Skip to main content

Dalit painter's artefacts on atrocities, preserved at Gujarat's tech institute, to form part of proposed Dalit museum

Anil Vardhan (right) with Martin Macwan
While young Dalit painter Anil Vardhan is all set to go ahead with his third one-man show in Ahmedabad's Ravishankar Raval Kala Bhavan on paintings (click HERE) which which seek to provide an exposure into his experiments with colour intermingled with his love for music, a tete-a-tete with the young artist revealed his other side -- his deep anger over atrocities on Dalits and their incessant fight against untouchability.
Vardhan possibly believes that by exposing works before a wider audience would require him to display themes of love and music. However, he told Counterview, "Time will come when I will be only displaying things that tell a wider social message, of untouchability and caste discrimination."
Inspired to paint on themes of caste discrimination by well-known Dalit rights activist Martin Macwan, who is founder of the Dalit Shakti Kendra (DSK), a technical institute near the industrial hub of Sanand, which houses Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet Tata Nano car plant, Vardhan showed some of his excellent art works on Dalit issues, which have been carefully preserved at DSK.
Reaching DSK on way to Ahmedabad, where his exhibits will be opened by former National Institute of Design (NID) director Ashoke Chatterjee and Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA) director Preeti Shroff on Tuesday, he took this reporter around DSK to show his small as well as life-sized art works ranging from themes like Dalits being offered water from a distance in Gujarat villages, to how they are denied permission in temples.
Based on the temple theme, one of Vardhan's art works showed how Dalits were forced to peep from the holes from outside a top Odisha temple to have a glimpse of the offerings before the God because they were not allowed in. Standing next by him, Macwan explained, "It is an important chapter of Dalit history. It took a court order to stop the despicable practice. Significantly, decades ago, a similar practice prevailed at Gujarat's famous Santram Temple of Nadiad."
Also on preserved at DSK are Vardhan's 98 illustrations -- all in Madhubani style -- he prepared to highlight as many types of discrimination prevailing in Gujarat's rural areas. "These illustrations, on paper mash, suggest as 98 different questions posed to Dalits across Gujarat during a complete survey of untouchability practices prevailing in the rural areas in 2009", he said, displaying a few of them to this reporter. On display at DSK, apart from his paintings, include Vardhan's miniatures, murals and wall paintings.
Asked whether he would exhibit these and many other art works on Dalit atrocities, Vardhan, who is a primary school art teacher in Sihor, Bhavnagar district, and has been associated with DSK for about a decade, said, "I will exhibit as an example few of the artefacts at the Ravishankar Raval gallery. However, I am waiting for an appropriate time to highlight these works. They will surely form part of the Dalit museum, being planned at DSK."
Intervened Macwan, "While Vardhan's works would form a major part The Dalit art museum, which we are planning at DSK, he is not the only artist who will find a space." 
He added, taking this reporter around DSK to show others' works, "Several artists have contributed their paintings and other art works to DSK on caste-based atrocities theme and would find a prominent place include well-known American black painter Juliet Seignous' 28 paintings preserved at DSK; Rina Vaghela, a brilliant fine arts student at Vallabh Vidyanagar; and Savi Savarkar, whose painting on Dalits and cow was attacked by saffron brigade in Maharashtra."

Comments

TRENDING

Trump’s research cuts 'may mean' advantage China: But will India leverage global brain drain to its advantage?

When I heard from a couple of NRI professionals—currently on work visas and engaged in research projects at American universities—that one of President Donald Trump's major policy thrusts was to cut federal funding to the country's top educational institutions, I was instantly reminded of what Prof. Kaushik Basu had said while delivering a lecture in Ahmedabad.

How the middle classes are returning to the BJP fold, be it Delhi or Gujarat: Mahakumbh, Sitharaman's budget

Whatever reasons may be offered for the Aam Aadmi Party's defeat in Delhi—whether it was the BJP's promises of more freebies than AAP, the shedding of ultra-nationalist slogans, or the successful demolition of Arvind Kejriwal's "Mr. Clean" image—my recent interaction with a group of middle-class individuals highlighted a notable trend. Those who had just begun to sit on the fence were now once again returning to the BJP fold.

Google powered AI refuses to correct grammar of a 'balanced' piece on Trump sending chained immigrants to India!

This is a continuation of my blog on how, while the start-up-developed AI app DeepSeek is being criticized for consistently rejecting content related to China or Maoism, there appears to be no mention in Western media about why another app, developed by the powerful Google, Gemini, remains silent on Indian political issues.  

World Hijab Day? Ex-Muslim women observe Feb 1 as No Hijab Day, insist: 'Put it on a Man'

I didn't know that there could ever be a thing as World Hijab Day until I received an email alert from Maryam Namazie of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB), stating that several ex-Muslim women's groups had observed the same day—February 1—as No Hijab Day! According to Namazie, the day "was created on February 1 as a direct response to World Hijab Day" to "illuminate the coercive and oppressive realities of the hijab as a pillar of sex apartheid and a war on women."

How to turn India's e-waste problem, third largest, into opportunity? Simple: Offer industry incentives!

How should one interpret a major problem that may be bogging down a private consultant while preparing an industry-friendly report on a situation that adversely impacts society—especially when the consultant sees little possibility of progress in the supposed desired direction?

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

  The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual.  I don't know who owns this site, for there is nothing on it in the About Us link. It merely says, the Nashik Corporation  site   "is an educational and news website of the municipal corporation. Today, education and payment of tax are completely online." It goes on to add, "So we provide some of the latest information about Property Tax, Water Tax, Marriage Certificate, Caste Certificate, etc. So all taxpayer can get all information of their municipal in a single place.some facts about legal and financial issues that different city corporations face, but I was least interested in them."  Surely, this didn't intere...

Gujarat a police state? How top High Court advocate stunned a senior-most journalist

Rajdeep Sardesai, Anand Yagnik This is a continuation of my earlier blog on well-known journalist Rajdeep Sardesai's lecture in memory of the late Achyut Yagnik at the Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA). I was a little surprised when I received the intimation about the venue for the lecture.

5% poor in India? Union govt claim debunked, '26.4% of population below poverty line'

A recent paper, referring to the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2022-23 of the Government of India (GoI), has debunked the official claim that poverty has substantially declined. Titled "Poverty in India: The Rangarajan Method and the 2022–23 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey", the paper —authored by scholars CA Sethu, LT Abhinav Surya, and CA Ruthu—states that "more than a quarter of India’s population falls below the poverty line."

Why burn Manusmriti? Why not preserve it to demonstrate, display historicity of casteism?

In a significant Facebook post, Rana Singh, former associate professor of English at Patna University, has revealed something that few seem to know. Titled "The Shudras in Manusmriti", Singh says,  because Manusmriti is discussed so often, he thought of reading it himself. “This book likely dates back to the 2nd or 3rd century BCE, and the presence of contradictory statements suggests that it is not the work of a single author,” he says in his Facebook post in Hindi, written in 2022 and recently reshared.