KING, COMMONER, CITIZEN | prashantpanjiar

KING, COMMONER, CITIZEN, 1981– 2007

Prashant Panjiar’s King Commoner Citizen is a collection of photographs that blends the somewhat incongruous contemporary lives of erstwhile Indian princes with the incredibly diverse, layered, euphoric, despairing, paradoxical existence of the common Indian.

Malerkotla, Punjab. 1994: Sajid Ali, the adopted son of the Begum of Malerkotla, and his sister, with portraits of the King and Queen of England.

Jamnagar, Gujarat. 1991:
Jamsaheb Shatrushalya Sinh, in his palace grounds now a private nature park.

Beawar, Rajasthan. 1986.

Bolangir, Orissa. 1996: Sesdev Saraf looks after his ailing wife during the drought.

Bikaner, Rajasthan. 1990: Maharaja Narendra Singh Rathore in his bungalow with his Great Danes.

Madhubani, Bihar. 1988: A victim of the earthquake stands in her destroyed home.

Scotland, United Kingdom. 1996: Sardar Iqbal Singh, the ‘Lord of Butley Manor’, at his home.

Benares, Uttar Pradesh. 1998: Maharaja Vibhuti Narain Singh, returns after attending the Naag-Nathaiya festival.

Jharia, Jharkhand. 1999:
A coalminer returns home through an area of smouldering underground mine fires.

Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. 2002:
Worshippers at the Hanumangarhi temple.

Jagdalpur, Chattisgarh. 1998: Tribesmen pay homage to Kamal Chandra Bhanj Deo, Maharaja of Bastar.

Kolkata. 1997: Kartick Chandra Das, a freedome fighter, at the Home for Freedom Fighters in Garia.

Kolkata, 1992: Fatheyab Ali Meerza, the Nawab of Bengal, in his dilapidated Murshidabad Haveli.

Katihar, Bihar. 1995: Phool Devi, a midwife, demonstrates how unwanted female infants are killed.

Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. 2001: Naga Sadhus charge into Sangam during the Mahakumbh Mela.

Mumbai. 2006: At the Red-Light disco at Kalaghoda.

Delhi. 1996: A Congress party worker carries a cut-out of P.V. Narsimha Rao, the then Prime Minister.

Gandhinagar, Gujarat, 1996: BJP leader Atal Behari Vajpayee during the election campaign of 1996.

Gurgaon, Haryana. 2004: Signage and people at a bus stop.

Jehanabad, Bihar. 1999: Kunti Devi became a child widow when a landlords’ private army, killed her husband along with 22 Dalits.

Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu. 2004: A victim of the Tsunami in Akkarapatai village.

Ahmedabad, Gujarat. 1985: A home destroyed during the communal riots.

Delhi. 1984: Victims of the anti-Sikh riots that followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

Delhi. 1997.