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Calcutta Coolies

Calcutta Coolies

[Original caption] Calcutta Coolies. The Coolies of Calcutta, otherwise porters or carriers, are men of fine physique, and are able to carry exceptionally heavy weights supported on their heads.

Parsee Priest

Parsee Priest

From Dhurandhar's earliest postcard series featuring the people of Bombay. Once again, a gesture defines character, with the white space next to the priest space for the sender to write a message.

A Hill Coolie Girl

A Hill Coolie Girl

Although a coolie – "a hired labourer, or burden-carrier"(Hobson-Jobson, p. 249) – were at the bottom of the social ladder, and the word is said to originally come from Kolis, a hill-people in the Western Ghats, "whose savagery, filth and general

A Pathan

A Pathan

[Original caption] An inhabitant of North-West India unsurpassed as a hill fighter. Although Mahomedans, the Pathans rebelled against the Mogul Emperors round about the sixteenth century and were in consequence forced to keep to the hills. [end]

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