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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. Panjiar’s study is careful; he accords to king and commoner alike a quiet space and dignity. He achieves this by rejecting the intrusively newsy or overtly stylistic image, choosing a wider, inclusive form of portraiture instead. Through these portraits, the viewer gains access to the odd contiguity of ease and despair in the lives of the protagonists. Contrasts abound, though the shadows do not always fall predictably. Eventually, the terms King and Commoner prove to be just bait. We are invited to examine the distinction, only to find it deliberately obfuscated, the boundaries between the two increasingly blurred. Royalty decays, the regal reduced to artifice; the commoner finds moments of uncrowned rule in the airy abandon of his daily round. There is a deep melancholy in the eyes of the ageing nawab; the rustic smiles, man and monkey sleep the mythical sleep of kings. Panjiar’s viewfinder, for a fleeting moment, erases a difference.
Panjiar doesn’t strip the emperor’s clothes; his soft eyes merely gesture at the translucence. He restrains himself from crowning the commoner, granting him but a transient elevation. Somewhere in the course of the viewing one senses the evocation of a subaltern view of the photographer’s times. All too quietly, without the single image itself consciously presuming to judge, the collection gains the credibility of a comment on the Citizen, perhaps on a nation.
– Extracted from Sanjeev Saith’s foreword to the India Picture Photography Monograph, ‘King, Commoner, Citizen’ published 2007.
Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. 1994.
A mess waiter carries a bottle of champagne on the tarmac of an air force base during the jubilee celebrations of a fighter squadron.
Credit: Prashant Panjiar
Delhi. 1984.
Credit: Prashant Panjiar
Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. 2001.
Pilgrims at the Mahakumbh Mela.
Credit: Prashant Panjiar / Outlook
Amritsar, Punjab. 1993.
Surjit Kaur, the mother of a Sikh militant who was responsible for many deaths in her village, seeks forgiveness from the community at a peace meeting. Her son himself was killed in inter-gang rivalry.
Credit: Prashant Panjiar / India Today
Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu. 2004.
A victim of the Tsunami in Akkarapatai village.
Credit: Prashant Panjiar
Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh. 1981.
Women of Sadhupur village grieve over the bodies of family members killed by a dacoit gang.
Credit: Prashant Panjiar
Gurgaon, Haryana. 2004.
Signage and people at a bus stop.
Credit: Prashant Panjiar
Srinagar, Kashmir. 2002.
National Conference party workers campaign for their candidate during a shikara rally in the Dal Lake during the general elections.
Credit: Prashant Panjiar
Srinagar, Kashmir. 2002.
Soldiers of the Border Security Force at the Dal Lake.
Credit: Prashant Panjiar
Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh. 1999.
Tribals of Gulripada village where almost the entire population has converted to Christianity.
Credit: Prashant Panjiar / Outlook
Attari Station, Indo-Pak border, Punjab. 1996.
Najma, a young Indian bride from Malerkotla, bids farewell to her family before she departs with her Pakistani husband for his country.
Credit: Prashant Panjiar / Outlook
Ahwa, Gujarat. 1999
Performers of a Tamasha troupe, with their manager.
Credit: Prashant Panjiar
Kolkata. 1992.
Fatheyab Ali Meerza, the Nawab of Bengal, in his Park Street home, the dilapidated Murshidabad Haveli. His pension, originally awarded by the British, was stopped in 1969 when his succession was questioned. Fallen on bad times and mired in court cases, the Nawab lived in an upstairs corner of his decrepit mansion taken over by tenants and old unpaid retainers until his death.
Credit: Prashant Panjiar / India Today
Jagdalpur, Chattisgarh. 1998
Tribesmen pay their homage to Kamal Chandra Bhanj Deo, the Maharaja of Bastar, at his palace during the Dussehra festival.
Credit: Prashant Panjiar
Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. 2002
Worshippers at the Hanumangarhi temple, which was the most important shrine in Ayodhya till the movement led by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad converted the Ram Janambhoomi – Babri Masjid complex into the centrepiece of communal conflict in modern day India.
Credit: Prashant Panjiar
Benares, Uttar Pradesh. 1998.
Kashi Naresh, Maharaja Vibhuti Narain Singh, returns to Kashi after attending the Naag-Nathaiya festival in Benares. Revered as a living god the Maharaja passed away in 2000. He is succeeded by his son, Vibhuti Narain Singh, seen standing behind.
Credit: Prashant Panjiar
Patna-Gaya road, Bihar. 1995.
Credit: Prashant Panjiar
Scotland, United Kingdom. 1996
Sardar Iqbal Singh, the ‘Lord of Butley Manor’, at his home in Lesmahagow, near Glasgow. This Sikh immigrant became a successful property developer in London, bought a castle and ‘acquired’ a title (yes the British sell titles though it is rude to say you bought one!).
Credit: Prashant Panjiar / Outlook
Bhind, Madhya Pradesh. 1982.
Malkhan Singh and his gang of dacoits in his village, Bilao, prior to his surrender.
Credit: Prashant Panjiar
Bolangir, Orissa. 1996.
Gundhar Naik, of village Barlabahali, who was orphaned when his landless widowed mother died of starvation during the drought.
Credit: Prashant Panjiar / Outlook
Patna, Bihar. 1995.
Bisundeo Narain, an eminent citizen of Patna, with his great-grandchildren during a family gathering on the occasion of a marriage.
Credit: Prashant Panjiar
Bikaner, Rajasthan. 1990.
Maharaja Narendra Singh Rathore in the bedroom of his bungalow with his Great Dane bitches. Estranged from his family, including his wife and children, the reclusive Maharaja Narendra Singh lived here, away from the palace, surrounding his world in the colour red and his menagerie of animals till his death in 2003.
Credit: Prashant Panjiar / India Today
Bolangir, Orissa. 1996
Sesdev Saraf looks after his ailing wife, Pushpanjali, during the drought.
The chronically drought prone districts of Western Orissa are amongst the poorest in India. It is estimated that around two-third of the households in villages of this region suffer from food insecurity for nine months of the year.
Credit: Prashant Panjiar / Outlook
Ahwa, Gujarat, 1999.
Tribal boys groom themselves before being photographed at a travelling studio.
Credit: Prashant Panjiar
Beawar, Rajasthan. 1986
Credit: Prashant Panjiar
Jamnagar, Gujarat. 1991.
The reclusive Jamsaheb of Nawanagar, Shatrushalya Sinh, in the grounds of his palace which he has placed under a nature trust and converted into a mini wildlife sanctuary.
Credit: Prashant Panjiar / India Today
Prashant Panjiar is a self-taught photographer. He has worked as a photojournalist and editor in mainstream media at the Patriot newspaper (1984-1986), India Today (1986-1995) and the Outlook Group of Publications (1995-2001).
Since 2001 Panjiar has been working independently, specialising in reportage, editorial and documentary photography. He also continues to work as a consulting picture editor and is actively involved in mentoring younger photographers. He has served on the jury of the World Press Photo Awards in Amsterdam in 2002, the China International Press Photo Competition in 2005 and the Indian Express Press Photo Awards.
Panjiar is co-founder and managing trustee of Nazar Foundation, a non-profit trust for the promotion of the photographic arts and also the co-founder and one of the creative directors of the Delhi Photo Festival.
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