LENSVIEW
Fragile reflections
ANTARA DAS
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Images of British Muslims who are inalienable components of the complex tapestry of British multiculturalism.
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Photo: Sushanta Patronobish
Composite identity: Scenes from Peter Sanders' photo-essay.
THE face of Britain, not as the erstwhile empire builder, but as a nation with the capacity to contain multitudes — this is the dominant feeling that Peter Sanders (a convert to Islam) seeks to evoke in his photo-essay "The Art of Integration: Islam in Britain's Green and Pleasant Lands".
Through his lens, he captures images of second and third generation British Muslims who, Sanders claims, do not have the fears and concerns of the previous generation and are gradually becoming inalienable components of the complex tapestry of British multiculturalism.
The title of the exhibition modifies a phrase used by William Blake in the poem "Jerusalem" (1804) where he talks of building a Jerusalem "in England's green and pleasant land" — a symbolic land where humanity would be free from the evil of imperialism and war, from the scourge of radical religious fervour or from the fear that every bearded man is a terrorist. These are the notions that Sanders seeks to dispel.
Take the frame "A Mass for Peace". In a lull during an orchestral performance by composer Karl Jenkins, the lone figure of Imam Golding is seen standing in the aisle giving the call to prayer or the adhaan as part of the musical piece, oblivious to his surroundings. Many photographs are devoted to this marriage of cultures: whether it is the heavily veiled figure of make up artist Karimah, as she uses her deft fingers on a model or the profile of the young rock climber whose protective hard hat barely conceals the hijab or the traditional headscarf beneath it.
Largest minority
Muslims constitute the largest minority in Britain, says the brochure, with an approximate count of 1.6 million Muslims according to the 2001 census. Muslim visitors to the island have been coming since the beginning of the 18th century, though the number of immigrants increased significantly to meet the demand for labour post-World War II. That labour, which formed the underpinning of British economy in the 1950s, has transformed itself into the successful professional of today, seen here as fashion designer Alia Khan or aerosol graffiti artist Muhammad Ali who have managed to forge a composite identity in a fast changing society.
However efficient and strategic maybe the arrangement of components in the portraits of multi-ethnic families to suggest successful integration, the picture of Hassan Malik, the friendly neighbourhood community support police officer in discussion with a white colleague, leaves a vague sense of unease, given recent reports claiming that the police force in Britain was a hotbed of racism.
That mistrust and sense of hurt and wrong, which drives young people to unleash death and destruction is conspicuously absent in Sanders' cultural portraits.
Food for thought
It is worth pondering on whether the classroom demonstration of the Muslim prayer will foster a greater respect for Islam or whether cultural integration happens much more subtly, over a vast expanse of time and space as shown in the panoramic frame of Llanbadrig Church in Wales.
Though founded in 440 A.D., Islamic influences were added during its restoration in the 19th century to satisfy the third Lord Stanley of Alderly, who had funded the restoration and was a Muslim convert.
That coexistence of the two religions or the one witnessed at St. Anne's mosque, which also reserves space for the remaining nuns may offer much hope for a harmonious future that will be more enduring than the image of the fragile reflections of various facets of Islam on the glass façade of the reconstructed Globe Theatre.
Peter Sanders' photo exhibition was displayed in Kolkata between March 5 and 10, Hyderabad (March 13 to 18), Lucknow (March 21 to 24) and New Delhi (March 27 to 31).
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