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    Guilt in the archive: photography and the Amritsar Massacre of 1919

    Willcock, Sean (2019) Guilt in the archive: photography and the Amritsar Massacre of 1919. History of Photography 43 (1), pp. 47-59. ISSN 0308-7298.

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    Abstract

    What role should photographic evidence play in current debates about whether or not Britain should apologise for the historic crimes of empire? This article examines the photographs that emerged from the Amritsar Massacre of 13 April 1919, considering what such documents can tell us about the relationship between atrocity and the imperial project. Colonials working in both official and unofficial capacities turned to photography in their attempt to justify this bloody twentieth-century episode. Such photography addressed colonial debates concerning the scope of moral and legal, individual and collective, and British and Indian culpability for the bloody episode. It is therefore important that we attend to such visual evidence from the vexed standpoint of the massacre’s centenary, as the UK is enjoined to apologise for the infamous slaughter of Indian men, women and children.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis, available online at the link above.
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Historical Studies
    Depositing User: Sean Willcock
    Date Deposited: 22 May 2019 16:05
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:51
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/27606

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