28 Photos That’ll Give You A Glimpse Of Life In Pre-Independent India

We wouldn’t know what it was like when we had rulers here, would we? Ever thought how it must have been when the Britishers invaded and took over our land? Yes, we may have heard about the struggle, but we never can know how it felt for those who were around.

Here is a compilation that will transport you to a time when independence was just a dream:

1. Pedi-cared: A Britisher being attended to by his Indian help.

2. The broken doing the mending: Workers fixing a broken road.

3. When life on stage was better than it was off it: A Marathi theatrical group, Bombay.

4. When the Brits ruled our streets: Members of Bombay Bicycle Club.

Check out the 2 cycles in the middle!

5. Co-dependence: A beggar and his better-‘calf’ in Calcutta, 1908.

6. Irony: Black & white times, when colour mattered more.

White babies being cared for by Indian servants.

7. Hooghly hit hugely: Effects of a cyclone on the river bank in Calcutta, 1867.

8. Peaceful: Rabindranath Tagore with Brahmacharya Ashram boys at Shantiniketan, 1903.

9. Their aim in life: Tribals Fishing in Andaman, 1870.

10. Hoping for a fruitful life: Indian fruit shop in a Bazaar.

11. Trying to cut through the hardships: A native barber in Madras.

12. Some Mughals ‘died-nasty’: Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal in exile at Rangoon, May 1858.

This photo was clicked by a British photographer.

13. Starving to keep the hunger alive: Hunger strike poster by Bhagat Singh, printed in Lahore.

14. The teacher and the preacher: Gandhiji & Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan aka ‘Frontier Gandhi’ in Peshawar, 1920.

15. Brothers in arms: Indian Army Soldiers in their uniform, 1850.

16. ‘Bull-locked’ to the train: The Bullock Hauled train in Baroda, 1863.

17. The pride of the east: People of a Bhutia tribe in Darjeeling.

18. Forging a connection: A bridge in Srinagar circa 1880s.

19. The ‘elluring’ structure: Ellora’s Kailash Temple in Maharashtra during the 19th century.

20. Feeling whole next to the holy: Devotees next to river Ganga in Banaras, circa 1890s.

21. The bravest of them all: Bhagat Singh in jail, 1927

22. The life givers: An Indian woman with her child.

23. And an entire family outside their home.

24. Dancing on the stage called life: Professional performers in Old Delhi, 1906.

25. The contrast within a contrast: Difference between a Brahman family…

26. And a family in a Madura village.

27. When ‘Pre’ was about to become ‘Post’: Jawaharlal Nehru announcing India’s freedom before midnight, nearing 15th August, 1947.

Tough times they were. We should be grateful for our freedom.