About the Commission
Arko Datto, a visual artist and photographer who lives in Kolkata, spent a month travelling across India to many of the locations that are central to 'Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire' by Professor Nandini Das.
'Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire' won the British Academy Book Prize in 2023, a prize that rewards and celebrates books that explore other cultures and their interactions.
'Courting India' is a ground-breaking new history of one of the most important encounters in the history of colonialism. It tells the story of the arrival of English ambassador Thomas Roe in India in the early 17th century, an event which marked the very beginnings of Anglo-Indian history.
This book is... not a biography of Roe, or a history of the English in India, or an account of English engagement with the wider world beyond Jacobean London, but the story it tells emerges from the intersection of all three.
- Nandini Das, 'Courting India', xxiv.
Arko Datto photographed several of the places central to Thomas Roe's travels, discovered by Nandini Das through the painstaking examination of centuries-old records.
These photographs invite the observer to consider the origins of the Mughal Empire through the modern lens, extending the conversation started by this remarkable book into an entirely new way of seeing the impact of a complex history.
In Arko Datto’s arresting photographs, the historical and the contemporary collide.
…if there is one thing that following Roe's story in India illuminates, it is the messiness of human experience and memory. It is a reminder of how contact and interchange between cultures can happen often almost despite itself.
- Nandini Das, 'Courting India', p. 364.
We see the ancient remains of those magnificent buildings of the Mughal Empire – which extended from the 16th to the 19th centuries – and are invited to look at the places that Thomas Roe would have encountered on that first diplomatic mission, and society’s relationship with them today.
Arko Datto explains his approach
“Nandini’s opus covers a wide geographic swath across west and north India, spanning historic centres of power from the Mughal and pre-British Raj era. Some of these places like Burhanpur and Mandu have been relegated to the margins while others like Ajmer, Surat and Agra live on as fast-growing yet tier-2 cities in present day India.
“Staying close to Nandini’s cartography, I wanted to look at how these places fare currently, thus mapping a trajectory from the historical to the contemporary. Each of these places have ample Imperial ruins including city fortifications, monuments, individual tombs, cemeteries scattered throughout.
"While some sites are well preserved by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), many among these have been swallowed up by relentless urban expansion. Yet other ‘unlisted monuments’ lie in varying states of disrepair and neglect. It is these latter sites that form the core of my visual exploration.
“Many of the images feature compositional elements inspired by Mughal miniature painting traditions, bringing a contemporary perspective to this age-old art form.
“While trawling the internet for clues and mining Google Maps, I often stumbled upon tombs hidden within forests or amidst agricultural lands near nondescript villages along highways. In Kashmir, I trekked from mountain tops down to riverbeds, where I found nomadic families lingering among the ruins.
"In the ancient royal city of Mandu, I was struck by the eerie atmosphere of some ruins, only to later discover that Mandu regularly features on lists of the most haunted sites in the country.
“I delved into Mughal serais and other caravan serais scattered across the region, often in remote areas. These serais served an essential purpose in the functioning of empires, serving as strategic resting places during military campaigns, royal pilgrimage, and for businessmen, commoners, and aristocrats alike.
“Looking at these magnificent tombs and palaces of once powerful people brought to complete ruins was a humbling experience. I wanted to visually represent the idea of the twilight of empires, both Mughal and British, and consequently used dusk and night photography quite frequently in this project.
“By visually drawing upon the scenes meticulously depicted by Nandini, this project becomes a commentary on contemporary India and the role of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in preserving the region’s history."
About the artist
Before stepping into the world of contemporary photography, Arko Datto was on course to receive a doctorate in mathematical physics.
Thematically Datto explores forced migration, techno-fascism, surveillance in the digital panopticon, disappearing islands, nocturnal realms, and psychosomatic stress of captive animals. His subjects vary but together they form threads of inquiry into our times’ existential dilemmas. By incorporating and developing diverse visual languages, narratives, and styles, Datto pushes both still and moving images’ boundaries. His long- term personal projects and commissions are published in TIME, National Geographic, The Atlantic, New Yorker. He received grants from Prince Claus Fund, Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, IDFA Bertha Fund. Recent shows have been at Fotografia Europea, Light Work, SFO Museum, Fotomuseum Den Haag, Hamburger Bahnhof. He has published three photo books: Pik-nik (Editions Le bec en l’air, 2018), Mannequin (Edizioni L’artiere, 2018), and Snakefire (Edizioni L’artiere, 2021). As a curator, he has been associated with Galleri Image, Kochi Biennale, Obscura Photography Festival and Chennai Photo Biennale.
Website: https://arkodatto.art/
Instagram: @arkodatto
