India: Past, Present and Future

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Mahatma Gandhi, Mr. & Madame Chiang Kai-shek, Pandit Nehru, Bhulabhai Desai & Birla Family, 1942 Vintage Gelatin Silver Print, Estate of Jayant Patel, Bombay Photo Stores Private Ltd, Calcutta

Please join Payal Arts International and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Tuesday October 23rd, 2012 from 6-8pm in the nation's capital for an evening highlighting the photographic archive of the late Jayant Patel.

We are pleased to invite you to a presentation of Jayant Patel’s vintage photographic estate depicting India from 1940 to 1970. David P. Good, veteran diplomat, former U.S. Consul General in Mumbai, and a student of recent Indian history, will offer remarks on the significance of Patel’s work. Following the presentation Ashley J. Tellis will outline Carnegie’s plans to launch a research center in New Delhi. Jayant Patel was the official photographer to the Raj Bhavan in Calcutta, the seat of the British governance in Bengal until independence and later the residence of the Indian governor of West Bengal. Working from his Calcutta studio, Bombay Photo Stores, Patel processed film for the U.S. and British military during World War II, and was in a position to witness the major events of India’s independence struggle in eastern India as well as the early days of the new Indian republic. Patel’s work captured decisive moments involving dignitaries such as Mahatma Gandhi, British governor of Bengal Lord Casey, Jawaharlal Nehru, and visiting leaders like China’s Chiang Kai-shek. For his personal pleasure, Patel also photographed scenes of Calcutta in the 1940s, and locations elsewhere, including Kashmir, Darjeeling, Agra, and Orissa – a priceless record of a bygone time in India.

Giving life back to Sukhdev’s house


LUDHIANA: Shaheed Sukhdev's ancestral house in Naughara Mohalla, which has been lying in a shambles, will be restored to its earlier glory. The Punjab and Haryana high court has ordered the government to get the renovation done in four months with a central grant of Rs 81 lakh.

The HC decision comes as major relief to the family members of the martyr, who say that finally, the house will get proper attention.

The state government had declared the house national property and had locked it since January 16, 2012 on the orders of the high court. The home was reopened after being closed for 15 months in June this year.

The high court had formed a 3-member committee to look into the maintenance of the house. The committee had held its first meeting on May 31.

Meanwhile, the court has also allowed the Shaheed Sukhdev Memorial Trust to be associated with the restoration work.

The HC noted that the archaeology department is stated to have already been taken the conservation work. And consultants have been entrusted with the task of preparing the detailed project report.

Expressing his happiness, Ashok Thapar, nephew of martyr Sukhdev Thapar and president of Shaheed Sukhdev Memorial Trust, "We are delighted with the decision. It's also good that the trust will be part of the committee formed to look into the restoration work," he said.

Thapar said it was he who had got this house vacated from the possession of a family, which lived as tenants, so that this memorial could be given its due respect. "Since then, I had been fighting a battle for its renovation and restoration. I had to file a case in this regard against the Punjab government in 2012 and the court has finally given us justice," he added.

Amit Rawal, counsel for Shaheed Sukhdev Memorial Trust, said, "Our main issue was the restoration of the memorial and the involvement of the trust in the committee."