The camera as witness : a social history of Mizoram, Northeast India / Joy L.K. Pachuau, Willem van Schendel.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Cover; Title; Copyright; Table of Contents; List of Figures; List of Maps; Acknowledgements; I: Becoming Mizo; 1 Introduction; Why this book?; Constructing histories of the region; Cultural complexity and administrative fragmentation; The scope of this book; The images; The photographers; Professionals; Anthropologists; Missionaries; Family albums; Photographs as sources of knowledge about the past; Histories of photography; Visual studies and visual anthropology; Historians' use of photographs; The chapters; Notes; 2 Coming into View: The First Portraits; Notes; 3 Adjusting Mizo Culture MusicDress; Markers of new identities; Notes; 4 Domesticating a New Religion; Spreading the Gospel; Mizo responses; Fitting Christianity to Mizo sensibilities; A new 'guardian spirit'; Notes; 5 Getting Educated; Inventing the schoolchild; Branching out; Only half an education; A cultural isolate?; Notes; 6 Controlling the Hills; Armed occupation; Civil government; The chiefs and the new status quo; Loyal chiefs; The command centre: Aizawl; The people of Aizawl; Mizos and their state; Notes; 7 The Trouble of Travel; A land of walkers; River routes into the hills; Crazy, wandering Europeans Europeans in mid airMaking travel easier; Notes; 8 First Stirrings of the Market Economy; The advent of cash cropping; An exhibition at Aizawl; Wage labour; The advent of advertising; A Very Profitable Business; Notes; 9 Mizos in the World Wars; The great war; On the edge of the second world war; Notes; 10 Mizo Visual Sensibilities; The dead and the living; Massed groups; The christmas/new year photo; Personal wheels; Mizo sensibilities; Notes; II: Mizoram in the New India; 11 The Long Goodbye; Staying on; The missionary presence; A long goodbye; Notes; 12 The Emergence of Popular Politics Organizing politicsAt the crossroads; Party politics; Notes; 13 Mizoram and the New Indian Order; Two regional councils; Delhi comes to Mizoram; A regularized district; Notes; 14 Mizoram Comes to Delhi; Playing the tribal in Delhi; Displaying 'unity in diversity'; State-induced 'tribalization'; Notes; 15 The Search for Authenticity at Home; State-organized festivals; The indigenization of national days; The festivals beyond Mizoram; The emblem of the bamboo dance; The vakiria; Notes; 16 Mizo Style: Cowboys at Heart; Notes; III: Visions of Independence; 17 Famine and Revolt The famine of 1959-1960A growing rift; Armed revolt; Notes; 18 The Mizoram Government at Home and in East Pakistan; The Mizoram government underground, 1966-1969; The Mizoram government in east Pakistan, 1969-1971; Civil authority; Life goes on as usual; Military prowess; Rituals of state; Notes; 19 The Mizoram Government in Burma, China and Bangladesh; A peace agreement; Notes; 20 A State and its Minorities; Union territory; Creating minorities; The Autonomous Districts; Beyond the autonomous districts; Notes; IV: Mizo Modernities; 21 Being Cool: The Music Scene

"Uses vernacular photography to highlight remarkable transformations and multiple forms of modernity that have flourished in Mizoram, Northeast India"-- Publisher description.