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Many newsreel crews accompanied the royal entourage for this elaborately
staged Imperial ceremony and produced special editions for the public back home.
Barker's is one of the best surviving copies and shows the astonishing scale of
this event and the paying of tribute by the Independent princes of the
subcontinent.
Durbars were a form of feudal ceremonial and were held for the British
monarch in 1877, 1903 and 1911. This was the only Durbar actually attended by
the monarch, in the same year that Delhi became the new capital of British
India. It is significant that the newsreels were a formal part of the entourage
and that the production of moving image for the cinema was now regularly
factored in to state events. The film exhibits this formalised relationship
between the administration and the cameramen with privileged and unusually close
access given to the royal couple in the footage shot on the balcony.
Bryony Dixon
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Complete film (11:16)
