A Reading Path Down a Rabbit Hole: Homai Vyarawalla

Here are curated interviews and profiles of the Indian photojournalist Homai Vyarawalla.

Trans Asia Photography

Growing up in Bombay, Homai learnt photography from her boyfriend, Maneckshaw, who was a self-taught photographer. Her first pictures were published in the Illustrated Weekly of India under his name.

A striking young woman dominates many of Homai Vyarawalla’s photographs of women in Bombay. Rehana Mogul was Homai’s classmate at the Sir J.J. School of Art in the late 1930s.

…but the most visible representation of the modern girl in India was the urban collegiate young woman. This was particularly true for the Anglo-Indian and Parsi communities, which were considered to be more liberal as far as women were concerned.

It may be no coincidence that we do not see “modern girls” in Homai Vyarawalla’s work after 1942. Some feminist historians have viewed the nationalist movement at this time as a setback for the “women’s question”

Dinyar Patel’s Blog

Hindu and Muslim Congress supporters, she continued, spread rumors that the Parsis were against Indian independence and, in particular, targeted the Parsis’ involvement in the liquor trade.

Regular people, she noted, could not afford to be involved in politics; only wealthy people…