Mahatma Ghandi, Indian 'King' of People Power.

Mohandas Karamchand Ghandi,  (Mahatma Ghandi, Great Soul), was born in Porbandar India in 1869. He was the political and idealogical  leader of India during the Indian Independence Movement.
He studied law in London returning to India in 1891 to practice as a barrister.
As an expatriate lawyer in South Africa he first employed civil disobedience pioneering 'satyagralia' - resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience founded on 'ahimsa' (truth and total non-violence).
In 1915 he returned to India to organise protests for peasants and farmers concerning excessive land tax and discrimination. In 1921 he became the leader of the Indian National Congress, and among other causes,  'swaraj' (Independence of India from foreign domination), he led his followers on the famous march and non-cooperation movement against the imposition by the British of the salt tax. He spent a number of years in jail in South Africa and India. He lived modestly, wore a traditional Indian Dhoti and shawl spun by hand himself, fasted frequently, and was a vegetarian. A great man. He was assassinated in January, 1948.

 

' Strength doesn't come from physical capacity, it comes from an indomitable will'. Mahatma Ghandi.

Above....picture of Indian hand-embroidered muslin c1815. This example of the fine loosely woven cotton cloth  muslin was made for the export market for ladies dresses etc, in c1815. Made mainly in Dacca India, muslin was loved for it's daring transparency and exquisite embroidery. In 1787 the value of the imports of muslin into England was estimated at $2,000,000 annually.  Unfortunately, with the introduction of the spinning jenny in England a heavy duty was imposed on all Indian goods and manufacture of Dacca muslins for export purposes was killed.

Indian paintings on mica, c1850.

Indian paintings on mica were mainly produced in the mid 19th century, they were made in sets for tourists imitating paintings on glass.
This series depicts trades people etc.,  other popular subjects were Hindu Gods and Goddesses, religious events, and flora and fauna.
Mica is a transparent mineral  that can be easily split into thin sheets,  and is found widely throughout Southern India, and  because the paint was applied in thick layers, (due to smooth surface and lack of key on the mica),  the paintings  retain their wonderful bright and beautiful  colours.
 (1) A Faquir and his wife.
(2) A Snake Charmer and his wife.
(3) Late Rajah of ?Tangira and his wife.

Culinary Jottings, cookery for Anglo-Indian Exiles, 1885

A fascinating cookery book by "Wyvern", published  Madras, Calcutta, and Bombay,  fifth edition 1885, first published Madras 1878.
The book covers a gamut of menus  - (Thirty, 'Worked out in Detail'),  also sauces, entrees, pastry, vegetables, curries, mulligatunny, chutneys, camp cookery, dinner parties, etc etc. bound with  a treatise on Sweet Dishes, (1884).
"Wyvern",  the pseudonymous author writes in his introduction how he 'yearns for reform in the study of cookery for English people in India', rather than the cookery of 'our Anglo-Indian forefathers'. He mentions the 'Brillat Savarin at Madras' and their talented coterie, feeling modest in their company, he speaks of 'cosy sociable little dinners from one to ten people rather than the elaborate banquets of the great'.

Above - three 19th century Indian figures.