Young people from Valivade with Wanda Dynowska

Souvenir photos from a month-long expedition across southern India organized by Wanda Dynowska (seated, center). A group of twenty-five young people gave performances of Polish songs and national dances, while also learning about the culture, art, architecture and traditions of their host country. Their itinerary was Bengalore (today Bengaluru), Trinomalee (today Tiruvannamalai), Madras, Madurai, Tenkasi, Courtallam (today Kutralam), Trivandrum (today Thiruvananthapuram), Nagorkoil, Cape Comorin (today Kanyakumari), Mysore (today Mysuru).
Wanda Dynowska (1888–1971) was a Polish writer and translator fascinated with India’s culture and religions. She arrived in India in 1935 and soon met Gandhi, with whom she collaborated and who gave her the Indian name Umadevi. During the war, she held an administrative post at the consulate of the Republic of Poland in Mumbai; she founded the Polish-Indian Library publishing house.