Glimpses of India's freedom fight
The trunks in his basement had gathered dust for two decades before
Aditya Arya finally popped the locks to discover a "mind boggling"
visual record of India's freedom movement and its leaders.
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Indian photographer Aditya Arya shows a photograph of Mahatma
Gandhi shot by his uncle during an interview with AFP. AFP |
From a shared giggle between Jacqueline Kennedy and India's first
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, to the signing of India's constitution,
the trunks contained thousands of candid and historic photographs - many
never published - of the iconic names of the independence struggle.
Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah and the
last British viceroy Louis Mountbatten all feature in the images by
photojournalist Kulwant Roy, a close family friend who willed the
collection to Arya before his death nearly 20 years ago.
Arya said he always knew the trunks contained photographs but it was
only when he got around to opening them in 2007 that he realised just
how extensive and unique the collection was.
"I had no clue he took so many pictures of Gandhi and the freedom
movement. It was just mind boggling," he told AFP. For the past three
years, Arya has painstakingly sifted through the 10,000 or so images,
restoring and cataloguing the collection - much of which was in a
pitiful state having been packed in nothing more protective than a
cardboard box.
Each step of the process brought its own rewards.
"One of the boxes I opened was labelled '1940-Muslim League
activities' and inside were never-seen images of Jinnah during meetings
and taking a walk in a park with his colleagues just before partition,"
Arya said.
Two months ago, 500 selected photos were published in a book called
"History In The Making" with a foreword by Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh. A special limited-edition collector's version was also made
available for 150,000 rupees (3,000 dollars).
"How many people have seen images of constitution being signed? I
think the photo book should be in every school and college," Arya said.
"People must see, read and know what happened behind the scenes
during the freedom movement."
Independence leader Mahatma Gandhi features in many of the
photographs and Arya's effort to restore and preserve the prints has
received a seal of approval from the independence hero's great grandson,
Tushar Gandhi. "We are so callous about our heritage and history,"
Gandhi told AFP. "It takes a personal effort and passion to make the
effort to preserve these rare pictures."
AFP
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