A Look At India's Royal Families Through Vintage Postcards

The history of the Indian Post services has been closely linked to the country’s tumultuous political history. With restrictions on size and colour, postcards gained tremendous popularity under British Raj in the late 1800s and early 1900s as a method for fast and easy ways for people to communicate that wasn't heavy on the pocket.

The ‘modern’ postcard we’ve seen with pictures were a new phenomenon in the 1880s with the advancing of photographic technology. Parisian photographer Andre Adolphe Disderi developed a form of portraiture ‘carte de visites’ which became the earliest form of ‘cards with pictures.’ As pointed out by the Tasveer Journal, posing in studios elegantly dressed up for personalised carte de visite became a rage in Europe by 1860 to 1870. They would be circulated among individuals' close circles and collected in private albums. Soon, cards with photographs of majestic landscapes, monuments and ‘exotic’ people from the colonies became a collector's pride, souvenirs of sorts that showcased life in distant lands.

 We've posted below some of our favourite 'postcards from India,' click here to view the entire series and read more by the Tasveer Journal.