The idea of nationhood

In the year 1930, Swiss photojournalist Walter Bosshard was sent to India to report on the growing unrest and the Independence movement. He spent eight months in the country, a huge portion of which was spent photographing Mahatma Gandhi. A few years later, the lensman travelled to China to document Mao Zedong and the Red Army training in the caves of Yan’an. Nearly 90 years later, these images of the Dandi March and the training of the Red Army, reveal salient aspects of Asia’s history. Now, this rare archive of photographs has found its way to an exhibition Envisioning Asia: Gandhi and Mao in the Photographs of Walter Bosshard co-curated by Gayatri Sinha, Director of Critical Collective and Peter Pfrunder, Director of Swiss Foundation for Photography at the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum. Gayatri sheds some more light on the exhibition....

What makes the images stand out?

Bosshard’s images offer the most intimate view of the Mahatma possible. Clearly, he had built a relationship of trust with Gandhi, and was allowed to shoot at the time when Gandhi ate, shaved or slept. In that sense, they are unique and as compared to the later pictures of photographers who shot Gandhi from a distance, they present him in a highly accessible state.

Where do you think lies the similarity — in their ideologies or in the way Walter has captured them? 

Bosshard is unique, in that, he documented both Gandhi and Mao within the space of the decade of the 1930s. The fact that both of these sets of photographs were available in a single archive made this a very powerful subject. In curating the exhibition, what we could demonstrate was that the march of the Red Army and the march to Dandi were a study in contrasting ideologies.

Marching soldiers of the 8th Route Army

Tell us a bit about the curating process. 

I had visited the archive in Winterthur, Switzerland in 2017, and seen the Gandhi images. Peter had told me that he was showing the Mao images in China, and the opportunity to show these in India as well seemed like a unique opportunity. Although Bosshard had travelled in India for eight months and in China for nine years, we decided only to fix on these two personalities when they both in their distinctly different ways, worked towards the idea of nationhood.

Mao Zedong in front of the entrance to the ‘Red Academy’, Yan’an, China, 1938 (left); Preparations at the Congress headquarters for ‘Boycott Week’, Mumbai, 1930

What do you think is the viewer’s takeaway from the exhibit?

The fact that the material is being seen for the first time in 90 years should definitely add to our knowledge. The images of how nationalism spread on the streets, through the sale of caps and stickers is unique. Further, we have never been exposed to the making of communism in China, and these photographs give us an insight into Chinese history. The site, Yan’an, is now like a pilgrimage site in China.

The exhibition will be on view at the Special Project Space, Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum till March 24, 2019.