Fakir S. Aijazuddin’s Imperial Curiosity: Early Views of Pakistan, 1845-1906, is an enriching documentation of British royal visits to parts of Punjab, Sindh and areas that now comprise Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Aijazuddin writes that his objective has “not been to defend imperialism or to provoke anti-imperial resentments, but simply to recall the impressions created in the minds of visitors to this part of the world, and to pay tribute to those who wrote or painted for their time, for posterity and for us.”

It must have been an arduous task, but Ajiazuddin, scholar and historian par excellence, has consolidated a large, understudied and unseen part of the visual documentation of the times of the British Raj through the artistic merit of the British royals. He injects critique and commentary in the subtlest manner, and allows the reader and viewer plenty of space to enter and engage with this treasure trove of art.

This compilation of black-and-white and colour plates of drawings, lithographs and paintings, furnished with first-hand accounts by the artists and replete with Aijazuddin’s penchant for facts and expert understanding of this turf, make the book nothing less than a work of passionate dedication.

The author charts the commonality among the artists in the recording of their participation in military campaigns. Six have been grouped under the heading ‘Martial Curiosity, 1845-1892’. These include Charles S. Hardinge who, in his 20s, accompanied his father, Governor General Henry Hardinge, in the First Anglo-Sikh War of 1845-46; Prince Waldemar of Prussia, who came to India to see the sights, and instead found himself a combatant against the Sikhs at the battles of Mudki, Ferozeshah and Sobraon; and Dr Henry A. Oldfield, who was part of the British force that occupied Punjab after the treaty of 1846.

A brilliant new book consolidates a large, understudied and unseen part of the visual documentation of the times of the British Raj

The fourth name in this group, one would agree, is the most prolific of all: the professional illustrator William Simpson. Then there is Alfred Harcourt, who spent time in Punjab in the 1870s and, lastly, the American artist Edwin Lord Weeks, who was enamoured with the colourful artwork on the walls of the Wazir Khan Mosque in Lahore.

The second group of artists is gathered under the title ‘Royal Curiosity, 1876-1906’. These were Prince Edward of Wales, who visited in 1876; his son Prince Albert Victor; Czarevitch Nicholas Alexandrovitch, the Russian Romanov who was related to the British royal family and, finally, Prince George and Princess Mary of Wales, who travelled across India and Burma in 1905-06.

The unfamiliar names and dates, though cumbersome to register, recede into the background once you start enjoying the interesting and often amusing first-hand accounts accompanying the wonderful illustrations. The Prince and Princess of Wales are referred to as habitual diarists, their albums containing photographs, mementoes and timetables of royal trains and banquet menus. “Anything that would remind them of a visit they wished never to forget,” writes Aijazuddin.

In summing up the contents of his book, Aijazuddin draws this description: “[These] provide a priceless record of a world that once existed — a world of historic sights … of bejewelled rajas and regalia-laden maharajas, of courtiers to whom protocol was a parallel religion, of banquets for hundreds who vied for the privilege to appear in full dress, of liveried staff who had no other vocation than dedicated service, of caparisoned elephants with sumptuous howdahs, of hunts in the wild … and of royal trains that followed the timetable to the minute.”

The cover image is a delightful watercolour titled ‘Sikh Chieftains Arriving for the Lahore Durbar, 14 February 1860’, painted by the master illustrator William Simpson in 1864. Simpson portrays a grand vista of the elephant and horse procession approaching the Badshahi Mosque and the Lahore Fort in the far distance, the minarets rendered in the subtlest highlights in pearl-like whites.

The elephant carriage is covered in jewel-coloured drapery, the attire of the horse escort highlighted in crisp, silvery strokes against a landscape of goldish ochre and sienna, with idyllic trees typical of the Punjab landscape fading in the distance. It is quite an impressionistic illustration depicting the colonisers’ fascination for the ‘exotic’, not to mention barefoot locals that present a stark contrast to the overall theatrical stage. The glistening ganga-jamni, or silver gold, highlights of the cover entice one to delve into this understudied world of travel romance of this region.

Informal notes corresponding to the experience of the royal artists provide intimate vignettes into what they were inspired or captivated by. Aijazuddin insists on studying this poetic side of the Raj, its conquests and acquisitions through this unofficial history of conquest.

Commentary around the work engages consistently and these two parallel threads are woven skilfully. Pick any page, and you will find accounts such as Simpson’s, who accompanied Lady Canning, wife of Governor General Lord Canning, to “gigantic sketching excursions.”

Lady Canning, wrote Simpson, was a fine artist, “completely captivated” by the Lahore Fort. Aijazuddin quotes from her diary that the fort looked “like an ogre’s castle in a fairy tale book … The distance of blue mountains and snow and sandy river bed behind these fine ruins made endless pictures.”

Governor General Hardinge’s recollections of the juvenile Maharaja Duleep Singh bejewelled in the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond are accompanied with commentary by Hardinge’s son, Charles, that compares the “narrow dirty streets of the town” to the interior of the durbar: “Imagine yourself walking through marble courts and treading on Cashmere shawls, sitting under canopies of the same material and listening to the trickling of the fountains, and then you can fancy what an Indian durbar is.” And of the “poor little maharaja, covered with diamonds and emeralds, [who] little knew how much of his country he had lost by this unprovoked invasion.”

The chapter on Simpson, in particular, contains the most finely executed reproductions of woodcut engravings with titles such as ‘Bamiyan Buddha’, ‘The Dangers of Archaeology at the Pheel Khana Tope’, ‘The Pass of Ali Masjid in the Khyber’, ‘Boating on the Cabul River, En Route to the Caves at Chiknour’, ‘An Accident at the Kala Sukh Fort of the Kabul River’ and ‘Three War Correspondents Asleep in the Camp Before the Attack on the Fort of Ali Masjid’. Simpson made notes accompanying his drawings which were converted into engraved woodcuts at the Illustrated London News by different hands. Many of the other artists’ drawings also went through extensive land and sea routes to reach London, and were then printed.

There are finely reproduced images of Raja Ranbir Singh of Kashmir being received by Lord Canning, the barest pencil sketches — such as of the Fort — by Simpson in 1860, watercolour sketches and chromolithographs of the durbar camps in Sialkot, and a riveting sunset in Lahore around the River “Ravee”, which was published in his final album of lithographs.

Also riveting are images of the bazaars, streets and buildings of Lahore, particularly of the tomb of Shams-i-Tabriz in Multan, depicting Alfred Hardcourt’s interest in the movement of daylight and shadows.

One has to read the book to view in depth the other works studied, but there is no doubt that Imperial Curiosity is to be enjoyed for the author’s poetic approach to the art and history of the Raj.

The subtext, however, emerges from the author’s description of an image quoted from the Illustrated London News, of the preparations for the visit of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1875-76. It shows local workmen lifting a crown to form the apex of their decorations. The caption ends with a condescending pun: “Supporting the Crown.”

Other such tours were to become “benign affirmations of an irreversible conquest,” writes Aijazuuddin. A telling note on empire, and that all art is, after all, political.

The reviewer is an art critic and curator based in Karachi. She tweets @amraalikhi and is on Instagram @amrali1

Imperial Curiosity: Early Views of Pakistan, 1845-1906
By Fakir S. Aijazuddin
Le Topical, Lahore
ISBN: 978-9697120536
154pp.

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, November 7th, 2021