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I love this 'Portrait of a Mughal Woman' by Francesco Renaldi, 1787
(lemmy.dbzer0.com)
Renaldi obtained permission from the British East India Company to travel to Calcutta in 1786. Over the next decade, he produced sensitive portraits that revel in the sumptuous textiles and rich jewels that provided much of the impetus for European colonialism in South Asia. Renaldi almost certainly sent this painting back to London for display at the prestigious Royal Academy under the title "Portrait of a Mogul [Mughal] Lady." However, nothing of the sitter’s identity is known. Given the seclusion of elite Muslim women in India at the time, she may have been a hired model or a so-called bibi, an Indian woman who became the wife or concubine of a European man.
Idk why u would call bibi wife or concubine of European man,the bibi is synonym to wife as of now in india
Yes you do, You said it yourself, then was not now.
Bibi now is even used as lady now. And a respectable term mostly.
I alr got it while writing.just crazy how much Indians adopted from British from white fetish to their lingo,almost all posh things are somehow related to british
I am resisting the urge to write 5k words here. I'll just say William Dalrymple has done brilliant work on this history and how the British impression of the Indians changed over the years