Toolika Gupta

Reading the Letters

When I travelled to America in 1997, the internet was not such a common thing and I did not have an email id, nor did my family and friends. So I would send letters home to my grandmother, my parents and friends, explaining things in detail, explaining my daily routine, the people I met and the things that fascinated me. Thus when I read the letters written by the Gwillim sisters, I could see the urge to send information to people back home. To request for things and to send things, that one would think that the relatives and friends would be happy to receive.

Similarly, having known India from foreign eyes, Gwillim archives mean a lot to me with the kind of information they hold. I find this 200 year old information very useful.  Being a textile and clothing researcher and historian, I find them loaded with description, because they were meant to do exactly that. I look at these letters as sources of information on India, by the sisters’ perspective. These letters were meant for those, who had not visited India and thus they were written in such a detail so as to make meaning for those who did not know the scenes and people here. The Gwillim letters helped to reinforce certain facts about clothing and give us glimpses into the time period, where Indian textiles were sought after. It is really amusing to note that they loved to send Indian shawls and other textiles abroad but preferred to get British textiles to make their own clothes. What is even more useful is the description of clothes, food, habits of people, festivals and celebrations. For example, even the currency I notice is called pagoda, something that I did not know and I can assure that many like me do not know.