221

The Global Edition ofThe NewYork Times

Wednesday, June 18, 2008 INTERNATIONAL LIFE
'II ofAI"II
,
.r
became a leading member of the city's small press corps.
His images may not be as well known as those of photo-
graphers like Margaret Bourke-White and Henri Cartier-
Bresson, who went to India during this period, but they were
popular at the time. By 1958, he was successful enough to em-
bark on a world photographic tour, traveling to more than 30
countries over the course of three years. While visiting Ja-
pan, he apparently became romantically involved with a
young Japanese woman. Arya has found their
love letters amid Roy's crates. He has also
found a copy of an application Roy filled out,
sponsoring her to come to India. But for un-
known reasons she never came, Arya said, and
Roy, who remained a bachelor, never spoke
about her. Arya speculates that the end of their
relationship may be linked with a major pro-
fessional blow Roy suffered upon his return to
India. Toward the end of his world tour, Roy
mailed home R balch of photos and neg-
IlIIVl'lI (Rim hiA I rip. "I hI
, __ 1..... a.-_.._- . . .
Adlty. Arya Archives, Kulwant Roy Collection
Photographs by Kulwant Roy, below (1944): Above left, Jacqueline Kennedy with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in1962; above,
Nehru with his grandson, Rajiv Gandhi, and his daughter, Indira Gandhi (undated). Both became prime ministers; both were killed.
tion, but he estimates this is just a third of the total.
Still, several potentially significant photographs have
already emerged, including a 1939 picture of Gandhi in a
heated argument with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the head of
India's Muslim League who went on to found Pakistan. The
two men were seldom photographed together and their dis-
agreements primarily took place out of the public eye.
Roy shot many of Gandhi's travels as well as the 1946 Brit-
ish Cabinet Mission which finalized plans for
Indian Independence. And he was there when
Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last British vice-
roy, handed power to Nehru, India's first
prime minister. "He was a major chronicler"
of the Independence movement, said Mridula
Mukherjee, director of the Nehru Memorial
Museum and Library in Delhi.
A former college history major who has un-
dertaken documentary projects throughout
India between commercial assignments, the
48-year old Arya has been awed by Ihtl Il'!fRey
Rov him. "AJj .. ..."."b..... 1"."
Inindia'
,"' . ,. ,
." -". .. .
n.istory'in a
,
yellow'crate
ofpegatives
By Jeremy Kahn
, NEW DELHI
T
he yellow crates haunted Aditya Arya. A successful
. aqvertising photographer whose clients have
ranged from India's luxury Oberoi Hotel chain to
Russia's Bolshoi Ballet, Arya inherited the crates
from a family friend, an old photojournalist named Kulwant
Roy, in 1984. And for more than two decades, Arya had
hauled the increasingly dusty trunks around a succession of
studios, stashing themin out of the way comers and closets.
He had a vague sense of what the crates contained -
bundles of prints and negatives - and at least once a year his
mother would nag him about them. But he was always too
busy with his own assignments to spend time pouring over
someone else's fading pictures.
Then, inDecember, Arya finally opened the crates. What he
discovered is a remarkable photographic record ofmodem In-
dian history, including thousands of images from the last days
of the Rai throUlzh the 1960s. manv of which have newer been
Photos oj'.
Audio slide s
from Lahore
ber him, ROl
metobeal
fact that one
But when Rc
children oft
Having b(
dedicated to
in the annal!
photographs
time and sor
but they are
Arya. "For n
portantas m
The phot(
among the
largest phot
"stringer" fo
vice. "As wa
ited," Sarah
response to I
that"ifwe co
credit the in
Arya is h<
Delhi later t
der discussil
illstance a pi
a third-class
India photos

became a leading member ofthe city's small press corps.

His images may not be as well known as those of photo-
graphers like Margaret Bourke-White and Henri Cartier-
Bresson, who went to India during this period, but they were
popular at the time. By1958, he was successful enough to em-
bark on a world photographic tour, traveling to more than 30
countries over the course of three years. While visiting Ja-
pan, he apparently became romantically involved with a
young Japanese woman. Arya has found their
love letters am.id Roy's crates. He has also
found a copy of an application Roy filled out,
sponsoring her to come to India. But for un-
known reasons she never came, Arya said, and
Roy, who remained a bachelor, never spoke
about her. Arya speculates that the end of their
relationship may be linked with a major pro-
fessional blow Roy suffered upon his return to
India. Toward the end of.his world tour, Roy
mailed home a large batch of photos and neg-
atives from his trip. "He intended fo use these
to live on for the next twenty years," Arya said.
t None of them arrived. Convinced the parcels
had been stolen, Roy spent years searching for
them. He placed ads in newspapers offering a
reward for their safe return and even took to
rummaging through garbage bins in a vain at-
tempt to find some trace of them. He fell into II depression
that never really lifted, according to Arya.
Roy continued to work for a time. He covered Jackie
Kennedy's visit in1962 to India and India's war with Pakistan
in 1965. But increasingly, he was eclipsed by a new breed of
aggressive young photojournalists. The decorous press con-
ferences and the chpmmy familiarity with politicians early
Indian photojournalists like Roy had enjoyed were giving
way to the scrum and the photo-op. Roy hung up his camera.
He quickly faded into obscurity. "No one knew him or his
past," Arya said. Roy was a frequent visitor to Arya's parents'
home in New Delhi, having known Arya's mother's family
Adltya Arya Archives, Kulwant Roy Collection
Photographs by Kulwant Roy, below (1944): Above left, Jacqueline Kennedy with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1962; above,
Nehru with his grarulson, Rajiv Gandhi, and his daughter, Indira Gandhi (undated). Both becameprime ministers; both were killed.
tion, but he estimates this is just a third of the total.
Still, several potentially sigtiificant photographs have
already emerged, including a 1939 picture of Gandhi in a
heated argument with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the head of
India's Muslim League who went on to found Pakistan. The
two men were seldom photographed together and their dis-
agreements primarily took place out of the public eye.
Roy shot many of Gandhi's travels as well as the 1946 Brit-
ish Cabinet Mission which finalized plans for
Indian Independence. And he was there when
Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last British vice-
roy, handed power to Nehru, India's first
prime minister. "He was a major chronicler"
of the Independence movement, said Mridula
Mukherjee, director of the Nehru Memorial
Museum and Library in Delhi.
Aformer college history major who has un-
dertaken documentary projects throughout
India between commercial assignments, the
48-year old Arya has been awed by the legacy
Roy bequeathed him. "As a photographer, I can
relate to what it was like to have been there
shooting these pictures, what would have been
going through his mind," he said. He also re-
grets that he did not examine Roy's crates
sooner. '!I had the sense that I should have
looked into it a long time back," he said. '
Roy's life had the arc of Greek tragedy. Born in Lahore in
1914, when the city was still part of British India, he learned
how to take pictures as a teenager while working in a local
photo studio run by Arya's great uncle. Later he joined the
Royal Indian Air Force and trained as an aerial photograph-
er. But Roy was discharged, Arya said, after he and some
friends led a protest against racist British policy that restric-
ted when Indian soldiers were allowed to swim.
After returning briefly to Lahore, Roy settled in NewDelhi
in the early 1940s. At the time, there were fewer than a dozen
local photojournalists working in New Delhi and Roy quickly
"

.,:,1 . .--,,:, .-.
By Jeremy Kahn
Ini"India
_. -I ,
history'" in a
f .,a... .
..t1' I ( "...,1 -4
yellow
ofpegafives
NEW DELHI
T
he crates haunted Aditya Arya. successful
. ., aqvertlsmg photographer whose chents have
I ranged from India's luxury Oberoi Hotel chain to
Russia's Bolshoi Ballet, Arya inherited the crates
from a family friend, an old photojournalist named Kulwant
Roy, in 1984. And for more than two decades, Arya had
hauled the increasingly dusty trunks around a succession of
studios, stashing them in out of the way comers and closets.
He had a vague sense of what the crates contained -
bundles ofprints and negatives - and at least once a year his
mother would nag him about them. But he was always too
busy with his own assignments to spend time pouring over
someone else's fading pictures.
Then, inDecember, Arya fmally opened the crates. What he
discovered is a remarkable photographic record of modemin-
dian history, including thousands of images from the last days
of the Raj through the 1960s, many of which have never been
published. The archive has excited historians who believe it
may shed new light on key moments in India's independence
movement. It has also attracted attention for the commercial
value of its images of historical figures ranging from Ml!--
hatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru to Jacqueline Kennedy.
"It is a real find," said Raghuraj Sing Chauhan, director of
public relations and exhibitions at India's National Museum.
"They are historically important for the freedom struggle
because many of these are quite rare photos."
In a cluttered studio on the top floor of his house in the
fashionable Delhi satellite city of Gurgaon, Arya sits at his
desk and carefully pulls batches of negatives from brittle en-
velopes labeled with such headings as "Gandhi's Visit to the
North West Frontier Provinces" or "Muslim League." Some
of the negatives have become stuck together or begun to dis-
integrate. Arya has managed to digitally scan and catalogue
some 4,000 to 5,000 prints and negatives from Roy's collec-
1,
iht.com/culture
Audio slide show ofRoy's photographs narrated by Jeremy Kahn.
Photos ofMahatma Gandhi, spiritual aftd political leader.
from Lahore. But by the time Arya was old enough to remem-
ber him, Roy was a poor and lonely man. "He never wanted
me to be a photographer because of the hardships and the
fact that one has to live a life a bit like a vagabond," Arya said.
But when Roy died of cancer, virtually penniless and with no
children of his own, he left Arya his photo collection.
Having belatedly rediscovered Roy's photos, Arya is now
dedicated to restoring Roy to what he sees as his proper place
inthe annals of Indianphotojournalism. Roy sold many ofhis
photographs to international news agencies during his life-
time and some ofthemare nowfound in archival collections,
but they are rarely credited with his name, a fact that angers
Arya. "For me making sure people know his name is as im-
portant as making sure they know his pictures," he said.
The photo of Gandhi arguing with Jinnah can be found
among the archives of Getty Images, one of the world's
largest photo agencies, .where it is simply attributed to a
"stringer" for Topical Press, a long defunct London news ser-
vice. "As was common for this period the print was uncred-
ited," Sarah McDonald, a Getty curator, wrote in an e-mail
response to questions about the photo. McDonald also wrote
that "if we can verify the image is by Roy we will be happy to
credit the image to him,"
Arya is hoping to mou.nt an exhibition of Roy's photos in
Delhi later this year. Abook and other projects are also un-
der discussion. Arya believes that some of the images - for
instance a picture of a loin-clothed Gandhi descl;lnding from
a third-class rail car - could become as iconic as the vintage
India photos taken by Bourke-White and Cartier-Bresson.
became a leading member of the city's small press corps.
His images may not be as well known as those of photo-
graphers like Margaret Bourke-White and Henri Cartier-
Bresson, who went to India during this period, but they were
popular at the time. By 1958, he was successful enough to em-
bark on a world photographic tour, traveling to more than 30
countries over the course of three years. While visiting Ja-
pan, he apparently became romantically involved with a
young Japanese woman. Arya has found their
love letters amid Roy's crates. He has also
found a copy of an application Roy filled out,
sponsoring her to come to India. But for un-
known reasons she never came, Arya said, and
Roy, who remained a bachelor, never spoke
about her. Arya speculates that the end of their
relationship may be linked with a major pro-
fessional blow Roy suffered upon his return to
India. Toward the end of ,his world tour, Roy
mailed home a large batch of photos and neg-
atives from his trip. "He intended to use these
to live on for the next twenty years," Arya said.
I None of them arrived. Convinced the parcels
had been stolen, Roy spent years searching for
them. He placed ads in newspapers offering a
reward for their safe return and even took to
rummaging through garbage bins in a vain at-
tempt to find some trace of them. He fell into 1I depression
that never really lifted, according to Arya.
Roy continued to work for a time. He covered Jackie
Kennedy's visit in1962 to India and India's war with Pakistan
in 1965. But increasingly, he was eClipsed by a new breed of
aggressive young photojournalists. The decorous press con-
ferences and the ch1J.IDID.y familiarity with politicians early
Indian photojournalists like Roy had enjoyed were giving
way to the scrumand the photo-op. Roy hung up his camera.
He quickly faded into obscurity. "No one knew him or his
past," Arya said. Roy was a frequent visitor to Arya's parents'
home in New Delhi, having known Arya's mother's family
Adllya Atya Archive Kulwanl Roy Collection
Photographs by Kulwant Roy, below (J944): Above left, Jcu:queline Kennedy with Plime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1962; above,
Nehru with his grandson, Rajiv Gandhi, and his daughter, Indira Gandhi (undated). Both became prime ministers; both were killed.
tion, but he estimates this is just a third of the total.
Still, several potentially significant photographs have
already emerged, including a 1939 picture of Gandhi in a
heated argument with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the head of
India:s-Muslim League who went on to found Pakistan. The
two men were seldom photographed together and their dis-
agreements primarily took place out of the public eye.
Roy shot many of Gandhi's travels as well as the 1946 Brit-
ish Cabinet Mission which finalized plans for
Indian Independence. And he was there when
Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last British vice-
roy, handed power to Nehru, India's first
prime minister. "He was a major chronicler"
of the Independence movement, said Mridula
Mukherjee, director of the Nehru Memorial
Museum and Library in Delhi.
Aformer college history major who has un-
dertaken documentary projects throughout
India between commercial assignments, the
48-year old Arya has been awed by the legacy
Roy bequeathed him. "As a photographer, I can
relate to what it was like to have been there'
shooting these pictures, what would have been
going through his mind," he said. He also re-
grets that he did not examine Roy's crates
sooner. '!I had the sense that I should have
looked into it a long time back," he said.
Roy's life had the arc of Greek tragedy. Born in Lahore in
1914, when the city was still part of British India, he learned
how to take .pictures as a teenager while working in a local
photo studio run by Arya's great uncle. Later he joined the
Royal Indian Air Force and trained as an aerial photograph-
er. But Roy was discharged, Arya said, after he and some
friends led a protest against racist British policy that restric-
ted when Indian soldiers were allowed to swim.
After returning briefly to Lahore, Roy settled in New Delhi
in the early 1940s. At the time, there were fewer than a dozen
local photojournalists working in New Delhi and Roy quickly
" ... .;. ~
' ..
.
.. .
t
India,
NEW DELHI
haunted Aditya Arya Asuccessful
.llalrapher whose clients have
IltI.'. luxury Operoi Hotel chain to
t Ballet, Arya inherited the crates
lid photojournalist named Kulwant
illore than two decades, Arya had
:IU.ty trunks around a succession of
,ut of the way comers and closets.
Qf what the crates contained -
lives - and at least once a year his
ut them. But he was always too
'Im.nts to spend time pouring over
lures.
nnally opened the crates. What he
1,1 photographic record ofmodem In-
lu.ands ofimages from the last days
, many of which have never been
'xcited historians who believe it
moments in India's independence
ed attention for the commercial
,torlcal figures ranging from Ma-
tlal Nehru to Jacqueline Kennedy:
IBhuraj Sing Chauhan, director of
Itlons at India's National Museum.
Iportant for the freedom struggle
quite rare photos."
1 the top floor of his house i ~ the
city of Gurgaon, Arya sits at his
tches of negatives from brittle en-
headings as "Gandhi's Visit to the
Inees" or "Muslim League," Some
me stuck together or begun to dis-
d to digitally scan and catalogue
Rnd negatives from Roy's coHec-
yiIla
~ w crate
gatives