Both Alistair Shearer and Michael Freeman are undisputed Indophiles. While Shearer’s love for India seeps through the text poetically and passionately, Freeman, reputed for photographing various countries, lets his lens speak the proverbial thousand words – in composition, simplicity, colour and character.
Each visual tells its own story – the arresting faces portraying a range of emotions ranging from utter ethereal bliss on the countenance of a worshipper to the concentration in their art by a pair of classical dancers. The majesty of the palatial hotels and palaces of Rajasthan contrast with a rural home where a calf chews on a piece of cloth. Daily rituals include the simple tasks of bathing, washing clothes, worshipping on the banks of the country’s coursing rivers, winnowing rice, to women walking, sometimes a long, hot distance, to get their daily water supply from the local well.
The duo takes the reader on an arm-chair journey through the country – by dividing it into five obvious sections. In addition there is an introduction, an overview, and a concluding practical ‘Visiting India’ chapter.
India is still the land where the ancient mingles with the contemporary. Freeman and Shearer highlight this aspect by mentioning or showing a Mercedes Benz sharing roads with age-old bullock carts; where a literacy of only 52 per cent of a billion simultaneously boasts of the world’s second largest pool of proficiency in the field of IT, engineering and science. Where ash-covered naked ascetics live life on their own terms, while urbanisation takes us to the height of the fastest growing fashion industries in the world – and much more.
The passage continues traversing through India’s geographical magnitude and typographical diversity, and the multiplicity of its people. History buffs will enjoy the time span from when the first wave of invaders came as early as 2000 BC, till the country’s last rulers – the British – and through six decades of independence.
The next chapter delves into deeply-ingrained religions and rituals, and moves to showcase India’s architectural wealth of the past. Here, inclusion of contemporary architectural wonders would have been relevant.
Performing and visual arts and crafts share space with India’s varied cuisine. The last perhaps deemed a chapter of its own for its vast variety.
All in all, a well-researched insight served on a colourful platter through 96 pages of recommended reading for anyone even remotely interested in India.
India Land of Living Traditions
Photographs by and © 2008 Michael Freeman
Essays by Alistair Shearer Text © 2008 Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd
Published by Periplus Editions
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