Dark behind the Dazzle – Labourers lifting lighting equipments on their forehead at a wedding procession in Nagpur.
Nagpur: It is the reminiscent of the great Indian royal grandeur where in slaves were the part and parcel of every regal move – right from cart pullers, lifters, porters to labourers. Slavery was a consistent chapter in every phase of Indian history and this era too is no exception, where similar pictures of drudgery and miseries of humanity are displayed.
It appears as if slavery does not seem to have been abolished from India. The owners have changed hands. The ownership of slaves has changed hands from British to rich and powerful Indian masters. Before Independence the British Empire ruled over us. They treated us like slaves. Indians were used for all menial laborious work.
Indians were used to ferry the British in carts. Indians had to pull the strings of the Pankhi (A traditional hand fan used in Royal households) so that the Bara Saheb gets air. In order to lighten the Bara Saheb’s lawns and his path, Indian had to carry kerosene lamps, hurricane or Petromax lamps.
… Samuel Gunashekran
