Portret van een onbekende man van de Nareja-stam uit Sindh before 1872

This photograph of an unknown man of the Nareja tribe from Sindh was taken by Henry Charles Baskerville Tanner. The work is a window into the complex interactions between British colonial power and the local populations of Sindh, now part of Pakistan. Photography during the colonial era served as a tool for documentation, classification, and control. Tanner's portrait, with its emphasis on the man's tribal affiliation and religious identity—'Soonee Mussulman'—reflects the colonial interest in categorizing and understanding the diverse social groups within its territories. The composition, with the subject centered and isolated against a neutral background, evokes a sense of scientific objectivity, reminiscent of ethnographic studies aimed at documenting indigenous peoples. To fully understand this photograph, we need to delve into the archives, examining colonial records, anthropological studies, and the social history of Sindh. It is through this interdisciplinary approach that the photograph reveals its deeper meanings.