In a contest of sorts, some recent announcements around statues show how each one is being built to be bigger than the other
The proposed statue of Subhas Chandra Bose at India Gate is a ‘big idea’ whose time has come
Can public art in India, depicting admirable women from history and mythology, shed the male gaze?
An exclusive extract from Kajri Jain’s book, ‘Gods In The Time Of Democracy’
History has a serendipitous way of discarding statues that were once erected to project power and perpetuity
The world’s tallest statue, of Shivaji Maharaj, will be the jewel in Maximum City’s crown
From Ghulam Nabi Azad to Mehbooba Mufti, Valley leaders have invoked the Dogra rulers to win over Hindu-majority Jammu.
Sandstone mining, to build the Ayodhya temple among others, provides vital employment, but endangers lives, livelihoods and the environment
Even compared with the most abject annals of misgovernance in India, it’s hard to get worse than what happened in Panjim in the wake of Parrikar’s absence at the helm, followed by his untimely demise.
Statue-building in post-colonial India has followed oppositional trajectories. While the State has tried to project Brahminical hegemony, the public has tried to reclaim the narrative.
Dalits have crafted unique visual metaphors to assert their identity and mark their place in politics and BSP played a big role in the process.
Far from being about ‘art for art’s sake’, statues are instrument for revival of memory, or construction of new ones.
The statues mark a point of time; time removes them; the new statues represent some different ideology; common men and onlookers remain unchanged beyond their individual lifetime and psyche.
Why are some statues built and others defaced? Why does no one ever build the statue of a working class man? Why are female statues shaped for the male gaze?
Five years after ‘snatching power’ from Congress, the BJP is looking to win 40 seats this time
The nature of these political parties is slightly different from those of the past. They are now appealing on the basis of secularism and trying to organise all oppressed communities under their banner.
For politicians, dressing up for the masses is about endorsing an image, or conveying a message
As my motherhood is progressing, my childhood memories are acquiring new meanings in light of the current discourses of art, gender and immigrant identities, writes Mee Jey, an Indian immigrant artist based in St. Louis
