Women

An advertising card for the Singer Manufacturing Company showing how universal the use of its sewing machines was, and perhaps how easily they could be used by women to create pillows and beautiful cloths.

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This postcard shows a scene at the platform of Karla railway station outside Mumbai where The Ravi Varma Press was headquartered. On the platform, a barefoot man is holding a stick, another is smoking a hookah.

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One of my favourite postcards by the great Colombo publisher Plate & Co., simply because the girl's stare or startled expression is so memorable. Although I used the color version in the book, this seems just as gripping. What is she looking at?

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Parsis in India originally came from Iran (Persia), and Parsi ladies were among the first Indian women to have had an active public life, no doubt helped by a high literacy rate in the community (there is a postcard or letter in the woman's hand).

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A woman balancing water pots on her head is a common site across the Indian subcontinent. Woman who supplied water to households in the desert city of Jaipur were often called "water maids." Dressed in traditional colorful Rajasthani attire, these…

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Srimati Sarojini Naidu, also known as the Nightingale of India, for her poetry.

Sarojini Naidu (February 13, 1879 - March 2, 1949), known as Bharatiya Kokila (The Nightingale of India), was a child prodigy, freedom fighter, and poet.

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Moplahs are the Muslim descendants of Arab traders who married local women and settled along the Malabar coast over the centuries.

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