View allAll Photos Tagged ayodhya
Playing at the Pierre Menard Gallery in Cambridge, MA on 3-27-09.
Blogged about on antigravitybunny.blogspot.com
Rummana Hussain
Bricks, mirror, gheru, terracotta
These five works by Rummana Hussain were among her first installations. Having painted figuratively to express the political throughout the 1980s, she felt the need for object-oriented art which could respond to immediate realities.
When the Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992, Hussain was living in Bombay (Mumbai), one of the cities worst affected by communal riots. As a Muslim woman, she was forced to temporarily flee her home with her family.
Emerging from this traumatic experience, the works displayed here, in which the shattered terracotta pot is a recurrent motif, were in her first solo show, ‘Fragments/Multiples’, at Bombay’s Gallery Chemould in 1994.
Hussain used the pot allegorically: the shards of terracotta resemble broken domes, destroyed homes, and the human body undone, each alluding to the violent fracturing of social unity. From these pots, everyday materials, such as gheru (a powdered red clay) and rubble, spill onto mirrors. Their reflections are interrupted, distorted, evoking a desolate landscape of ruins.*
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
Courtesy British Library :
This painting is from William Hodges' book 'Select Views of India'. Hodges visited the ancient city of Ayodhya, then known as Oudh, at the end of 1783. This view shows the Lakshmana Ghat on the banks of the Ghaghara ( Sarayu) river. The mosque at the top of the hill is the Babri Masjid, constructed by Babur, the first Mughal king of India, who ruled between 1526 and 1530.
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.
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AKHIL BHARATIYA VIDYARTHI PARISHAD .
STAND UNITED AGAINST TERRORIST VIOLENCE! .
DOWN WITH THE APPEASEMENT POLITICS OF CONGRESS~COMMUNIST COMBINEII .
Friends, 12/07/06 .
.
Islamic terrorism has struck once again. In one of the most ghastly and dastardly attacks in the recent months, serial bomb .
blasts in Mumbai and Srinagar rippecl through the normal life killing more than 200 innecent people and leaving many more inJured. .
The blasts were planned and executed in a masterly manner under the nose of the intelligence agencies and the security personnel. It .
was very unfortunate to n0te that the govt. officials were not prepared to help the victims and their relatives aMd the police failed to .
initiate relief measures. The dying and Injured people received help from the people,who voluntarily came forward symbolizing .
the strength of our society while weakness of the govt. was glaring and condemnable. .
In the recent months1 terrorists have intensified their attacks in India. The assault in Ramjanam Bhoomi site In Ayodhya, blasts in Sankatmochan Mandlr in Varanasl, Killing of 32 Hindus In Doda(Jammu), grenade attacks on protest rallies of BJP and Congress In Jammu, attack on RSS headqurter In Nagpur, killing of'Amarnath pilgrims and numerous sporadic terrorist attacks throughout the country almost every day are pointer to the fact that terrorists have been emboldened by the weak-kneed approach of the UPA govt. which has further lowered down the morale of the security apparatus ofthe country. .
The Islamic terrorists who claim to be waging a 'jihad' against the US have failed to strike at its heart after 9/1 1 and the US .
has been abJe to turn the table by taking the battle to Afghanistan and by demolishing the Tallban regime, which was supposedly .
backing AI-Qaida and other terror outfits. India has been targeted for having displayed itself to be a weak state and willing to play in the .
hands of terrorists. The UPA govt. cannot run away from the responsibility in emboldening such 'jihadi' elements within and .
without the country by equating the Islamic terrorists with the entire Muslim community. The repeal of POTA and absence of .
anti~terror law in the country is one of the major causes that have given the terrorists a free hand in India. While innocent people are .
dying daily in terrorist violence~ Congress-Comnnmist combine is shamefully indulging in vote-bank politics of minority .
appeasement. .
While the victims of the terrorist attacks are still battling for their lives in hospitals, the national media is shamelessly claiming that the life is becoming normal in Mumbai. Every time, after such attacks we are told that life has become normal which further shows haw insensitive as a sodety we are becoming. Vishwa ka Kalyan ho... Pranlyon me sadbhavna ho... such maxims continue to resonate the mind of every Indian right from the dawn of civilization but are we also prepared to face the onslaught of terrorism honestly and effectively ..... suoh questions need to be answered without delay .We expresses our solidarity to the families of the bereaved and the victims of the terrorist violence. ABVP appeals to the people to stand united against terrorism and to expose the vote-bank politics of Congress-Communist combine. .
Vande Mataraml Bharat Mata ki Jail! Sd/-Rajhans, Jt. Secy., ABVP, JNU. Sdl-Mhod. Shamim Alam, Vice-President, ABVP, JNU .
.
AKHIL BHARATIYA VIDYARTHI PARISHAD .
STAND UNITED AGAINST TERRORIST VIOLENCE! .
DOWN WITH THE APPEASEMENT POLITICS OF CONGRESS-COMMUNJST COMBINEII .
Friends, 12./07/06 .
.
Islamic terrorism has struck once again. In one of the most ghastly and dastardly attacks in the recent months, serial bomb blasts in Mumbai and Srinagar ripped through the normal life killing more than 200 innocent people and leaving many more injured The blasts were planned and executed in a masterly manner under the nose of the intelligence agencies and the security personnel. It .
).
was very unfortunate to note that the govt. officials were not prepared to help the victims and their relatives and the poli~ f<Jiled tv-.
initiate relief measures The dying and injured people received help from the people who voluntarily came forward symbolizing the str.ength of our socfety while weakness of the govt. was glaring and condemnable. .
In the recent months, terrorists have lntenslfled their attacks in India. The assault in Ramjanam Bhooml sito In .
Ayodhya, blasts In Sankatmochan Mandir in Varanasi, Killing of 32 Hindus in Doda(Jammu), grenade attacks on protest rallies of BJP and Congress in Jammu, attack on RSS headqurter In Nagpur, killing of Amamath pilgrims and numerous sporadic terrorist attacks throughout the country almost every day are pointer to the fact that terrorists have boen emboldened by the weak·kneed approach of the UPA govt which has further lowered down the morale of the sectlfity apparatus ofthe country. .
The Islamic terrorists who claim to be waging a 'jehad' against the US have failed to strike at its heart after 9/11 and the US has been able to turn the table by taking the battle to Afghanistan and by demolishing the Taliban regime, which was supposedly bac~ing AI-Qaeda and other terror outf1ts. India has been targeted for having displayed itself to be a weak state and willing to play in the hands of terrorists. The UPA govt. cannot run away from the responsibility In emboldening such 'jehadi' elements within 'and without the country by equating the Islamic terrorists with the entire Muslim community. The repeal of POTA and absence of anti-terror law in the country is one of the major causes that have given the terrorists a free hand in India. While Innocent peoplo are tfying daily tn terrorist violence, Congress-Communist combine is shamefully Indulging in vote-bank politics of minority appeasement. .
.
While the victims of the terrorist attacks are still battling for their lives in hospitals, the national media is shamelessly cla1rning that the life is becoming normal in Mumbai. Every time, after such attacks we are told that life has become normal which further shows how Insensitive as a society we are becoming. Vishwa ka Kalyan ho... Praniyon me sadbhavna ho... such maxims continue to resonate the mind of every Indian right from the dawn of civilization but are we also prepared to face the onslaught of terronsm honestly and effectively ..... such questions need to be answered without delay . We expresses our solidarity to the families of the bereaved and the victims of the terrorist violence. ABVP appeals to the people to stand unitec.J against terrorism :md ~~ expose the vote-bank politics of Congress-Communist combine. .
Vande Mataraml Bharat Mata ki Jail I Sd/-Rajhans, Jt. Secy., ABVP, JNU. Sd/-Mhod. Shamim Alam, Vice-President, ABVP, JNU. .
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.
.
.
Playing at the Pierre Menard Gallery in Cambridge, MA on 3-27-09.
Blogged about on antigravitybunny.blogspot.com
Lord Rama ruled from Ancient Ayodhya which was located at Ghuram in Patiala, Punjab, India. Local people believe that Mother Kausalya came here to her maternal home to deliver her first child Rama. Kausalya’s father was King of Kosala, the capital city of which was Ayodhya. Thus Ghuram could be Ayodhya. Rama may have ruled from here later for reasons we do not know. This site is located on the banks of the Ghaggar River which could be the ancient Sarayu. For more deatils Please visit commonprophets.com/
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.
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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.