Imagining India: Portrayal of Pre-Partition India and Indians on the British and American Screens

Abstract

This book examines the cinematic portrayal of pre-partition India and Indians in British and American feature films. Drawing on archival research, film catalogues, and historical analysis, it explores how colonial narratives, orientalist tropes, and racial stereotypes shaped Western cinematic representations of what is now known as South Asia. From frontier melodramas and exotic fantasies to political dramas and literary adaptations, these films constructed a visual mythology of India that reflected imperial ideologies and Western anxieties. Building on a foundational filmography compiled in the 1970s and expanded with contemporary research, this study analyzes over 150 films set in or referencing India, including works like Gunga Din, Black Narcissus, The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, and The River. It interrogates how these films depicted Indian characters, landscapes, and cultural practices-often through the lens of British colonial authority or American fascination. By situating these portrayals within historical, political, and cinematic contexts, the book reveals how film became a powerful medium for shaping Western perceptions of India before independence. It also considers the legacy of these portrayals in postcolonial discourse and their influence on later representations of South Asia 1 in global media. This book is both a scholarly contribution and a personal reckoning-a return to a project that began in the analog age and now finds new life in the digital one. It is a tribute to the power of images, the persistence of inquiry, and the importance of telling stories that have long been told about us, but rarely by us.

Keywords: Imperialism, Colonialism, Films, Cinema, Britain, India, Memsahibs, Media, Portrayal, Images, Filnography, Indians-South Asia