Seeking Archival Film Footage of Salvation Army run labor camps for
India's so-called "Criminal Tribes."

Starting in the 20s, and increasingly in the 30s - up till three years
after Indian Indpenedence, India's so-called  "Criminal Tribes" (now
referred to as De-notified and Nomadic tribes, or DNTs) were placed in
labor camps run by the Salvation Army. See the following page for the
official SA statement about these camps.

http://tinyurl.com/phzls

For a documentary film project I need archival footage of these camps.
I am already aware of several possible sources for finding such
footage, such as the Salvation Army International heritage Center in
London and the British Empire & Commonwealth Museum in Bristol.
However, I have not yet been able to ascertain whether any actual film
footage exists. I will pay for any information indentifying specific
films which contain footage of these camps taken during the time that
they were active.

Two additional sources of information about these camps:

"Colonizing and Transforming the Criminal Tribesman: The Salvation
Army in British India." American Ethnologist, Vol. 18, No. 1. (1991),
pp. 106-125.

Meena Radhakrishna's  book, "Dishonoured by history: "criminal tribes"
and British colonial policy."

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Clarification of Question by luhmann-ga on 04 Aug 2006 00:12 PDT

On further investigation it seems that not all the camps were run by
the Salvation Army. Film footage of the other camps would be good too.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 04 Aug 2006 04:51 PDT

I searched through a number of farily in-depth historical film
archives, but nothing turns up.

There do appear to be a number of in-depth books on the topic, though,
and at least some of these contain numerous images, though it's hard
to know in advance if they are photographs or other illustrations.

You may want to think about a Ken Burns type of documentary, relying
mostly on stills.

As an example of some of the works out there, have a look at this:


https://www.vedamsbooks.com/no42747.htm
The Criminal Tribes in India


as well as this out-of-print (but perhaps a copy can found!) work:


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0008C5EM4/ref=nosim/103-2959981-2871045?camp=2025&dev-t=D26XECQVNV6NDQ&link%5Fcode=xm2&n=283155
Criminocurology; or, The Indian criminal and what to do with him:
Being a review of the work of the Salvation army among the prisoners,
habituals and criminal tribes of India


If no film can be identified, let me know if information about
available print materials would be an acceptable alternative for
answering your question.


Cheers,

pafalafa-ga