gujarat - art, intolerance and censorship

so, the stories of art censorship and right wing fanaticism about what can be seen and nto seen by the public seem to never end. the latest being the vandalisation of a students work at the m s university in baroda by vhp activists. it seems as if the art students were holding an exhibition of their final work when some self-proclaimed carriers of the moral codes of the country stormed in, took objection to one particular students work and destroyed it. in the process the also beat up the student. when the police were called in, they ended up arresting the student, and let the miscreants go free. the university refuses to file an fir on the students behalf, and instead wants an apology to be delivered for the art work by the student. meanwhile the student is still in jail.

the ridiculously inverted nature of this can perhaps only occur in gujarat- the hotbed for the experiment of right wing reactionary rule. as all intellectual endeavors are repressed, while jingoistic hindutva makes demands on the public realm, when the institutions of democracy and education are prey to the whims and fancies of violent and intolerant forces, there is no place in india where the frightening fascism of reactionary politics is more apparent. in the rarified and gradually isolated spaces we inscribe for the production of resistances and alternative imaginations, the increasingly privatized spaces, we are asked to produce discourse that does not threaten or question the status quo. is the only alternative becoming militant and rigid, mirrors to the forces we are trying to resist?

yesterday there was a meeting held at chemould gallery in town where amid representations of goats and peacocks rising out of construction materials, a group of artists, curators and concerned citizens held a press conference on the event. a petition was drafted, and signed.

please sign too.