2:31 mins., b&w, silent
Production : ?
Source : this film can be viewed on the BFI site here
A remarkable early film of a durbar held in Delhi around the turn of the year 1902-03. The film does what the durbar itself was meant to do, namely, offer an extravagant display of wealth and power, as some sixty sumptuously decorated elephants file past the camera, bearing howdahs where equally sumptuously dressed human figures are sitting.
But although the form of the display, as well as most of the participants, might be associated with the traditional princely states of India, in the howdahs of the first two elephants, leading the display, are British officers in their uniforms and white helmets. This was because, notwithstanding its Indian appearance, this durbar had been organised by the colonial government to celebrate the accession to the British throne of Edward VII, who thereby also became ‘Emperor of India’.
A number of different film production companies covered the diverse aspects of the durbar, which went on for two weeks. Another film offering a view of the more military procession that opened the durbar is also available on the BFI site here.
Although this was as much a political as a cultural event, it is arguable that these accounts of the 1902-03 durbar may constitute the first films of ethnographic interest shot in India or South Asia more generally.
A durbar on a similar scale, if not greater, was held to celebrate the accession of George V in 1912, and on this occasion, the King himself, and his Queen, attended in person. A record of this too is available on the BFI site here.
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