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Tyeb Mehta
Acrylic on canvas
In this work by Tyeb Mehta, the Hindu goddess Durga slays the buffalo demon Mahisasura as he transforms into human form. Referencing classical Indian mythology, the theme of good vanquishing evil provides a hopeful allegory in a time of social and political turbulence.
Mehta painted this work in the year following the demolition of the Babri Masjid. As a Muslim, he was impacted by the horrors of the communal violence which ensued in Bombay (Mumbai), where he was living. Throughout his life, Mehta advocated secularism, which he believed was necessary for social unity.
The work depicts Durga as a serene figure triumphing over the threat of disharmony. Bulls were a common motif in Mehta’s work, and he once commented that he saw them as “representative of the national condition … the mass of humanity unable to channel or direct its tremendous energies”.*
On 6 December 1992, an organised mob of Hindu activists demolished a sixteenth-century mosque, the Babri Masjid, in Ayodhya, India. They contended that the mosque had been built upon the site of a Hindu temple that had commemorated the birthplace of the god Ram – a mosque-temple debate ongoing since the nineteenth century. The destruction of the mosque triggered riots across the Indian subcontinent, in which some thousands were killed. This communal violence had a profound impact on many members of India’s artistic community. Vivan Sundaram recalled that there was “enormous despair”, which “shook the belief system of those brought up with Nehruvian ideals of secularism. There was a crisis.” Several artists were compelled to make works in response, and some, such as Rummana Hussain and Sheela Gowda, radically re-oriented their practices. It was within this context that artists began to experiment with installation, cross-media and performance in an effort to directly address issues of secularity and to deconstruct essentialised ideas about India’s modern and pre-modern past.*
Taken from the exhibition
The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975–1998
(October 2024 — January 2025)
The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975-1998 surveys artistic production from across the Indian subcontinent during a 23-year period marked by social upheaval, economic instability and rapid urbanisation. The exhibition unfolds in a loosely chronological manner, framed by two significant national events in the history of independent India: the declaration of the Emergency in 1975, when democratic rights were suspended, and the nuclear tests of 1998, when the country relinquished its non-violent ideals to assert its place in a new global order. Some artists responded unequivocally to developments in the public arena, while others captured shared experiences and private moments. Amongst the 30 artists featured in this show some committed themselves to representational painting; others evolved personal iconographies in a variety of mediums, including employing installation in the 1990s. All of them combined social observation with individual expression and innovative forms to make work about friendship, love, desire, family, religion, violence, caste and community. This has determined the four axes that shape the exhibition: the rise of communal violence; gender and sexuality; urbanisation and shifting class structures; and a growing connection with Indigenism.
The exhibition takes its title from Sudipta Kaviraj’s essay The Imaginary Institution of India, in which he writes persuasively about the intellectual process of conceptualising the Indian nation. Artworks consider the state’s inability to abide by the progressive character of its Constitution, conceived as an instrument for radical social transformation. They also confront government failure to uphold secularism, social justice, welfare, minority rights and affirmative action in the face of a rising Hindu right wing and pro-capitalist economic agendas. They demonstrate that solidarity and protest existed, and were expressed in many registers, from the strident or intimate to the despondent or poetic, both anguished and hopeful, in the street and in the home. We witness the quiet defiance and resilience which truly defines this imaginary institution of India. In the words of B. R. Ambedkar, the Indian Constitution’s main architect, “Political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social democracy.".
[*Barbican Centre]
Taken in the Barbican
Waiting for the temple.
Ayodhya, India
Rama's temple waiting to be rebuilt in Ayodhya.
A fenced lot in the northern Indian town of Ayodhya is the holding place for large groupings of craved stone, the building blocks of a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Rama. The stones are dressed and decorated with intricate carving and piled into groups across the lot ready to be assembled on the former site of the Babri Mosque (see below).
Ram Janmabhoomi (literally, "Rama's birthplace") is the name given to the site that many Hindus believe to be the birthplace of Rama.
The Ayodhya dispute is a political, historical and socio-religious debate in India, centred on a plot of land in the city of Ayodhya, located in Faizabad district, Uttar Pradesh. The main issues revolve around access to a site traditionally regarded among Hindus to be the birthplace of the Hindu deity Rama, the history and location of the Babri Mosque at the site, and whether a previous Hindu temple was demolished or modified to create the mosque.
The Ayodhya debate centres around the land known today as Ram Janmabhoomi, on which the Babri Mosque was built in 1528. In Hindu mythology, Ayodhya is the birthplace of the god-king Rama, the son of Dasharatha, the ruler of Ayodhya, and his queen Kausalya. He is worshiped by many Hindus as an Avatar, or incarnation, of Vishnu.
नवमी तिथि मधुमास पुनीता,
शुक्ल पक्ष अभिजीत नव प्रीता,
मध्य दिवस अति शीत न घामा,
पवन काल लोक विश्रामा।
श्री राम नवमी की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएं
How many have been convicted in the 1992 Mumbai riots, questions the AIMIM president.
Triggering controversy over capital punishment to Yakub Memon in Mumbai blasts case, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday sought to know whether the perpetrators of demolition of disputed structure in...
headlinesview.com/will-perpetrators-of-babri-masjid-demol...
Diwali is the Hindu festival of lights, with variations celebrated in other Indian religions such as Jainism and Sikhism. It symbolizes the spiritual victory of Dharma over Adharma, light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance. Diwali is celebrated between around mid-September and mid-November.
Diwali is connected to various religious events, deities and personalities, such as being the day Rama returned to his kingdom in Ayodhya with his wife Sita and his brother Lakshmana after defeating the demon king Ravana. It is also widely associated with Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity, and Ganesha, the god of wisdom and the remover of obstacles. Other regional traditions connect the holiday to Vishnu, Krishna, Durga, Shiva, Kali, Hanuman, Kubera, Yama, Yami, Dhanvantari, or Vishvakarman.
Primarily a Hindu festival, variations of Diwali are also celebrated by adherents of other faiths. The Jains observe their own Diwali which marks the final liberation of Mahavira. The Sikhs celebrate Bandi Chhor Divas to mark the release of Guru Hargobind from a Mughal prison. Newar Buddhists, unlike other Buddhists, celebrate Diwali by worshipping Lakshmi, while the Hindus of Eastern India and Bangladesh generally celebrate Diwali by worshipping the goddess Kali.
On 22 January, 2024, Paramahamsa Vishwananda was an honoured guest for the inauguration of the new Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir, in Ayodhya, India. It was Gurudev’s first visit to the birthplace of Lord Rama and He was excited to take part in this historic event.
In recent satsangs leading up to the event, Guruji has been talking about the significance of this event as a triumph of Santana Dharma and how it has been positively uniting Hindus around the world in the Name of Sri Ram.
Gurudev was interviewed by reporters, showing up on international news reports when asked for His perspective on this historic occasion. ‘For the history of India, it is very important, because it is the birthplace of Lord Rama. I think for India, it is something amazing.’
paramahamsavishwananda.com
bhaktimarga.org
ayodhya pahar, purulia, west bengal
complete post at traveltravailsandheck.blogspot.in/2012/09/midland-hill.html
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ALL INDIA STUDENTS' ASSOCIATION (AISA) .
Date: 8103/2002 .
. . NO To VHP's Coercion for Ayodhya Land ' .
tsmtss the Fascist Modi Govt ' B VHP ' .
0 an · Arrest VHP leaders ! .
Join Mauive .
March to Parliament 9'h March 2002 .
Assemble at Ganga Bus stop at 9_30 A.M. .
.
.
_ A dangerous question mark hang · 1 -.
' ·;untr~'-people nre. nsking -" H ow come £1 .:l'i~e~,~~~SLlen?:::isot~a~a!t?n and the all its democratic institutions. All over the .
w wse tves are bemg uprooted by the Narmada D -. r'" co;lrt b· u mrrast, As hole Singhal and his VHP troops do nor eavme, ts p~mshedfor ' contempt" of justice'? And how come ;, I -..
cl, t h . n recerve a rebuke or warnin h ., h -, 1 g ann.e:-n~o.~s rate t etr active contempt for the same Court b . . g w I e t ey openly declare and vwlenttj .
en ry mto t e a.md.
.1/fe. , · ~ repeatedly vwlatmg its orders prohibiting t · h M .. .
. In a de~wcracy, we are told, dialogue, debate and dissent . . -..
dt.~110Ciacy, and, tn fact, strengthens such institutions and re d th wth det~locratle mshtutions expands the scope of'le_t.~s :ec;~l~ that if the womer~~~e~!~o-~?ns of'Justice,' if t,hey_l!_<!_d not still ha~e ~~-~ le_~t~l .n~ht to beat their wives asthey did -~reia-100 ~?.. ~c~t_ve :9~al ~a~:s}? ?Wn prope_~, ~ld ~~~o~lld much weaker. Arundhati's attempt to .. expand tli___ id . Y f fi years ago. And our notion of democracy would be that development and the re5ources of land J·ungle and :;eor -vtbew o t e Court to "include the rights of adivasis to a share in .
, r, IS rave attempt to enhance justice t t t ·.Ourt'S. punishment, as well as its patriarchal comment on her being a woman , onl I' ewersno . othexdp~es~1gmty an contedmpt o.f~1: And.
.te y e credJbdtty ol.
I C .
Courtttsdf, not of the Narmada movement ! .
.
The fact that the VHP leaders go scot free is truly a comment on how the BJP regime has weakened our judiciary .
<\nd democratic institutions. Even Singhal's latest statement is a blatant attempt to subvert and pressurize the CoUJt-"We' ll .
nccept the Court verdict ifwe're allowed to do ' puja' at the shilanyas site, ifthe govt. hands over land" etc. Justice is no longer .
.
jLstice !fcriminals are allowed to strike bargains with it. .
Tn all this talk of "disputed" and "undisputed", let's not forget the stark facts. The so-called ' disputed' site once .
hdd the Babri Masjid, which the Sangh Pariwar publicly demolished 10 years back. lts leaders went scot free, an~ are in .
rnwe< today. Tod3y they are sayhrg --·ollow "' to build our Maodir oo the "uodisputed" land surrounding the dL'putecl .
""'iid oire:' Thi '' like vandal br.,king into your hou.e, ood claimiog it " thei". While the Court easo drag on. ,r "" .
.
vandals were allowed to acquire the public park surrounding the house, and were to station th~ir goons there threate~1ing you, wnulrl it be justice?. Or would it be a blatant attempt to threaten you into Withdrawing your clatm to your own house. .
Tile disputed Masjid site is. /0(/Uy, a tiny island In tire ocean of so-called "undisputed land., If a triump/ll/1/f. IIII!IIOcillg ttggres~·ive SU11J;h brig11de is allowed to -~urround t/Je Sift Wif/J its temple, WfiO Wifl guarantee tile ~ecurity "!that ·"'"' A.fl" tlr< '92 demo!Uim, ajr b.,ging inJo the Maojld '""f"' 'pJ' few manti" ba<llted, .
,_.,,., ;, rirliculmu w im11gine tltat tire VHP will respect a fence between tlte 'disputed' cmd 'undisputed' sites? .
Any ·puja' by tlw YHP at any ~ite will imply the government's 'OK' for the Ram Mandir. The Govcmmenl cannot b1; allow~:d to grant sttch approval to this communal, criminal project of VHP. If Kambhal<ts want to build a temple and do pujas, they can do so at their homes. The VI1P has publicly issued a blatantly communal call to "boycott" all shops, ctnemas, hotels etc. owned or run by Muslims! The Govt. cannot be allowed to continue to negotiate with or appease such forces which .
crntinue to spread such communal frenzy. VHP leaders must be arrested, and all preparations to force a temple onto the .
!Vlasjid site must stop. .
If we are to defend the basic foundations of democracy and secularism, as well as the law of the land, all citizens must ''H"d up to demand the dismissal of the murderous Modi Govt., arrest ofVHP leaders and an immediate stop to the Mandir .
.:: l11C t(,ujaratdunng 3 -:; ofMiir"llminori~ie11:v· Ill~ :>pok _to · · · more and more · -.
lu light that the attacks on en· not VtCtln'lS all over Ahmedabad tragiC evidence claiming over 1500 lives, a hu e number of'::r: state-sponso~~· Not only hav~ ~hese been the worst riots since l\J69. Hanuman Mandirs Remark;bly de "t tl o~ques and Mushm-owned properties have been destroyed and replaced With .
· sp1 t: 1e outrage they have suffered th, viet' ms f th · d' · condemned the Godhra attack. The most shameful fact is that th r f -' e t o -ese nots uncon tttonal Y 1\hmedabad (from the Congress party) nor the Govt. leaders havee:~~~:r;;';;,p~i:;tet~~:ed for rehcf, and neither the Mayor of .
CPI (ML) has given a call On th'for an All India Protcst Day 0.9'h M ·.
hc·l<l nt Ranaras a nd Luck now . p " arch, on whtch day massive citizens' rallies will he . · -1s occas1on a rotestMarch 1s b · h ld · D lh' th.
Ra lly agamst the Sangh's gameplan in Gujarat ~dAyodh a will b h e:~g e m e I too. On 14 March, a massive Protest StJ/-lnteshar, VP, AISA, JNU y e e at Pntna. Sd/-Mahendra, Jt. Secy. AISA, JNlJ .
.
ayodhya pahar, purulia, west bengal
complete post at traveltravailsandheck.blogspot.in/2012/09/midland-hill.html
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and minorities. defenders of state terror and fake encounters..
From Ayodhya to Ahmedabad, their blood-stained history of poHcy of deprivation points has facilitate.
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murder and genocide with the firm abetment of the state socially and regionally deprtved background.
machinery can hardly be over emphaslzed. With no.
committment for any students issues, ABVP survives purely.
on hate mongering. fanning communal frenzy and indulging In 1995, the JNUSU led by Comrade Chand.
in repeated lumpen violence on the campus. from AISA led a historic movement which pushed.
the proposal of privatization and fee hikes in JNU..
.
YFE is the spokesperson of inequality. of elitism an\ .
u:1precedentedly massive participation in that movel'ft.fto.
casteism,with the single--point agenda ofexpressing contemp ensured that the JNU Administration never dared to float any.
for labour. for the poor and underprivileged and oppressed proposal of fee-hike since ther,.
.
castes. Thetr real face can be seen in AHMS where dalit Movement for GSCASH.
doctors are d1scriminated against shamelessly..
Be it NSUI, ABVP or YFE-none of them has the least In 1996, following a rash of sexual harassment caseswhich were dealt with most insensitively by the Proctors IS .
l .
concern for students' interests on.campus or the democratic.
concerns of society at large office, AISA mooted the idea of an autonomous gender~ protrGisensitive body to deal with complaints of sexuar harassment. 2008.
There are also those forces in this campus who claim to '.
provide a 'Left position'. This is the SFI-AJSF which stand for even before the Supreme Court's landmark Vishakha Tf.
judgement. A massive student movement on gender issuesthe CPI{M] and CPI But the hollowness of these clatms has and against sexual harassment built up in JNU, joined by politi~been exposed after the events of Singur, Nandigram and now, teach':?rs and karmacharis. After the Visakha judgement. JNU conditi.
Chengara have exposed the brutal face of the CPI(M}. They .
of pu.
became one of the early campuses to set up its GSCASH in.
haveshown that the CPt[M]'s true concern is the naked display 1999. The struggle for GSCASH does not end with the set-to prohave.
of power against farmers and adivasis and in defense of large ting up of the body but it is imperative even at the present .
free b.
corporates, it is the supporLof SEZs and the extermination juncture that the student community remain vrgirant against·of protesting farmers, it is the suppression of dissent and the all forms of preJUd.
vilification of questioning voices, it is the extension of un-sexual harassment and .
violence. disc1pli.
quaUfied support to laws like AFSPA. On campus too, SFI The empowerment and democratization of GSCASH remains .
unfortuhas repeatedly shown its pro-corporate face by supporting a key issue for AISA. as also the need to include domestic admiss1.
violence within the purview of GSCASH, for wh·ch the student~ the Nestle outlet and di5$0Ciating from the struggle for workers community needs to stand united once more these ytrights. emphasI .
Struggle Against Corporatisation and the Nestle relatingAgainst the poHtics of such anti-people forces, against Outletthe politics of hate and capitulation, A/SA has provided a democn' radical alternative, mobilizing the student commun;ty for the In 2002-03, when SFI-AISF controlled all four posts in discrirnnthe JNUSU, they overturned JNU's socially sensitive policy ft W<poHfjcs ofchange. In JNU, A/SA has striven consistently to of allotting shops and public spaces to deprived people and redefine the grammar of student politics. At each point, our orotest a.
interventions have been to make the campus more socially allowed MNCs and big corporates like Nestle to set up out-that the t.
y.
sensitive. Whether it is by mobilizing students against the lets on campus. When AlSA won the JNUSU President's from MaC1.
-·~'eisl anti-reser.ralion fmnzy, by supporting the people's post in 2004, our campaign mobilized stl.ldents against this year. · 1.
corporatisation and the Nestle outlet. At a historic University. tr'!)-r·e:r:re~ts at Narmada, Kalinganagar, Singur, Nandigram or~alJgaro.. :Yfraisi_ng the issue ofworkersI minimum wages Wor: c.~ :;;a-;;:.s, by s:anding up for women's rights and gender General Body Meeting (UGBM) in Jan 2005, hundreds of AstSFI's pro-Nestle position (115 votes) and asserted that shops.
'!!IS:ice A;.SA has .upreJo Jhe path ofstruggle so as to create students voted against the Nestle outlet (544 votes), defeating .
, a'f'.eT.a~r;:e po.·~~cs. and spaces be allotted to needy individuals and not to.
corporations. .
Bearers "'or1< PoUcy Interventions and the entin.
s U.r1Q1eS In 2007-08, when the proposal came to separate shop-.
ociatly Sensitive JNU well as t.
allotment from the purview ofthe Campus Development Com-.
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thestr\lg~le arid dfnched the Olma~Of ew.ardlng fi)(tra points.
in JNU admissions to atudenta from pack~lrd {(at Jtt3 and 24x7 Dhaba, Yes ! -8dmith\:.
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On 22 January, 2024, Paramahamsa Vishwananda was an honoured guest for the inauguration of the new Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir, in Ayodhya, India. It was Gurudev’s first visit to the birthplace of Lord Rama and He was excited to take part in this historic event.
In recent satsangs leading up to the event, Guruji has been talking about the significance of this event as a triumph of Santana Dharma and how it has been positively uniting Hindus around the world in the Name of Sri Ram.
Gurudev was interviewed by reporters, showing up on international news reports when asked for His perspective on this historic occasion. ‘For the history of India, it is very important, because it is the birthplace of Lord Rama. I think for India, it is something amazing.’
paramahamsavishwananda.com
bhaktimarga.org
Playing at the Pierre Menard Gallery in Cambridge, MA on 3-27-09.
Blogged about on antigravitybunny.blogspot.com
On 22 January, 2024, Paramahamsa Vishwananda was an honoured guest for the inauguration of the new Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir, in Ayodhya, India. It was Gurudev’s first visit to the birthplace of Lord Rama and He was excited to take part in this historic event.
In recent satsangs leading up to the event, Guruji has been talking about the significance of this event as a triumph of Santana Dharma and how it has been positively uniting Hindus around the world in the Name of Sri Ram.
Gurudev was interviewed by reporters, showing up on international news reports when asked for His perspective on this historic occasion. ‘For the history of India, it is very important, because it is the birthplace of Lord Rama. I think for India, it is something amazing.’
paramahamsavishwananda.com
bhaktimarga.org