The Visual Anthropology of Migration Histories: Discovering the Mobility of Nepali Women through Visuals

Abstract

This article uses visual anthropology to bring forth the migration histories of Nepali women, especially those related to Gurkha soldiers. Using personal and archival photographs and videos of migrants and their families, this article uncovers mobility patterns and migration histories of some Nepali women. The article uses visuals to build a narrative that deals not just with migration histories and destinations that go beyond South Asia, but the larger meanings that individuals attach to the visuals. This article goes beyond the “factual data” that the visuals “reveal” by talking to the individuals in the photos or those possessing the photos about the contexts and experiences attached to those photos. The photos, taken mostly during the 20th century, help individuals not just to be reminiscent about the past, but also to reflect critically on their migration pathways and experiences retrospectively.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank all the individuals who helped by providing the personal photographs in narrating this story, and the institutional archive maintained by the Gurkha Memorial Museum, Pokhara, Nepal. I would also like to thank the Centre for the Study of Labour and Mobility (CESLAM), especially Professor Suresh Dhakal, Sadikshya Bhattarai, and Khem R. Shreesh, for their guidance and support in finalizing this article. I am also grateful towards the anonymous reviewer and editor Paul Hockings who provided their invaluable comments to make this article richer.

Notes

1 British Pathé was a major cinematic journalism producer which dominated the British cinema experience between 1910 and 1958, before its eventual decline in popularity after the coming of television. It has thousands of archival clips available online.

2 British Pathé, 1945, “For Valor.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IedYyqswXA (accessed 13 March 2021).

3 Naik Agansingh Rai was later given the title of Honorary Captain by the Indian Army. The 5th Gurkha Rifles remained with the Indian Army after 1947. According to the Tripartite Agreement made among the British, Indian and Nepali states in 1947, the 2nd, 6th, 7th, and 10th Gurkhas went with the British, while the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 8th, and 9th Gurkhas stayed with the Indian Army.

4 The Nowshera Brigade was an important military station formed by British India during World War II. Nowshera, now in Pakistan, is more than 1600 km. away from Subedar Thapa’s home in Nepal. DSO is the abbreviation of the Distinguished Service Order.

5 According to James Lunt (1994, 159), Col. Norman (‘John’) Eustace “was appointed to command 2/5 Gurkha Rifles during the bitter fighting to repel the Japanese attempts to take Imphal.” He had joined 2/6 Gurkha Rifles in 1921.

6 All new recruits from Nepal used to have their heads shaven and given a good bath, mainly for delousing. I am not sure if something similar happened with Namasara and her mother-in-law. Forbes (1964, 191) cites Maj. Rakamsing Rai, who mentions that all Gurkha heads were shaven before World War II and only a tuppi (tuft of hair on the crown) was left. It was only after the War that the Gurkhas were allowed to keep their hair.

7 Note that these women are differently dressed than what the narrator had mentioned earlier, and the camera had shown, to be Naik Agansingh Rai’s family.

8 Despite such bans on migration, many Nepalis did also travel as indentured workers to various British colonies, ranging from Fiji to British Guyana.

9 www.instagram.com/gurkhawomen (accessed 2 Feb. 2022).

10 www.facebook.com/gurkhawomen (accessed 2 Feb. 2022).

11 https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/26192/page/4372/data.pdf (accessed 2 April 2021).

12 http://www.victoriacross.org.uk/bbrai2.htm (accessed 30 March 2021).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sanjay Sharma

SANJAY SHARMA is a PhD candidate in the Dept. of Sociology, National University of Singapore. His doctoral research offers a gender critique of the Gurkha migration and militarization. He uses various methods as his research tools, which include the analysis of photographs, virtual ethnography, social media engagements, online archives, and folklore, among others. His research interests include feminist historiography, decolonial thought, Marxist literature, and colonial migrations. E-mail: [email protected]