Could This Photograph Still be Made Today?

No, let me be as clear as I can: Would a scene like this, of Muslim men praying in public, on a platform in Old Delhi Station, while train passengers casually looked on, be possible today?

Without making headlines across the country?

Without those praying being harassed or arrested by Police?

Without them being deemed a threat to national security?

Without chants of jai shri ram and jeers ringing across the station?

Without garnering a mob, threatening and then enacting violence?

Muslim Women Praying at Dawn in Srinagar

1948, Henri Cartier-Bresson

Bijapur, Late 20th Century,

T.S. Satyan

Evening Prayer, Jama Masjid, Delhi

1982, Raghu Rai

This photograph was taken in 2002. The year of the Gujarat Pogrom, where a three-day rampage by largely Hindu mobs in the Western Indian state of Gujarat left over 2000 people dead, mostly Muslims.

This is an important photograph. And as each day passes in India, its value only grows. An image of Muslims openly praying as the people around them seem to leave them to prayer. In an archive in a museum in India, to have a photograph like this is essential. The archive must show what was once possible, and what has since been destroyed.

I looked through the MAP archive for more images of Muslims praying, and I found four photographs, two small paintings and many beautiful Islamic prayer rugs. In an archive of over 18,000 images and objects, this paucity of visibility feels especially grating. A loss made more evident by the ongoing and violent erasure of Muslim life, Muslim prayer and Muslim joy in India.

Eid Prayer at Fiord Shah Kotla, Delhi

2005, Raghu Rai

Girls of Muslim Cattle Breeder (Mutwa or Matwa) Community in Kutch, in 'Kuran-Madresa' (Koran School)

1975/1976, Jyoti Bhatt

This photograph does not depict prayer, but it is one of the few that contains ‘Muslim’ in its title. It has made me think, and think again about what it means to title, and what it means to be visible in this archive through this identity.

Man Worshipping a Tazia

c. 1850,

Place of Origin: Patna, Bihar

Man Worshipping a Tazia

c. 1850

Place of Origin: Patna, Bihar

Is this a man, I wonder.