What are they wearing? The clothing of the princes of India in the British press and image making of imperial India in the 1870s

Abstract

This article identifies the importance of clothing in assessing the representation of the princes of India for image making of imperial India. Using both textual and visual British newspapers as a medium that presented the British Empire to the British public, accounts of the clothing worn by rulers formed an important aspect of their overall representation. Newspapers presented a variety of images of clothing to both metropolitan and regional readerships across the country. The 1870s was a significant decade in creating an image of a successful Indian Empire with the rulers of India being an important component in demonstrating this. Accounts depicted their wealth and opulence as an exotic spectacle, such as in the depiction of diamonds and feathers. But it was also important to demonstrate exoticism within the context of imperial indirect rule. Items such as imperial honours, and turbans, demonstrated rulers’ authority and power within this system. Moreover, the rare instances of female rule show how the press presented clothing as both markers of gender difference and respectability. This article will demonstrate that accounts of clothing highlight the nuances of the representation of India that go beyond a stereotyped image, showing that image-making was a controlled process in the promotion of British imperial rule.

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