“Disobedient Subjects: Bombay 1930–31” Opens at CDS on October 30

Durham, NC – Duke Center for Documentary Studies (CDS), in collaboration with the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts in New Delhi, presents Disobedient Subjects: Bombay 1930–31, an exhibition of 55 photographs that transport viewers to the heart of India’s Civil Disobedience Movement against British colonial rule.

The opening reception on Thursday, October 30, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at CDS, features remarks by curators Avrati Bhatnagar, instructor of history and international comparative studies at Duke, and Sumathi Ramaswamy, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of History, along with special guest Rahaab Allana, curator at the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts.

On view from October 30, 2025, through January 19, 2026, the show draws from the Alkazi Collection of Photography’s Collections of Photographs of Old Congress Party — K.L. Nursey. Prints of the album’s carefully preserved photographs, on display for the first time in the U.S., spotlight the contributions of everyday citizens and anticolonial activists in shaping India’s democratic future.

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