Artists retrace the Mahatma’s salt satyagraha route and come up with a thought-provoking show.
Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘Dandi March’ is an iconic event in India’s freedom struggle. When the Mahatma defied the British and launched the salt satyagraha from his ashram in Sabarmati on March 12, 1930 little did he imagine that he inspire artists to follow in his footsteps — quite literally — decades later.
This year, a few artistes not only retraced the Mahatma’s route to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the Dandi March, but they also gave the journey their own interpretation. Their work is now on display at the Ojas Art Gallery. The artists include A Ramachandran, Alok Bal, Arunkumar HG, Atul Dodiya, Gigi Scaria, Hindol Brahmbhatt, Jagannath Panda, KG Subramanyan and KS Radhakrishnan.
Scaria has converted the famous ‘Gyaraah Murti’ sculpture into digital format, but has turned the statues of Gandhi and his followers around, making it look like they are moving away from each other. He says, “It is a comment on the present-day scenario. We are constantly moving away from the ideals espoused by Gandhiji.”
Delhi-based artist Vicky Roy’s photograph ‘Is he within you?’ shows the reflection of a visitor as he looks into a glass cut-out of Gandhi. “At a museum, I’d seen this cut-out of Gandhi with many scratches on it. To me, it seemed to show that we don’t respect him anymore,” says the 25-year-old photographer.
Manjunath Kamath’s untitled work — a montage of digital prints on paper — shows Gandhi in different settings. He is seated at a dining table with the symbolic three monkeys in one print, and in another, he surrounded by a heap of clothes in what looks like a boutique. The artist, known for his satirical take on life, has used archival photographs of Gandhi to create the montage.
Curator of the exhibition Anubhav Nath says, “It is a most enlightening experience to follow in the footsteps of Gandhiji. We are hoping that this exhibition is only a beginning. Young and upcoming artists will continue to discover Gandhiji in a new light every year.”
On March 12, 1930 Gandhi left Sabarmati ashram in Ahmedabad to walk through 40 villages of coastal Gujarat. He reached Dandi on April 6 and picked up a fistful of salt made from sea water to defy the British government’s salt law. His march became one of the biggest symbolic acts in Indian political history.
In 2009, some of India’s well-known artists travelled the same route that Mahatma Gandhi had taken in 1930 to better understand Gandhi’s role in contemporary Indian history. Their experiences along the journey had found expression in an exhibition titled ‘Freedom to March: Rediscovering Gandhi Through Dandi’ at the Lalit Kala Akademi in 2010.