Artist writings: Mahatma Gandhi 150.

Mahatma Gandhi 150: Artist Writings

21st Century belongs to Gandhi, by Subodh Kerkar.

Mahatma Gandhi, along with a number of tall......read more

leaders of the Indian freedom struggle evolved an idea of India, which is enshrined in the Constitution of India. Today that idea faces the greatest challenge since independence through religious fanatical forces and Acts like CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act). I am convinced that these challenges can only be fought using the methods evolved by the Father of the Nation.

Mahatma Gandhi is perhaps the greatest political leader who tread this earth. The Gandhian principles are eternal and shall continue to guide struggles for social and political justice.

The questions like “Is Gandhi relevant today?” are foolish. How can truth and non-violence be ever irrelevant? (even in the post-truth era).

Today India is facing politics based on hatred. Organizations like RSS are systematically propagating hatred towards non-Hindu communities and want to create a Hindu Rashtra. In this task, they have not hesitated to appropriate Mahatma Gandhi by using his image in their campaigns in the name of „Gandhi 150 Celebrations‟.

We cannot forget that the ideology which was responsible for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi is the ideology followed by the present ruling dispensation. Mahatma Gandhi stood for politics of truth, love and empathy. He fought the British Colonial Rule, but never the British people. He believed in fighting the „sin, not the sinner’. Some of his best friends were English and the spontaneous reception he received from the English people during his 1931 visit to London is a testimony to his politics of Ahimsa.

It is important to reclaim Gandhi. It is important to propagate and practise the principles that he stood for in order to save the idea of India that he envisioned. Mahatma Gandhi believed in a plural, tolerant India, where the poorest of the poor would receive justice. He believed that there is enough for everyone’s needs, but not for everyone’s greed. Means to him were as important as the ends. He was convinced that good results can never be achieved by using bad means. The truth and the transcendental always accompanied him during prayers, as well as protests.

A deeply religious man, Gandhi believed that it is not enough just to respect other religions, but that we should love them all like our own. India today is facing religious polarization. At this juncture, Mahatma Gandhi‟s idea of religion needs to be studied and propagated. He considered everyone who follows truth to be religious. In his initial years, Gandhi believed that „God was truth‟, until he expounded his famous idea that „truth was God‟. He claimed that all religions are like different compartments of one train, which will take us to one destination, God. God for him was „a principle and not a person‟.

Gandhi‟s idea of God has to permeate into the minds and souls of the youth of India, so that we are able to build a peaceful, progressive country, which he dreamt of.

Like Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi believed in one world. He was a „nationalist without borders. His idea of Ahimsa (non-violence) is based on the firm belief in universal consciousness. „We should keep all the doors and windows of our home open, so that the winds from all over move freely in our homes, but we should refuse to be dislodged from our grounds‟.

Ram Manohar Lohia, the great socialist says, “The 20th century produced two great powers: Atomic power and Gandhi power. The 21st century belongs to Gandhi and Ahimsa”.

Subodh Kerkar.

Note on Gandhi based works, by Atul Dodiya

Mahatma Gandhi once said ....read more

“I am not a seer, rishi or philosopher of non-violence; I am only an artist of non-violence and desire to develop the art of non-violence in the realm of resistance.” This statement has been a powerful trigger for much of the work I have done around Gandhi. His picking of salt, the Dandi march, the

non-cooperation movement – all, are rich conceptual acts. Reflecting on this, I have been painting Mahatma Gandhi for more than twenty years and this work forms a major part of my oeuvre. His ideals of compassion, inclusive vision and these active gestures of non-violence are important in our troubled times when we see so much violence, intolerance and hatred amongst human beings, not just in India but all over the world.

In 1997, when India was celebrating its 50 years of Independence, I started thinking about Gandhi’s absence. In 1999 I did a series ‘An Artist of Non-Violence’, a large scale watercolour paintings depicting Mahatma Gandhi. After that, in diverse medium, Gandhi remains a central subject in my oeuvre.

In the diptychs which have the painted Mahatma alongside the photographs of Modern European artists’ work, I have juxtaposed two histories – India’s freedom movement under Gandhi’s guidance, and the modern art movement which started in France in the early 20th century. I found it fascinating how in a certain time span, in different spaces, people struggled for freedom and creativity.

Atul Dodiya, August 2019

An antique piece of love, by Madhu Venugopalan

In the present scenario, I feel the importance... read more

of human values has started vanishing,especially the human qualities like compassion,love,care,sacrifice and non violence.these has started losing its fragrance, importance in daily life. Now a days its considered only as an old fashioned objects / ideas as simply abandoned antiques .

As a visual art practitioner I was trying to create a visual in connection with conceptualize spiritual aspects of a mountain ,I was trying to make a visual of myself holding a mountain attached on my body, and try to make a perfect balancing postures which is possible only through the language of art.

The mountain is thought to contain divine inspiration, and it is the focus of pilgrimages of transcendence and spiritual elevation. It is a universal symbol of the nearness to God, as it surpasses ordinary humanity and extends toward the SKY and the heavens. It symbolizes constancy, permanence, motionlessness, and its peak spiritually signifies the state of absolute consciousness. In dreams, a mountain signifies danger, but climbing a mountain depicts inner elevation.

With the visuals of man balancing mountain on his top, can be a suggestion towards how important is steadiness of our mind ,during the accidental ,struggling phase of life….but a kind of magic happens in those rare moments too, Some way around we are able to manage,or to balance all these contradicting situations, like both heaviness & lightness,sorrow & bliss in our lives, by Practicing Art as a way of life .

Heaviness and struggles may become lighter if we able to articulate our mental strength in equanimity .

Equanimity is a state of inner balance that enables you to remain calm and centered in the midst of all the turmoil in your life. An image often used to describe it is “being like the mountain.” The mountain absorbs the sun in the same way that it takes in the rain, the wind, and the snow. It doesn’t care what the weather is. No matter what is going on around it, the mountain is still the mountain.

As an artist I am just trying to attach my memories ,dreams ,thoughts, affirmations, to a mountain shaped visual as an extension of my own body… Which contains universal knowledge and memories… I feel our body itself is an ancient antique instrument.

In this particular show I am trying to create the Image of Gandhi as a mountain placed on the top of my self which is in balancing position of vertical and horizontal at same time.

Here I am trying to create visuals which could represent the perfect balance of phenomenons like time and timeless ,material and spiritual, open and closed, day and night, told and untold ,light and shade..,physical and metaphysical, real ,surreal and unreal.. stories of human mind.. which exist until we all become stories .!

Madhu Venugopalan, december 2019