Muharram on British Postcards

View of Muharram Procession in Bombay(Mumbai)on Postcard 

Dr.Mazhar Naqvi

Among Indian festivals, the British looked at Muharram with fear and fascination both. The textual descriptions of festival Muharram in colonial India project it as an occasion that the authorities dreaded since Muharram Riot of 1779.But the images of Muharram processions on postcards present it as the most spectacular event of the British raj. In 1779, Muslims had went on rampage after a British officer exhibited a sort of discourtesy to a tazia procession. The crowd also pelted stones at the Supreme Court building. The incident was duly investigated and since then British found the festival capable of uprooting their regime and exercised fist control and constant monitoring during its observance.

Their approach remained somewhat same till 1870.When they found their regime well-established after the ‘Mutiny’ of 1857,the British didn’t become complacent so far as the administrative control on Muharram observation was concerned. But they allowed the grandeur, pomp and show associated with Muharram processions to flourish on postcards.

A number of postcards carried images of Muharram processions with tazias and Tabuts between 1870-1915.Marcopolo and company  printed in Germany  a postcard depicting Muharram in Calcutta with the title  ‘Calcutta, Mohurram Festival on Maidan’ . The image shows a large group of people gathered around a body of water. It also depicts a number of horse-drawn carriages in the foreground, and an orderly row of white tents in the background. As the picture was taken from a distance, all the visual characteristics of muharram appear to be missing from the image but a careful study of the photograph reveals two ‘Tabuts’ standing at the water’s edge, to the left of a leafless tree.

Two postcards of the Bombay Muharram are also worth mentioning and comparing. The first, published by the Phototype Company and posted in 1905, is remarkable for the absence of any visual cues of Muharram. Taken in Pydhownie Street in Bombay, the photograph is taken at closer range than in the Calcutta postcard and therefore appears more crowded. In the middle of the road a more open space has been created for several policemen who patrol on horseback, at least one of whom is British.

British officers frequently accompanied processions, as John Campbell Oman described in 1902: ‘behind [the procession] rode the embodiment, for the nonce, of the British raj, a solitary Englishman, with a resolute but bored expression on his face—the Assistant Superintendent of Police’. The British policeman as the embodiment of the Raj, and therefore of control, again connects Muharram with potential disorder:The other post card carries coloured photograph of  ‘Taboot Procession Bombay’ It also shows the Pydhownie street, but presents a different impression of Muharram. The photograph has been taken from a slightly higher standpoint and the swaying movement of the ‘Tabuts’ be experienced. The image exhibits the streets, houses and even their roofs packed with people. It  presents Muharram purely as a solemn festival in contrast to British efforts to  portray it as an occasion to spark off violence in Bombay by the end of 19^th century and early 20^th century.Another noteworthy postcard on Muharram was published in  Gwalior’( a princely state under British protection).The picture is taken from a roof and shows at least two Tabuts in a street full of people. Despite the photographer’s proximity to the event, the height of his viewpoint separates the viewer from the crowds milling below, creating a sense of security and control. It was published by an Indian, S. Mahadeo of Belgaum and printed in Saxony.These postcards of immense historical significance as they depict how the perception of British remained or changed with regard to Muharram observance in India. 

(The article is based on inputs taken from the scholarly work of Rianne Siebenga- Universiteit Utrecht.Photo Courtesy Google Image)