Portret van een onbekende Dooaneeah man uit Assam met een speer before 1868

This photograph, taken by Benjamin Simpson, portrays an unidentified Dooaneeah man from Assam, India. Without a specific date, we can still place this work within the context of British colonial India, a period marked by intense ethnographic documentation. Simpson, as a British artist, was working within a colonial framework that often exoticized and othered the people of Assam. The man’s direct gaze and the spear he holds challenge the assumed power dynamics of the photographer and the photographed. While the image could be seen as perpetuating colonial stereotypes, it also captures the man’s strength and dignity. The Dooaneeah people, who were of mixed heritage, occupied a precarious position within the colonial hierarchy, and their identity was often shaped by colonial perceptions. The photograph, therefore, exists as both a historical document and a site of complex cultural exchange. It serves as a reminder of the human stories that are often obscured by the grand narratives of colonialism.