organization that supports and promotes research on poverty alleviation in Bangladesh.

    Willem van Schendel is Professor of Modern Asian History at the University of Amsterdam and Head of the South Asia Department at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam.

Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication Date: 2013