In the British Raj, the colonial rulers used photography as a way of establishing their racial superiority and as a way of distancing themselves from the people they ruled. It also allowed them to create a racial difference between the Indians, establishing castes which where linked to the idea that some Indians were descended from Aryans. Through this, they divided the people and made it easier to rule them since they didn’t see themselves as a collective Nation. The use of photography allowed scientists and later eugenicists to compare the people in the colonies to people in the metropole and distinguish between their features, to show their inferiority to white Europeans.
But this is not limited to the British Empire, as the reading for this week showed. At first it made favourable comparisons towards Russia, viewing their Imperial rule as different to the rule of the French and British in their colonies because Russia’s own ruling elite was multi-ethnic, like their colonies and they felt this would make them better Imperial rulers. Russia looked at India for a template on colonial rule and hoped to improve on British failings. The Article goes on to say that the Russians discriminated against Bokharan Jews and also Muslims who they felt where more likely to rebel against Russian rule in Turkestan. They saw them as completely different from Russians and were unwilling to view them as citizens in the Russian Empire.
