Homai Vyarawalla - The First Lady of Indian Press Photography India’s first woman press photographer Homai Vyarawalla, who passed away January 15, 2012 at the age of 98, captured the last days of the British Empire in India. Her work also traces the birth and growth of a new nation. The story of Homai’s life and her professional career spans an entire century of Indian history. This selection of rare photographs tells her life story amid footnotes of an emerging nation, as she saw it.
‘Home Leather-Worker: Photo by Mrs Homai Vyarawalla’, Cover of The Illustrated Weekly on December 9, 1945. “My pictures of Lady Irwin College were first published in the Weekly (1945). This Ceylonese woman saw the pictures and was motivated to come to India to study at the college. She later modeled for me for this picture.”
Homai during her college years, in 1931. Homai would stitch her own blouses and she shared six sarees with her widowed mother, Soonamai.
Homai and family, with the car DLD 13 (which inspired ‘Dalda’, the nickname she gave herself). “Purchased in 1955 for Rupees 11,000/- with taxes! It came to me on the 13th of the month that happened to be Dhanteras at Diwali time. I believe in numerology and the number thirteen has been lucky for me.”
“On Children’s Day, I would notice the staff shooing away children of the less privileged. Of course, Nehru never knew that. He played with any child which was brought to him. So, in all my twenty-seven years in Delhi, I never saw Nehru with the children of the poor in his arms. There was always a coterie around him and he saw only what they wanted to see.”
A show of hands for the voting for Partition. In her meticulous documentation of events leading up to Independence, Homai Vyarawalla photographed the significant meeting of AICC held on 2 June 1947, in which the decision to Partitition the country was made. From Homai’s accounts, this meeting was a stormy one.
Mahatma Gandhi’s body at Birla House. Sardar Patel, Nehru, Mountbatten, Baldev Singh, and Gandhi’s son Ramdas are seen in the picture.
The ceremonial ride of Dr Rajendra Prasad through Vijay Chowk upon becoming the first President of India.
The first Republic Day Parade on 26 January 1950, was held at the ground where the National Stadium stands today with the Purana Quila in the background. It was only after this that its venue shifted to India Gate. This picture shows Dr Rajendra Prasad taking the salute without any security surrounding him.
Nehru’s Cabinet seen at lunch hosted by Sardar Patel after C. Rajagopalachari became Governer-General, 1948. Seated here are: Rafi Ahmad Kidwai, Baldeve Singh, Maulana Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru, C. Rajagopalachari, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Raj Kumari Amrit Kaur, John Matthai, Jagjivan Ram, Mr Gadgil, Mr Neogi, Dr Ambedkar, Shyama Prasad Mookherji, Gopalaswamy Iyengar and Jayaramdas Daulatram.
The first three Presidents of India: Dr Rajendra Prasad (1950-62), Dr Radhakrishnan (1962-67) and Dr Zakir Hussain (1967-69) at a condolence meeting of Parliamentarians on Nehru’s death.
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