Taste of Life: A look back at Easter celebrations in 19th century

The Easter festival would be observed with customary solemnity at the city churches. For many, Easter celebrated the new life of spring and praying at the church was an important ritual

Easter marks the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It celebrates the resurgence of life in spring and the victory of light over darkness.

On Easter Monday in 1898, the newly formed Poona Camera Club organised an exhibition in the premises of the Connaught Hotel. Bromide papers, developing dishes, adhesive clothes, and radiograph prints were displayed on the occasion. Spectators were served cucumber sandwiches and soda water. (REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO)

With church services, bunnies, and eggs, the Easter holiday is a confluence of various traditions dating back to several centuries. In the nineteenth century, however, Easter holiday in India also came to be associated with photography and photographic events.

Photography came to India in 1840 and developed in parallel with European photographic practices. The expansion of the British imperial rule helped photography being utilised for geographical and cultural exploration of the colony. The empire used photography as a tool for ethnographic documentation and control.

Bombay was the centre of Indian photographic industry. In October 1854, the Photographic Society of Bombay was formed, only a year after the Photographic Society of London. Soon such institutions were established in Madras and Bengal.

India had once been a wild and faraway place, but during the Victorian era, the steamship and the Suez Canal brought it closer to Europe. However, in the European consciousness, India remained an exotic and mysterious land. It was the land of fantasy, splendour, and poverty. It was also a land that filled British coffers.

European photographers planned their India tours depending on the climate and region they wanted to visit. For visiting the plains, where the finest sights of India’s temples were, the best time was between the end of October and the end of March; for the hills, with their picturesqueness and grandeur, between April and October.

Easter was at the cusp of both these seasons. It was generally said to begin the photographic season in Western India. It was the time when photographers came to the Bombay Presidency to sell and display their photographs, and the ‘outsider” set out with their camera to get to know India and the Indians with the help of the “insider”. It was during the Easter holidays that many took the opportunity to get away for a few days in search of health or rest, and also the picturesque as food for the camera.

In Britain, Easter holidays witnessed “photographic excursions” where trains or coaches on trains were booked for photographers. The trains would carry them to locations where they could capture photographs.

The Easter holidays in 1880 saw the extension of the excursion system to India. Messrs Cook, who had an office in Bombay, ran a special cheap excursion on the Great Indian Peninsula Railway from Bombay to Poona with stoppages at Khandala, Lonavla, and Kirkee. The advertisements announcing the excursion were published in English and vernacular newspapers. Around one hundred people travelled by train, and it was a great success. It was a four days excursion, for ₹11, the profits going to the Strangers’ Friend Society.

In the early 1890s, The Royal Photographic Society started organising photographic excursions from Bombay to Poona. The party would arrive in Poona on Good Friday and during their stay would besiege the city with their cameras. The Society made lodging arrangements at The Poona Hotel and The Napier Hotel every year. Dark rooms for changing photographic plates would be created at The Napier Hotel.

Photographers coming to India from Europe were advised to spend a few days in Bombay and Poona before setting out on their excursion. The trip was planned taking into consideration the length of time available, the time of year the trip could be taken, and the expenses. It was suggested that no one should go to India from England without seeing Ceylon and Egypt, and from the latter, a trip to Palestine could be undertaken. Those who travelled on government expenses could easily afford to visit other countries en route to India. Hence, photographers were always on the lookout for government patronage.

Poona was the first stop of most photographers after arriving in Bombay. Some of them hired native cooks from the city for the entire journey lasting for several months. These cooks could speak a little bit of English and acted as interpreters during the travel. Hotel managers in Poona would also help the photographers hire “bearers” who would guard their luggage, guard their carriage when they got out for meals, make up their bed whilst they were at dinner, and bring them tea or coffee in the morning. During the train journey, cooks and bearers travelled third class.

Captain JS Henderson wrote on April 23, 1897 in “The Photographic News” that there was no difficulty with the language in India, as English was spoken on all the railways and in the hotels. The Poona Hotel, The Connaught Hotel, The Royal Family Hotel, and the Napier Hotel should be preferred in Poona, according to him. These hotels organised “excellent Easter parties with ham and bacon,” he noted. They also featured in the guidebooks written for European photographers wanting to travel to India.

The guidebooks assured the photographers that these hotels served filtered water and the milk was unadulterated. At smaller stations like Khandala and Karla where there were no hotels, the photographers opted for travellers’ bungalows. Most of such bungalows were owned and run by Parsee gentlemen. The government had constructed rest houses in some small towns like Ahmednagar. In the 1870s, each person occupying a room for twenty-four hours paid one rupee. The Khansamah charged for food supplied and cooked. “Griffins”, as newcomers to India were called, were surprised at how often fowls appeared on the menu.

E Giles, director of public instruction, declared in 1903, that Good Friday should always be observed as a holiday in the Bombay Presidency. This gave a surge to photographic activities during the Easter holidays.

Several Photographic Societies would organise their annual exhibitions from Good Friday till Easter Thursday. Members’ prints, negatives, and apparatus were displayed. A special section would be devoted to photographers who were visiting from abroad. Silver and bronze medals and certificates would be given to the winners. Photographers handed over show cards of their work to prospective patrons. These exhibitions were usually very well attended with several photographs being sold.

On Easter Monday in 1898, the newly formed Poona Camera Club organised an exhibition in the premises of the Connaught Hotel. Bromide papers, developing dishes, adhesive clothes, and radiograph prints were displayed on the occasion. Spectators were served cucumber sandwiches and soda water.

Annual athletic sports events were also organised by schools on Easter Monday. Children dyed eggs and egg hunts were popular. These events were usually followed by a dinner party for the students. The menu would often comprise eggs, cakes and Easter buns. Photographers took this opportunity to shoot photos of children enjoying sports and dinner. The weather on the whole would be fair and brighter enabling shorter exposures to be made.

The Easter festival would be observed with customary solemnity at the city churches. For many, Easter celebrated the new life of spring and praying at the church was an important ritual. Hotels in Poona organised coaches for the photographers to visit churches after which they would be requested to assemble for a grand feast at the hotel dining room.

The Easter holidays continued to be associated with the “photography seasons” till much of the early twentieth century. Even though wars and fading novelty for the exotic put an end to this tradition, old photographs in the archives still remind us of the Easter festivities.