Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

An Englishwoman who sketched India before photography took hold

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 81 posts

Re: An Englishwoman who sketched India before photography took hold

#51

Post by fennecfoxy »

djklfhdsbv wrote: post #48

I love it, the English can be there to exploit India and enslave its people but we treat their work as art. If it was anyone else like the Ottomans, we would treat it as barbarianism.

Lmao, really? England has famously been judged for its industrial colonisation, even if it was still in an era where _everyone_ was colonising _everyone_.

Interesting how Genghis Khan got away with it, to most he's now just a "badass" historical figure, I don't think most people could tell of all the terrible things he was responsible for.

Re: An Englishwoman who sketched India before photography took hold

#52

Post by gadders »

21asdffdsa12 wrote: post #46
pm90 wrote: post #3

Besides the sketches, she has written extensively about Indian rulers at the time (e.g. Ranjit Singh). If you found this interesting, you would love the Empire Podcast... I believe they talk about Emily in the episode on Afghanistan ( https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/79-invading-afghanista... ); Dalrymple's book on the subject (Return of a King, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_of_a_King ) is also a masterfu…

Great podcasts. Also gives you more of an idea why empires started existing. Basically keep the lights on at home at the price of somewhere else going dark. Empire is a life support mechanism for civilization, because when the exponential of life runs out on the linear of physics, social machinery is needed to be more than a riotous blob of ever-warring starving people. Basically a civilization scale heat-pump, simil…

I think it's a bit rude to claim India has gone dark. It seems like a pretty vibrant economy.

Re: An Englishwoman who sketched India before photography took hold

#53

Post by zkmon »

The English those days had some raw skills and strength. Jim Corbett traveled from Englad on a request to hunt a tiger, camped in the forest on a tree in the nights to deal with the beast. CP Brown studied Telugu and South Indian languages in a high detail. So many other Emglish men impacted India in many ways - irrigation, engineering and adminitrative framework etc. Second world War changed the course.

Re: An Englishwoman who sketched India before photography took hold

#54

Post by 21asdffdsa12 »

gadders wrote: post #52
21asdffdsa12 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great podcasts. Also gives you more of an idea why empires started existing. Basically keep the lights on at home at the price of somewhere else going dark. Empire is a life support mechanism for civilization, because when the exponential of life runs out on the linear of physics, social machinery is needed to be more than a riotous blob of ever-warring starving people. Basically a civilization scale heat-pump, simil…

I think it's a bit rude to claim India has gone dark. It seems like a pretty vibrant economy.

Its a electric lighting metaphor - on a world that abandons free trade and goes zero-sum. Take it literal to not deal with the given arguments, the reality depicted does not go away.

PS: If india rises similar to china- the dependence on trade rises- otherwise - they would have outposts similar to the chinese in africa all of a sudden. The situations and dilemas depicted are universal, thus any country given the societal equipment (culture) can bump into them.

Re: An Englishwoman who sketched India before photography took hold

#55

Post by Cthulhu_ »

raws wrote: post #41

I think it looks like I'm only seeing rich individuals of the times are there more sketches of other classes as well?

Isn't this usually what happens? More depictions, records, stories and possessions of rich people end up surviving long term.

Which is why I think it's important that if one is a creator, author, artist, photo/videographer, etc, that they also log the mundane, the common.

My grandfather was a hobby photographer, he'd go out during e.g. local (traditional) events like "ring running" [0] (note that this was in the mid-1900s, not the 1500s from the linked article) and make photos / videos about it. A lot of his stuff is now archived at the local history museum.

(also note that this was very much a small village on the far side of the country (NL), while it was spared the worst of the war it also lagged a bit in development)

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running_at_the_ring

Re: An Englishwoman who sketched India before photography took hold

#56

Post by vintermann »

fennecfoxy wrote: post #51
djklfhdsbv wrote: post #48

I love it, the English can be there to exploit India and enslave its people but we treat their work as art. If it was anyone else like the Ottomans, we would treat it as barbarianism.

Lmao, really? England has famously been judged for its industrial colonisation, even if it was still in an era where _everyone_ was colonising _everyone_. Interesting how Genghis Khan got away with it, to most he's now just a "badass" historical figure, I don't think most people could tell of all the terrible things he was responsible for.

Genghis Khan had the "decency" of failing pretty badly at producing an institution outliving him, whereas the English royal family are keeping a shockingly big share of the loot to this day.

Re: An Englishwoman who sketched India before photography took hold

#57

Post by randysalami »

zkmon wrote: post #53

The English those days had some raw skills and strength. Jim Corbett traveled from Englad on a request to hunt a tiger, camped in the forest on a tree in the nights to deal with the beast. CP Brown studied Telugu and South Indian languages in a high detail. So many other Emglish men impacted India in many ways - irrigation, engineering and adminitrative framework etc. Second world War changed the course.

I like to think WW1 and WW2 was the collective suicide of the West, at least in Europe. So much power lost, both in terms of empire and people, impossible to ever recover. I guess from my learning, it was inevitable, there was no other path where they could have not killed each other and blown up their empires. Alas.

Re: An Englishwoman who sketched India before photography took hold

#58

Post by yomismoaqui »

djklfhdsbv wrote: post #48

I love it, the English can be there to exploit India and enslave its people but we treat their work as art. If it was anyone else like the Ottomans, we would treat it as barbarianism.

The winner writes the history.

E.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Legend

Re: An Englishwoman who sketched India before photography took hold

#59

Post by leosanchez »

seesawtron wrote: post #49
djklfhdsbv wrote: post #48

I love it, the English can be there to exploit India and enslave its people but we treat their work as art. If it was anyone else like the Ottomans, we would treat it as barbarianism.

Oh boy, you haven’t read enough about the British rule in India.

Please educate

Re: An Englishwoman who sketched India before photography took hold

#60

Post by gadders »

zkmon wrote: post #53

The English those days had some raw skills and strength. Jim Corbett traveled from Englad on a request to hunt a tiger, camped in the forest on a tree in the nights to deal with the beast. CP Brown studied Telugu and South Indian languages in a high detail. So many other Emglish men impacted India in many ways - irrigation, engineering and adminitrative framework etc. Second world War changed the course.

Also - James Prinsep - decoded the ancient Brahmi script, unlocking a lot of Indian history.

And as an English person, it pains me but I should mention a lot of the Empire was run by random Scots people as well. They should share the credit/blame.

Post reply on HN