The Armenian diaspora is well known as a result of the brutish genocide, but centuries before, many Armenian artisans and merchants had already settled in different countries. In the Indian city, Calcutta, Armenians were, among many other communities, probably the first settlers. Indian photographer Alakananda Nag delved into her city's history and concluded that the Armenians might well be the founding fathers of the now bustling Bengali metropolis. Her intimate book The Armenians of Calcutta is an elegy to the community comprising text, photographs, and archival material.

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Out of curiosity, Alakananda Nag wanted to know more about the history of her multicultural city. She realised that all the different ethnic groups were visible in the street life: Chinese, Jews, British, Greeks, and Portuguese. But the Armenian group, which was once a very prominent community, was hardly visible. "When I became a photographer, I decided to explore the Armenian history. The buildings of the old popular part of Calcutta, which I adored since childhood, were built by the Armenians. It was an exploration of a world in my city that I didn't know of. When I delved deeper, digging beyond the surface, more and more information came to me, and I just could not stop".

Alakananda found out that the history of the Armenian settlement went back as early as the 15th century. "The exact dates are not known, but the Moghul emperor Akbar had Armenian people in his court, and he was married to an Armenian lady. He advised the Armenians to move to Calcutta because of the river and the seaport, which were useful for transportation. The Armenians who came to Calcutta were mainly traders selling indigo, burlap, shellac, and silk. Later they started owning coal mines, hotels, and factories. They were warmly welcomed. The names of the streets still point to that. There is still the Armenian street. The official history says that the British were the founders of Calcutta, but there is a tomb of Rezabeebeh from 1630 that shows that the Armenians existed before them. The British arrived in 1690, sixty years later. When I found an article in the 1936 Bengal Past and Present journal that wondered why we can’t consider the Armenians the founders of modern Calcutta, it made sense”.

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The beginning

When Alakananda Nag started to photograph, she became interested in knowing more about the daily life of the Armenian community. "Without doing much research, I went to the church committee, got permission, and I just started photographing. Then I spent about two to three years photographing in a very documentary photography style. After that initial period, I felt that the photographs did not do justice to what I felt about the Armenians and what the community stands for. I stopped photographing for a year because I needed a fresh perspective. After this break, I came back with a more conceptual approach. I did more research, and I got a grant from the India Foundation for Arts to do a dummy book. But after completion, I felt it still did not do justice to the community and its history. So, I started all over again, totally self-funded, which was very difficult. An expert from the Calcutta university agreed to write about it, but he died of Covid last year, so I had to write the book myself. But that also became a very different book".
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Community

The present community of Armenians is very small, consisting of roughly forty-five people. There have been intermarriages with different communities, but some people refused to do that. For example, there is a portrait in the book of Hermione Martin. "She did not get married because she did not want to marry outside of the community. She did not find an Armenian match, and so she could not keep her blood pure. When I met her, she was already in her 80s. All she did was talk about her glory days".
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Storytelling

When Alakananda Nag was editing the book, she realized it had to be a quiet, intimate book. "I planned the objects like the plate with indigo dye, the Petri dishes, and the bottle with blood. In the book, I mixed analog and digital, black and white colour. Finally, the total layout and edit of the photographs came together on the edit table. I dove into the archive and took everything out. It appeared that a lot of photographs I rejected before came back, to my surprise".

During the editing of her ten years' work, Nag had three themes. One was the purity of blood, to which the Armenians adhere, the second was the architecture, and the third was the people themselves. "I followed these themes. I also collected old archival pictures of the Armenians because I felt that my photographs were insufficient. I stopped being attached to my photos, and I did what I felt the work demanded. First, I was worried about whether everything mixed well together, but I broke the traditional barrier in my head. Finally, I could define myself more as a storyteller than as a photographer. I realised it was better to be less apparent as a photographer. The dummy version was more about me as a photographer. Later, I felt that was not good for the community. The story needed a tangible object like the book, and the story itself had to be the hero".
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Book

The Armenians of the Calcutta community could recognise their history in the book. "They were delighted with the book. They were very surprised that I discovered that the Armenians were, in fact, the founders of Calcutta".

Alakananda Nag wanted to make a small book instead of a traditional large photo book. "My designer and I came up with this. I wanted an intimate book that you carry close to you. Not a coffee table book because it would feel distant. You can take this book to your bed and keep it on your bedside table or carry it in your bag".

Nag funded the production and printing of the book herself. "I went to several corporate houses and foundations, but I was rejected many times. Then I said: I want to do it all by myself. Now I see that people buy the book every week. The book was launched at Printed Matter in New York, and it was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum and San Francisco MOMA".
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Alakananda Nag is a photographer, writer and filmmaker. She lives in Goa. She graduated in Documentary Photography and Photojournalism from International Center of Photography in New York. Soon after graduating she realized that traditional documentary is not her calling and thereafter started a search for the core of her practice. She photographs, is an avid researcher, uses archive generously, and writes. She is the author of her work and edits and curates her work herself. She has been a participating artist in the Fulbright funded prestigious international project Following the Box, based on a set of 128 found photographs from 1945 taken by an American soldier during WWII around Calcutta. Her first photobook, the self-published Armenians of Calcutta launched in February 2021 at Printed Matter’s Virtual Art Book Fair. She is an Arts Practice grantee of the India Foundation for the Arts.

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