Month: March 2022

War has always been devastating, irrespective of the time period in history, whenever it has happened. From mythology to the beginning of our civilisation, to the modern day ‘civilised’ man, it has been a “tool” to kill, abuse power, destroy, loot and plunder, thereby leaving a trail of destruction, disruption and suffering. Every time, setting […]

Located in the tri-junction of East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia, the peripheral region called ‘Northeast India’ is situated between a complex network of rivers, hills, and forests. Endless hills turn into flat fields, fields turn into forests, forests turn into habitats, and these habitats, in turn, produce specific knowledge systems and philosophies. Before […]

In the backdrop of massive state repression – as witnessed in murders, rapes, illegal deten-tions and custodial tortures – that defines Bastar today, a spirited ‘August Kranti- Tiranga Padyatra’ was organized in Bastar this August. Various political parties and groups as well as concerned individuals are part of the “Bastar Bachao Sanjukt Sangharsh Samiti” which […]

The idea of the space between what was possible before and what could be possible later; after a crisis or a major historical event, is related to what I consider the appropriate territory for my art practice. A ‘crisis’ can be understood as an inner struggle (thesis) and ‘historical event’ as an outer socio-political struggle […]

I took the Rajdhani express from Sealdah Station for Delhi on 14th January to join the farmers’ movement. Immediately after reaching Delhi the next day, I straightway went to the Head office of the All India Kissan Sabha (AIKS). I first met Comrade Hannan Mollah to plan my visit to the Delhi border to know […]

Dilara Begum Jolly has addressed pain and injustice in her work. She has sifted through the stream of contemporary events to focus on the pain and violence inflicted on the weak by the strong, the inconsistencies and insensitivity that is bred in a world driven by power and wealth. Jolly’s work has always vibrated with […]

Time, Coincidence and History, in the main, is a space for crystallizing the vestiges of colonial and postcolonial history covering in its broad sweep the legacies of social-political conflicts, religious parochialism that places identity over piety, and, finally, the body as a carrier of the pathologies of time. This intermedia art exhibition places in an […]

Pushpamala, dressed as Mother India in an elaborate costume popularised in Indian mythological films and television, with two extra papier- mache arms and wearing a mask, walks in a stately manner to the cooking area followed by Manasa dressed in a full PPE suit with mask, gloves and foot covering, carrying a tasseled velvet cushion […]

Thinking of Somnath Hore my memory goes back to the early years of the decade of 1960 when he was teaching at the art department of the Delhi Polytechnic. I must have met him in 1962 when his coloured etching The Birth of a White Rose got the National Award since I too had received […]

Defined as a “form of autobiographical writing”, implying thereby that it is primarily written “for the writer’s use alone” as distinct from writing done for publication, the diary is usually viewed as a document that is intensely personal, and therefore frank in its record. However, there are ample examples that such intimate records can transcend […]

As artist Somnath Hore’s centenary date passes-by rather solemnly, any endeavour to assess his artistic accomplishments has to be apprehended as an act of momentous volume. Somnath Hore (1921-2006), despite his long career as a practicing artist, remains somewhat a lesser-known individual in the centre-stage of Indian visual arts. His unequivocal obsession with his virtually […]