tation of ordinary working people—factory work-
ers, miners, fisher folk, men tilling fields, and
women transplanting rice or picking tea leaves,
that he participated in the anti-colonial and anti-
imperialist struggle and rallied for a socialist state
in post-independence India.
In 1943, the diversion of Indian food grains to the
British army on the Eastern Front of World War II,
the British seizure and destruction of barges that
prevented the transport of grains to outlying regions
of Bengal, and the involvement of manipulative
grain brokers all combined to precipitate the worst
human calamity in India’s economic history. Janah’s
potent images of the Bengal Famine of 1943, fol-
lowed by the images of the 1945 famine affecting
South India, in particular Rayalseema and Mysore,
permanently encapsulated an historical portrayal of
a man-made disaster in an exploited nation reeling
under imperialist dominance. Janah photographed
emaciated people waiting in line for food, groups of
skeletons and hungry dogs gnawing at dead bodies,
reminding viewers of similar images by Felice Beato
in the aftermath of the Mutiny of 1857.
Janah also accompanied American photographer
Margaret Bourke-White (1904–1971) as an inter-
preter and reporter during her travels in India, pro-
viding insider reports. Together, they captured the
1945 Famine as well as some of the most vivid
terror-filled images of the violence that marred In-
dia’s progress to freedom. Bourke-White’s images
were published inLifemagazine and in her book
Halfway to Freedom(1949).
Political events and personalities formed a core
subject of Janah’s photographs. In addition to por-
traits of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru,
Janah also photographed historic moments between
Gandhi and Mohammad Ali Jinnah during their
talks on the future of India, Gandhi in Calcutta
trying to pacify warring Muslims and Hindus during
the partition riots of 1946–1947, uprisings against
British rule and their brutal suppression, and the
communal violence itself, that was unleashed in
Calcutta on the eve of India’s independence. Parti-
cularly horrifying are his images of the bodies of
political demonstrators piled in a heap after being
shot by police in Bombay in the aftermath of the
Naval (R.I.N.) Mutiny, and of bloated bodies on
the streets following the Calcutta riots. The Parti-
tion itself has been poignantly captured in his depic-
tion of a barbed wire fence implying the creation of
separate Hindu and Muslim nations.
During 1947–1967, Janah worked as a freelance
photographer in Calcutta, serving also, from 1958 to
1964, as the Head of the Department of Photogra-
phy at the School of Printing Technology, Calcutta.
Between 1967 and 1979, Janah worked from Delhi.
His work during this entire period, from 1947–1979,
included assignments from commercial firms as well
as from the Government of India and associated
agencies, such as the Damodar Valley Corporation
and the India Tourism Development Corporation.
In 1957, Janah documented the United Nations’
aid in the Southeast Asian nations of Burma,
Malaysia, and Thailand, where he photographed
rice and rubber plantations and tin mines. He also
fulfilled assignments for the U.N. Organization in
Geneva and Paris.
In the post-independence era, in the 1950s and
1960s, India executed a series of five-year eco-
nomic plans based on industrial projects involving
the construction of dams and steel plants. Janah
maintained a detailed photographic inventory of
the changes that represented India’s modernity.
Notable in this regard are photographs such as
those of boatmen rowing a loaded country boat
on the Hooghly River, against the background of a
Calcutta skyline dominated by modern buildings,
and of tribal women workers carrying loads below
the giant upright steel pylons of a power plant
under construction. Almost as if to counteract
the rapid forces of industrialization that threa-
tened India’s natural life and beauty, Janah tra-
veled extensively to photograph the people of
India—its workers, its peasants, and its tribal peo-
ple residing in remote areas. Some of his photo-
graphs vividly portray their shrunken bodies
during natural disasters, while others express
their intrinsic grace.
Particularly as regards tribes, Janah felt amazed
at the ease with which they appeared before a cam-
era, a gadget unknown to most of them. In eastern
and central India, he photographed the Santals,
Oraons, Bhumias, Hos and Hajangs of Bengal and
Bihar, the Gadabas, Saoras and Juangs of Orissa,
the Chakmas of Tripura, and the Murias and Bison-
horn Marias of Bastar. In the west and south, he
photographed the Bhils of Rajasthan, the Warlis of
the Western Ghats and the Todas of the Nilgiris. In
the northeast, Janah photographed the Kukis of
Manipur, the Nagas of Nagaland, the Abors,
Daflas and Mishmis of Arunachal Pradesh, the
Miris of the Brahmaputra valley, and the Kacharis,
Khasis, Garos and Mikirs of Assam and Megha-
laya. Janah’s photo-documentation of these tribes
preserved pristine images of lives that are constantly
changing under the threat of economic and indus-
trial development. Through Janah’s camera, the
traditional and the modern, the rural and the
urban converged to produce a holistic image of an
emergent modern nation.JANAH, SUNIL