Secrets in a Frame

Updated on: Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Beyond the Frame: India in Britain, 1858-1950 an exhibition in Kolkata started with a panel discussion at the British Council Library.

The speakers were Susheila Nasta, professor of Modern Literature at the Open University, Penny Brook, lead curator India Office Records at the British Library, Dr Somdatta Mandal from Visva-Bharati University, Florian Stadtler, research associate in Literature at the Open University and Sanjay Wadhvani, British deputy high commissioner. Rosinka Chaudhuri was the moderator.

Susheila spoke about the title of the exhibition, Beyond the Frame. A photograph captures a moment in a frame but it fails to communicate what lies beyond the frame, the relationships and shared ideas, cultural borrowings and inter-cultural marriages. This also highlights that globalisation is not a recent thing, said she.

The exhibition focuses on the Asian British engagement during this period in Britain in areas ranging from cultural and intellectual life to resistance and activism to national and global politics and arts and sport. The exhibition captures and depicts the impact of individuals, communities and political movements on British life and there wider relevance in India.

The British rule in India is known to one and all but the good aspects of it are not so well known and they never do appear in history books. This exhibition is a way of reaching out to the masses and to educate them about the not so well known aspects of the British Raj in India. The exhibition spans almost ten decades from the period of the British Raj to the era of migration post World War II.

“I want to make the archives at the British Library as accessible as possible to people and I am trying my best,” said Penny. A website has been created by the project to bring forth these stories to a wider audience through www.bl.uk/asiansinbritain and for more information about the exhibition and the supporting projects one can go to www.open.ac.uk/Arts/south-asians-making-britain.

Secrets in a Frame

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