Paper Jewels: Postcards from the Raj

• The first book on the subject of postcards in the Indian subcontinent


• More than 500 professionally restored images


• Chapters dedicated to cities and movements


Postcards were to people in 1900 what the Internet was to the world in 2000. The world went from a thousand to a billion postcards in a very short span of time, with the finest painters from India, Austria and Japan getting involved.


Paper Jewels is the story of postcards during the Raj, and covers India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Burma. It is the first book on the subject and features hundreds of professionally-restored images in original format, weaving together the postcard artists, photographers, and publishers who define the rich history of the medium. The author's research also charts the history and progression of the technological aspects of postcard publishing and its key players. The concluding chapters explore the role postcards played in the Independence struggle, from the First Non-Cooperation Movement through the Dandi March and Partition. It includes some of the earliest cards of Mahatma Gandhi, Mohammed Ali Jinnah and other political figures. Many of the images in the book have not been seen since they were first published nearly a century ago.


Published in association with The Alkazi Collection of Photography.