Wafer-Thin History: India and World War I Through Postcards

Abstract

AbstractWorld War I (1914–1918) was a defining moment in world history. The Great War came just at the end of the golden age of picture postcards, the Instagram of its time, when humans first shared pictures with each other at a volume and breadth never realized before. This article examines postcards of the war of Indian soldiers and prisoners by French, German, British, and Indian soldiers and associated Europeans to reveal how prejudices and identities were affected by warfare. Postcards also reflected the rise of the Independence struggle as one of its consequences toward the end of the war. As visual media and social extensions of print capitalism, they are a rich source of how complex and contradictory this formative phase of nationalism was for all involved, and the way these humble new media objects were able to play an important role in the psychological conflicts that ensued.