The Camera as Witness
Douban
A Social History of Mizoram, Northeast India
Joy L. K. Pachuau / Willem van Schendel
Sinossi
The Camera as Witness lifts the veil off the little known world of Mizoram and challenges - through unpublished photographs -core assumptions in the writing of India's national history.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.
contenuti
List of Figures v
List of Maps xxv
Acknowledgements xxvii
I: Becoming Mizo 1
1 Introduction 3
2 Coming into View: The First Portraits 24
3 Adjusting Mizo Culture 36
4 Domesticating a New Religion 59
5 Getting Educated 87
6 Controlling the Hills 109
7 The Trouble of Travel 145
8 First Stirrings of the Market Economy 168
9 Mizos in the World Wars 189
10 Mizo Visual Sensibilities 212
II: Mizoram in the New India 231
11 The Long Goodbye 233
12 The Emergence of Popular Politics 245
13 Mizoram and the New Indian Order 253
14 Mizoram Comes to Delhi 266
15 The Search for Authenticity at Home 275
16 Mizo Style: Cowboys at Heart 288
III: Visions of Independence 295
17 Famine and Revolt 297
18 The Mizoram Government at Home and in East Pakistan 318
19 The Mizoram Government in Burma, China and Bangladesh 341
20 A State and its Minorities 359
IV: Mizo Modernities 377
21 Being Cool: The Music Scene 379
22 Being Cool: Sharp Dressers 397
23 Studio Modernity 410
24 Conclusion 423
Copyrights and Sources Glossary 425
Glossary 439
Bibliography 443
Index 463