NY98 SECTION 5: THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE (CONTINUED)
5.2:
MAINSTREAM
MILLIONS:
VILLAGES
AND
CITIES
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These photographs of the people of India, taken over 30 years of travelling all over the county, give you glimpses of the ordinary villagers from India's primarily rural and agricultural communities. A few others show their cities, their industries \1, and the magnificence of their past, preserved in ancient temples, monuments and classical dances \2.
India, with Pakistan and Bangladesh on her wings, is more of a continent than a country, insulated from the rest of Asia by the Himalayas in the north and by the oceans and the coastal mountain ranges on the the two other sides of the peninsula. Within it, there are enormous differences in climates, religions, races, lnguages, habits of food and clothing and even in skin colour and other physical features.
India has assimilated all her invaders, who settled and intermarried, losing their seperate identities. In the north-west, the "Caucasian" origins of the people are evident, but as you travel eastwards the features change into East Asian.
The fair skins in the cold Himalayan north are darkened by the fierce sun in the Gangetic plains. The sun-burn deepens as you travel further south and Dravidian features begin to predominate.
Then there are the much older inhabitants, the "tribals", pushed into the inhospitable deserts, hills and forests.
- S u n i l J a n a h , 1 9 9 8
The tribals are represented in the previous section. See also: The Tribals of India - through the lens of Sunil Janah , Oxford University Press (India), 1993, 2003.
NOTES
1. For Industry, see Section 2 (under construction) of this Virtual Exhibition (NY 98), or Section 2 of the VE SF 2000.
2. For Dance & Temple Sculpture, see Section 4 (under construction) of this virtual exhibition, or Section 5 of the VE SF 2000. See also Panel 10 on the next page.