Crafting New “Health and Beauty” Ideals for Men: Photography and the “Physical Culture Movement” in Late Colonial India

Abstract This article demonstrates how global bodily ideals exemplified in visible muscularity came to be entrenched among men in late colonial India. Its source material is men's “physique photographs,” (images tied to the exposition and promotion of physical culture) embedded in personal albums, health handbooks, and advertisements in vernacular sports periodicals, which attest to the growing uptake of exercise and bodybuilding amongst city-based men. It argues that in a climate of intense experimentation and research, the therapeutic effects of exercise were foregrounded, and notions of male bodily beauty were transformed. Through a close reading of textual and visual material, this article underlines the role of fitness entrepreneurs and provides evidence for the early beginnings of the commercialized fitness industry in India. Whilst academic scholarship has hitherto focused on the consumption of new health products, this research demonstrates that gyms and fitness services were critical in the promotion of muscular manliness in India.