British Raj Movies

Scenes at a garden party given by Earl Lytton, Governor of Bengal, at Government House, Calcutta.

Anti-Congress propaganda film made by a District Officer in India.

Amateur film featuring government buildings in Delhi, a shooting party in Malakand and winter in Abbottabad.

The film explores the tragic fall of feudalism in Bengal during the British Raj. The title of the movie and the story is a reference to the plot...

The inauguration of a unit of the Indian Defence Force in Calcutta.

Film showing the Viceregal party entering Delhi on lavishly decorated elephants, as part of the Coronation durbar of 1903.

Amateur film of fishing and geese-shooting trips by a British party in India.

Attractive travelogue filmed in and around Delhi's Qutb complex.

Film of local events in Ajmer province including the fair at Pushkar.

Rural life in the mountainous valley near Gilgit - now in the Northern areas of Pakistan.

A doctor and party visit the villages of eastern Manipur in India's far north east.

Snapshots of colonial life around Tamil Nadu, plus a visit to the Toda tribe.

Fashionably attired folk attend the races in Kolkata.

This portait of life on the tea plantations is decidedly rosy – clearly, there are no exploited workers here. However, the film provides an...

Amateur footage of Delhi and Jaipur, from a military review to an atmospheric torchlit procession - and some armour-plated elephants.

Extraordinary footage of prayers in the Punjabi capital.

Gorgeously dreamlike colour images of (then) French India – present-day Puducherry.

Early film of a crowded street scene in an unidentified Indian city.

Motorcars take shape - outdoors in a Kolkata yard.

This amateur film gives us a fair idea of the opulent life enjoyed by members of the British government in India.