quarterly newsletter apr-jun ’14 · jpm quarterly newsletter apr-jun 2014 1 ... and the latter of...

QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER Apr-Jun ’14

Sheldon Pollock speaks during ‘An Intellectual History of Rasa’

JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun 2014 1

Quarterly NewsletterWhat an extraordinarily enriching and rewarding quarter this January-March has been! We were

extremely fortunate to have internationally renowned scholars such as Arjun Appadurai, Iftikhar Dadi,

Ganesh Devy, Mira Kamdar, conduct seminars on subjects as varied as Utopia, Modernism in Muslim South

Asia, Aurobindo and the French Enlightenment in India adding valuable dimensions to our courses. Further, the

Intellectual History of Rasa, a subject rarely discussed and taught, was charted by the famed philologist

Sheldon Pollock and our engagement with Southeast Asia was garnered with lectures by Donald Stadtner who

also spoke on the contentious subject of Fakes and Forgeries. Alexandra Munroe shared her expertise in

Modernism in Japan through the Gutai Movement as did Benjamin Kramer in furthering our discourse on the

“Other”. Our deep gratitude to all our resource scholars who have shared their immense learning and insights

with such generosity.

This quarter also witnessed the launch of Architecture, Resources and Culture - a series on and about

architecture which aims to document and understand contemporary architectural practice in the sub-continent in

keeping with a sense of history and culture. As this academic year comes to a close in April, we have started

scripting our next, beginning July 2014. The courses we offer now include - the year-long diploma in Indian

Aesthetics, the year-long Art, Criticism & Theory course and the semester long programme titled Yoga & Tantra

– Concepts and Visual History. The upcoming academic year 2014-15 will also offer the second edition of The

Art & Architecture of Southeast Asia as well as a brand new course on Islamic Aesthetics. These in addition to

our public programmes which are 220 till date testify to our commitment of nurturing critical thinking and

intellectual rigour. We look forward to having you with us as before.

Rashmi Poddar PhD.

Director

JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun 2014

Indian AestheticsIn this quarter of the academic year, the year-long programme in Indian Aesthetics

essentially engaged with colonialism, thenineteenth century and aspects of nationalismvis-a-vis the arts and visual culture. Various kindsand genres of art practices that emerge, takeshape and develop between the fall of theMughal empire and the rise of the East IndiaCompany and the British Empire were discussedin detail. Questions of subject-matter, aestheticchoice and decision, politics of patron and artistsas well as the economic conditions that allow forcertain kinds of artists and artistic practices, wereall discussed. Emerging systems of knowledge

production that come in with colonialism, as wellas ideas like past and history, which are often thesubject-matter of these paintings were describedand formed the basis for the next set of lecturesthat begin with a discussion on Orientalism, anda specific reference to the work of Edward Saidon the subject. To discuss Orientalism it becomesvery important to enter into questions ofcolonialism and nationalism that greatly influenceartistic productions through the 19th and 20thcentury. The structuring of an imagined 'goldenpast' or a future projection of nationhood that is'discovered' in history, are all debates andpreoccupations of the 19th century, from which



one can view and understand the paintings ofRaja Ravi Varma or the writings of AnandaCoomaraswamy and E B Havell. This is one ofthe occasions within the Indian Aesthetics coursewhere art history and art criticism was studied asmuch as works of art were taken up fordiscussion; this class proceeded with readingextracts from the writings of Gandhi, Nehru andTagore, followed by extracts fromCoomaraswamy and Havell.

From this year on we introduced a newsession that further dwells in the production ofaesthetics, and aesthetics as a signpost ofculture and civilization in the narrative of the 19thcentury, by looking at early photography in India,the role of archaeology in writing art andarchitecture history, as well as the debates ondecorative and fine arts. The session discussedthe Great Exhibitions of London and Paris,especially the Crystal Palace in London and fromthereon the development of the Department ofScience and Arts and the Victoria and AlbertMuseums, leading to the art educationprogrammes in the colonies. These sessionsalready geared a transition in the way we discussart, from religious objects or prized possessionsto art as an everyday culture, shifting thediscourse from art to visual culture. Two sessionsdetailed out aspects of visual culture in the wakeof changing economic relationships in colonialcities, fast and cheap production of images,developments with print technology, and accessto images; Kalighat paintings and printed imagesare discussed in great detail. The protocols ofviewing visual material changes in many ways,and this shift was focused upon as it indicates

towards relationships between art history, visualculture and epistemology, which is crucial tostudents of a course such as this.

These sessions then lead to the final set oflectures that discuss aesthetics in the twentiethcentury, beginning with a session on Tagore andthen leading to conversations on architecturaland artistic developments in India, in the first-halfof the century. - K.M.

Modernism and the Art of Muslim South Asia(January 14-15 and Jan 17-18, 2014) a four daylecture series by Iftikhar Dadi

Anwar Jalal Shemza (1928-1985) born inSimla in a Kashmiri family, member of the LahoreArt Circle (1953-1956) before moving to Londonto study at Slade School of Art where thedescription of Islamic Art as “Functional” leads toan existential problem, finally settling in theBritish Midlands as a teacher in a public school,became the springboard, in this series oflectures, for exploring the development ofModern Art associated with “Pakistan”. Shemza’smethodical, disciplined notebooks and hispatterned abstraction as evidenced in his serieswhether Meem or Root not only show theinfluence of Paul Klee but situate his earliertraumatic experiences such as partition. Thelarger questions that emerged are not onlymethodological but also one of artistic sensibilityand subjectivity. The theoretical frameworkconsisted of the exploration of Modernism in thisgeographical area through the discursive lens ofNationalism, Cosmopolitanism, Transnationalism,and Traditionalism by inflecting and translatingtheir Metropolitan meanings. Artistic practicestraced through intellectual history showed how



crisis ridden, ununified and unstable this terrainis, how inherited legacies are taken forward andthrough a playfulness there is an attempt to fosteran ethical universalism. The concept of IslamicArt, itself a 19th century colonial construct, isposited in debates of whether it is an aestheticghetto or an enabling conception, the speakerquestioning the category and arguing that theterm is “catachresis” – neither Islamic nor art inthe colonial sense.

Continuing the analysis of Modernism andModernity, building a trajectory of transformationwhen an artisanal subject becomes a reflectivesubject and situating the discourse and practiceof early 20th century aesthetics in a comparativeframework with the Bengal School, the speakersketched a detailed biography of Abdur RahmanChughtai, arguably the pre-eminent artist of thisperiod. Chughtai’s championing of orientalism,creating classicism in an age of nationalism, hisself assessment as an optimist and endeavour tocreate a timeless “Chughtai Art” in a world repleteof nostalgia, can be seen in the 2 Muraqqasattributed to him – Muraqqa i Chughtai (1928)and Amal i Chughtai(1968). The evaluative frameof literature which was the basis of emergingintellectual paradigms is evidenced in thesealbums, the former, illustrations of Ghalib’s Diwanand the latter of Iqbal’s poetry. Chughtai’sentrepreneurship is seen in his wide use oflithographic print-making through the vigorouspublishing programmes of the Bengal School inCalcutta inspite of his vexed relationship withAbanindranath Tagore and others such as Havell,Sister Nivedita and Coomaraswamy.

Mid-century Modernism in an independentnation state which not only faced political and

economic difficulties but also lackedinfrastructure, saw the persecution, repressionand ban of Leftist intellectuals and artists. AyubKhan’s coup in 1958 and his interest in culturechanged the scene and the emergence of 3pioneering modernists - Zainul Abedin, ZubeidaAgha, and Shakir Ali led to the shaping of afoundational artistic subjectivity and creation ofinstitutional support for future artists. ZainulAbedin better known as the founder of NationalBangladeshi Art tried to form a school of “BengaliModernist Paintings” based on the appropriationof rural and tribal East Bengal as the location ofmodernism. West and East Pakistan with asingular political identity but a multiple culturalidentity are played out in his Realist andEvidentiary works. Influenced by Sher Gil, therecluse painter from Islamabad, Zubeida Aghaengaged in institutional development as theDirector of The Rawalpindi Art Gallery. Isolatedby class and gender, Agha never addressednationalism but though the “mystery of the east”is captured in her work, her mature phaseshowed reflexive alienation and fracture.Belonging to the “circle of aesthetes”, Shakir Ali’soeuvre consisted of a tension between Realismand Modernism and his commitment toFormalism. A writer, who critiqued Chughtai forhis orientalism and binaries, was fascinated byRilke. He explored his inner dilemmas by hisdiscursive silence and cosmopolitanism.

Keenly promoted by Zia ul Haq, the celebratedPakistani artist Sadequain not only maintained aliminal inside-outside space but reformulatedclassical calligraphy as a viable visual tradition. Aself trained artist, he promoted calligraphy into amodernist language by continuing the process of



appropriation and transformation of existentcultural and artistic practices. The poet Iqbal’stropes of heroic subjectivity and of Islamictransnationalism were his indispensable referentsas were verses by Ghalib, Khayyam and Sarmadwhich inspired him to make his own Muraqqaswhere his poetry and painting enmeshed. Hisexecution of monumental public murals, severalin number, also helped establish the myth of asuperhuman creator and artistic hero forPakistan. - R.P.

The Buddha’s 7 Weeks at Bodh Gaya(March 3, 2014) by Don Stadtner

Keeping with the current scholarship onSoutheast Asia alive in Mumbai circle,Jananpravaha organized 2 lectures by Don

Stadtner- one on the fifteenth centurymonuments in Burma and Thailand thatcommemorate a special seven week periodassociated with the Buddha’s enlightenment atBodhgaya in India.

Buddha’s Seven weeks at Bodhgaya is aspecial forty-nine day period recognized by theTheravada as well as Mahayana traditions. It is atransitional period after Buddha’s enlightenmentthat he spent fasting and in a deepcontemplation, before assuming the role of auniversal teacher.

The seven events that surround the Buddha’senlightenment have been basis of many artisticexpressions but the first event has been mostpopular in art. It usually depicts the Buddha in aseated position, with his right hand touching the

Iftikhar Dadi answers questions during ‘Modernismand the art of Muslim South Asia



earth, recalling the defeat of the demon Mara andBuddha’s call for the earth. The remaining sixevents – which are –his steadfast gazing at thetree, Cankrama walk, Jeweled house, goatherder’s tree and temptress, snake kingMuchalinda and lastly the two merchants and thehair relic, have been rarely depicted separately.Despite the appearance of the seven events inmany standard biographies of the Buddha, the

theme has never been of major importance inIndian Buddhist art, except at Mahabodhi temple,Bodhgaya in Bihar, where all these events aredepicted through small shrines or sites.

The lecture focused on the three monumentsin Burma and Thailand that depict the sevenweeks of Buddha’s enlightenment. The layout ofthe shrines, or stations was determined by aformal plan that was considered to be a replica ofthe original temple complex at Bodhgaya. The

adaptation of the plan in Burma/Thailand reflectsthe process by which a venerated religious site inIndia and its interpretation were transmitted toSoutheast Asia. Relatively less popular in Indianart, these seven stations became so important inBurma around the 15th century raising broadquestions about the very nature of Buddhist art inSoutheast Asia. The ground plan at Pegu revealsnot only the changes that occurred at Bodhgayaover centuries but the process by which theBuddhists abroad determined the appearance ofthe faith’s most important sacred center in India.The ground plan at Pegu was not derived fromIndia but was based on the influential biographyof the Buddha and descriptions of Bodhgayacomplied by pilgrims from Southeast Asia. Theentire site commemorating the stations wasdedicated to king Dhammaceti (c. 1462-1492).The king belonged to the ethnic group called asMons, whose political control of Lower Burmareached its’ apogee during the 15th century. Theselection of stations as a theme has beenuniversally explained as an effort of Dhammacetito emulate the sacred landscape of Bodhgaya,but it’s choice was also tied directly to the specialMon myth that celebrated the hair relics of theBuddha given to the two merchants on the lastday of the seven week period. It is this last eventof the merchants bringing the relics that becamevery important in Burma as it established thedirect connection to India-the land of Buddha.The importance of the hair relics was elevatedduring Dhamamceti’s reign by extensiverefurbishing of the Schwedagon pagoda inRangoon. A lengthy record at the Schwedagonpagoda fully expressed the connection betweenthe hair relics and the seven stations and also


emphasized the role of the indigenous merchantsin the Buddhist story.

Tackling the issue raised by these sevenstations at Pagan, Pegu in Burma and ChiangMei in Thailand, Stadtner argued about theissues of legitimizing the corporal relics of theBuddha and its association with Burma. Howdifferent myths arose among the kingdoms ofBurma and Thailand that sought to connect thelife of historical Buddha with separate regions.Such myths furnished a narrative matrix in whichthe Buddhism itself played a major role inestablishing the faith in the regions of Burma andThailand. At the same time, the patronage ofmonuments associated with these relics providedrulers with the opportunity of protecting andsustaining the faith. Analyzing the elasticity ofmyth and how they sometimes loose the original

mythic quality, Stadtner talked about theproblems concerning the royal patronage,legitimacy and the foundation of Buddhism inBurma and Thailand. - S.C.

Fakes, Fortunes and Fraudsters: UnsolvedCases (March 4, 2014) by Don Stadtner

The antiquity market, art dealers, museumsand art historians are all have been part of thefakes at some point in time. Fakes and forgeriesis a great issue of concern as antiquities form apart of cultural representations. If the museumsstart housing fakes, then historical recordbecomes corrupt and distorted. It forms a basis ofthe new theories and misleading interpretationsabout the entire civilization. Sometimes thereplica market is flooded with identical copies for

Donald Statdner speaks during‘Fakes and Forgeries’


which no original exist. The danger lies in theeffacement of genuine memory anddisappearance of authentic history in a self-referential labyrinth of aesthetic images.

Giving example of his own situation with thepublication of ‘Pagan Bornzes’ in Marg, 1999 andPratapaditya Pal’s paper on ‘Kushana Shiva’ forBerlin Indological Studies, 2013, Stadtnerdiscussed about art historians struggle todistinguish real from a very good fake. The matterbecomes very complex when the stolen objectsare involved as they are sometimes tamperedand become the subject of forgeries in spite ofbeing real. Fakes are designed to fool the expertand clever forgers have many techniques at theirdisposal- from simulating the accretions of grimeand soot to smearing pots with the mud fromgenuine archaeological sites.

Stadtner sited an example of an auction housewhere one of the objects was getting a really highprice when a person from the audience stood upand called it a fake. When asked about hisallegation, the person cheekily replied, “I havemade the object.”

Of course there are some obvious clues torecognize a fake and stressing on theiconography, Stadtner explained the nuances ofthe art objects. He argued about how the goodlooking objects are mostly fakes and whensomething is too good, it’s not true.

Fakes are a hazard for illicit trade. With norecorded find spot or provenance, it is left to theeye of the buyer to decide what is fake and whatis not. Yet the Getty Kouros shows that even themost discerning of eyes cannot be relied on.When one reads the label placed next to theKouros ‘Greek, about 6th century BCE or modern

forgery’ at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, onecan’t help but to wonder about the museumsbeing victims of the chain.In the absence of averifiable provenance, which comes only from aproperly recorded context, authentication takesplace by an expert or with the help of scientifictests. Is there a scientific way to solve theproblem? Well yes, tests likethermoluminescence do help in dating the objectbut in case of Chadraketugrah terracotta tablets,Scientists and art historians are divided and wewill probably never know the truth.

In 1999 two Council for the Prevention of ArtTheft (CoPAT) codes of due diligence wereintroduced to protect honest dealers andauctioneers from the activities of thieves and theiraccomplices, and to impede the free flow ofstolen material through the market. In case ofmuseums, many have started working oncollaborative projects, travelling exhibitions andloans from other museums. Many art historiansand archaeologists like Kirit Mankodi havecreated websites of stolen objects to alert peopleand trying to beat the market of fakes, stolenobjects and antiquities.The evening saw a hugecrowd of students, collectors, art enthusiasts andhistorians. - S.C.

An Intellectual History of Rasa(March 14, 2014) by Sheldon PollockIn partnership with the South Asia Institute ofColumbia University

A magnificent attempt to chart the untold storyof the History of Rasa over 1500 years beganwith the big question of how does literatureproduce emotion and where is the location of thisemotion? The primal moment was perhaps the


Ramayana when the poet Valmiki’s sorrow –shoka, became poetry - shloka. The subsequentslow development of aesthetic theory, perhapsbecause of the complicated relationship betweentheory and practice, led to the creation of the 2nd/ 3rd century CE Natya Shastra – Science ofDrama rediscovered in Kashmir in the 9th centuryCE. The 6th chapter is the core text for Rasa, theundiminished intensity of which continued till the18th century. The author, Bharata Muni’sfundamental concern was the understanding ofthe mystifying phenomena of the real/unrealquality of emotion in art. This led to the creationof a brand new language and lexicon. Dissectingthe language to its smallest elemental particle,the Rasa Sutra describes the causes bothfoundational and ephemeral and its effects andbecomes a handbook for the stakeholders -poets, playwrights and actors. The characters ofdrama and the actors are considered the loci ofRasa. The 8 basic emotions (sthayi bhavas) arethose that can be seen, much like the DarwinianTheory. The next big question is the relationshipbetween emotions on a stage to emotion in anarrative poem – how does emotion transfer fromseeing to reading? Several rhetoricians variouslychampioned figures of speech to style. The storycontinued with Ananda Vardhana of 900 CE whowas really concerned with how Rasa actuallycame together in narrative poetry and literaryliterature and what the nature of communicationwas. The process, both ontological andepistemological, and not product, led to histheory of Dhvani in which suggestion was thepreferred mode. Bhoja continued with his archaicRasa thought but added the emotion of vatsalyato the now 9 Rasas. The next big leap was by

Bhatta Nayaka of 900 CE in Srinagar, poet andhermeneutist and his now lost text called Mirrorof the Heart. Nayaka’s revelation of Rasa led toAbhinava Gupta’s purified theory of Rasa whereliterary language produces a new kind ofreferentiality. Poetry is about pleasure, Rasa wasin the reader and Shanta Rasa was pre-eminent.His Abhinava Bharati, used old books to makenew arguments and the shift was from a modalityof language to a modality of mind. With thecoming of the devotional movement specially inBengal, Bhakti Rasa conflated the character andspectator who then became the locus of Rasaitself. Summing up the lecture Prof. Pollockspoke about the difficulty of very limited availablesources in shaping this intellectual history. Somepointers to remember were that theory followedpractice, the period of 900-1200 CE witnessedmoral courtliness and choice and by about 1700CE, the discourse was exhausted. - R.P.


Criticism & TheoryThe Art, Criticism and Theory programme

entered its last lap in this part of theacademic year. This last one-third of the teachingprogramme began with a two-session seminar byArjun Appadurai on the subject of Utopia wherehe discussed ideas from a philosophicalperspective, relating it to our understanding andexperience of culture. These sessions contributedby displaying to the students how critical enquiryis carried out and argued through a logicalstructure. This was then followed up by themodule on Ideas and Thinkers where studentsengaged with practices of knowledge production

and critical reading of experience in differenthistorical periods, and through a detailed study ofthinkers and figures like Aurobindo, Gandhi,Tagore, Walter Benjamin, and John Ruskin aswell as broader areas like Bhakti in medievalIndia. In this same module we also looked atsome artists such as Zarina Hashmi or Gaitonde,and engaged with their work as contributionstowards a critical reading of their own culturalexperience. At the same time students were alsoexposed to editorial and curatorial practiceswhere certain thematics are used to structure aseries of ideas and thinkers/practices; the subject


Anish Kapoor: Memory, DeutscheGuggenheim, Berlin, 2008


of the 'Sacred' was taken up for this discussion.The final module of the programme engaged

with issues of writing, reading and research. Atwo-session discussion on how do you read theimage took the students through variousexamples from classical art history to popularculture discussing in detail ways of readinghistory, historiography and context politics inimages, and opening them us as texts. This wasindeed followed by a two-session exercise ofreading a text in all its details, exposing aspectsof narration, structure, form and meaning; GabrielGarcia Marquez's Chronicles of a Death Foretoldwas the text taken up for this exercise. This wasfollowed by sessions on art writing in variousforms such as journalism or as an essayist, andvarious protocols of these kinds of writings werediscussed. This module finally closed with adetailed discussion on the politics and protocolsof research; ethics, framing positions, therelationships of epistemology to methodology andmethod, perspective and prejudice, bias andhabit, were some of the areas touched upon inthis session.

The programme now closes by inviting threeindividuals to discuss their curatorial andexhibition design experiences through veryspecific projects, where each of the threeindividuals entered the practice of curation andstructuring an exhibition from very specific anddifferent positions. This will complete the year-long programme in art, criticism and theory whichproposes to exposes all participants to not onlythe subjects of art and criticism, but the questionsof contemporary culture and theory through the

fields and practices associated with art, imagesand visual narrations. - K.M.

The Many Lives of Utopia(January 8-9, 2013) by Arjun Appadurai

In a two-day seminar, the Goddard Professorof Media, Culture and Communication at the NewYork University, Arjun Appadurai, spoke of Utopiaand Future; in these lectures he was drawingfrom his latest publication The Future as CulturalFact – Essays on the Global Condition (Verso.2013). He began with a discussion on howcultural variety inhabits the world, also making areference to Clifford Geertz’s work anddiscussing how to be human is about beingembedded in specifics. He discussed how cultureis the organiser of differences, differences inworld views that are quite persistent, as well asthe idea of completely local as completelynatural. Then the question that arose - whenthings are in much flux, there are manycrossings, and in moments of ‘heavy traffic’, howdoes one pin down ‘difference’?

In discussing the notions of persistence,continuity and habit how does one see future?What is this project that bothers about a ‘future’?How is future formed? With some questions asthese, Appadurai talked about how the future isalso culturally shaped, inherent in the idea ‘wherewe should go’; the future is neither obvious, noruniversal and signs are read as signs of things tocome. In this context he also touched upon‘imagination’ and ‘risk’; he talked aboutimagination as a collective practice, where thepolitics of imagination is about the projections of



ideology, while the practice of imagination isabout the form and structure of those projectionsand what they could be. Risk and uncertainty arenot only part of this but also built into economics.Certain forms of uncertainty are monetizable, andit may be possible to extract future-value into the

present. Talking of the ways in which the future carries

value into the present, he moved on to discussingUtopia – as prediction, as aspiration. Aspirationhe said is often seen as something that is

associated with the individual, and is a positivecore, while in actuality it is something thatbelongs to the collective. He went on to discussUtopia as abstract, as ahistorical and alsototalitarian, forming in ways an archive of the ‘notyet’; so aesthetics, art or religion would be thearchives of a ‘not yet’ that is (yet) taking shape,and maybe only partly crystallised.

Having laid out this thematic and conceptualground, Appadurai moves into a detaileddiscussion on urban politics in Mumbai with aspecial focus on Bollywood as well as Housing inthe city. He discusses the space of dreams, andthe dreamscapes that Bollywood produces as aprojection towards salvation, as he says“cinematic ideas of urban salvation take place inthis battlefield of dreams.” He talks of SlumdogMillionaire and the projection of the slums in thecontext of the televisual game, and how inactuality the home for many is the vulnerablespace, while continuing to harbour a dream of afuture ‘secured’ home. From this entry point hedetails the landscape of Bollywood where crime,politics, industry, financial games, and more playa vital role in developing the urban dreamscape,where symbolism and at times cinematic realismstructure the entry point for the viewer to inserthimself into a space of politics as much assalvation, dream as much as criticism.

Part II in his book The Future as Cultural Fact– Essays on the Global Condition (Verso. 2013)is titled ‘The view from Mumbai’ and within thischapters 6 and 7 titled ‘Housing and Hope’ and‘Spectral Housing and Urban Cleansing: Noteson Millennial Mumbai’ are focussed ruminations


Arjun Appadurai speaks during his seminaron the ‘Many Lives of Utopia’


and observations on the subject and notes fromthese appeared in the closing session. He gearedhis previous philosophical examination of Utopiaand Future into a ‘thick description’ of housing inMumbai, formality and informality in the questionof building homes in the city, which is otherwiseoften spoken of only within the technicalities ofplanning and infrastructure. This on one handdirected a much wider philosophical frameworkinto the logic of the urban development and itscinematic representation; also allowing for anexploration of ideas such as security andaspiration, risk and hope, the spectral and thereal, between the philosophical and theexperience of everyday.

The seminar engaged all participants atvarious levels of inquiry, as well as differentdetails and examples could be drawn upon withinthe framework of the seminar; making it an idealoccasion for critical thinking and learning. - K.M.

Gutai's World: Japan's postwar avant-gardeand the fate of internationalism(January 23, 2014) by Alexandra Munroe

Founded by the visionary artist Yoshihara Jiroin 1954, Gutai, the most influential artists’collective and artistic movement in postwarJapan, spanned two generations, totalling 59Japanese artists over its 18 year history. TheGutai Art Association, active from 1954-1972,originated in the cosmopolitan town of Ashiyanear Osaka as against the “high art centre” ofTokyo. Emerging from World War II, creativitybecame an existential issue for the artists whotried to find a utopian way to create a free society

as well as their own authentic modernism.Against the background of a wartime totalitarianregime, Gutai which literally means“concreteness” forged an ethics of creativefreedom where Jiro’s call was to exploreindividual creative free wills, to “Do what hasnever been done before”. This led not only to aradical definition of painting but also to themaking of ephemeral and site specific workswhich were exhibited in public parks, bombed outruins and the urban sky. The barriers betweenart, the public and everyday life were constantlybeing broken. The members found new ways ofusing the body in direct action with materials,time and space, nature and technology.Yoshihara’s engagement with the worlds of art inEurope, America and beyond was evidenced inthe publication and distribution of the Gutaijournal through which he attempted to forge an“international common ground” of theory andpractice. To achieve world relevance andarticulate an autonomous artistic identity withinthe influence of Americanisation, the artists wereurged to understand their very own substancespecially since they had not completely digestedthe movements and principles of western art.Zen principles, Japanese calligraphy, became thetools for a “re-nationalisation” where traditionalaesthetics was refashioned in modernist terms asexemplified in an encounter with Nantembo, theZen monk painter. The dynamic rhythm andintensity of his calligraphy was compared to thepaintings of Pollock and Kline. However, theyearning for a genuine transnational identitycontinued. For Yoshihara, Pollock’s drip paintings



were transformational which made him turn tosubstance itself “pursuing raw being orpsychological realism as the fundamental matterof art”. Their brute materialism, sheer abandonand destruction of cognitive representationrevealed “the scream of the matter itself, cries ofthe paint and enamel”. A concluding walkthroughof the Guggenheim exhibition of Spring 2013 withits thematic structure and aesthetic logicsectioned under Play, Network, Concept, TheConcrete, Performance Painting andEnvironment, convincingly argued for the criticalunderstanding of Gutai as the “cutting edge ofworld culture” and as an important internationalavant-garde movement active anywhere in theworld during the 50s and 60s. - R.P.

Aurobindo and his impact on 20th CenturyNationalism(February 4-5, 2014) by Ganesh Devy

Professor Ganesh Devy’s portrayal ofAurobindo went into great detail, illustrating thecomplexities of his life, the nature of his characterand the process of his actions. He articulated hislegacy by contextualizing him along with Tagoreand Gandhi. Beyond the fact that they werecontemporaries and operated in similar ways, allthree founded non-theistic ashrams and usedthem as laboratories for social experimentation,as microcosms of a new way of structuring theworld.

Aurobindo's utopian ideals were meant to beexperienced within the confines of one’s self. As


Alexandra Munroe speaks duringher lecture on ‘Gutai’s World’


people gradually began to realize this, liberationwould become widespread and a new orderwould emerge from this heightened sense ofcollective consciousness. His desire was toredefine the zeitgeist through individualprocesses, deep within the self. By following aninner path, one would reach emancipation.

One can only speculate as to why the Britishauthorities decided to take Indian students to beeducated in the heart of the metropolis.Characters like Gandhi and Aurobindo are thereason one should ask. The formative years areprecisely that, the moment in which ideas andvalues are forged, and one’s interface with theworld is crystalized. Gandhi and Aurobindo leftIndia at a young age, lived a life abroad, andupon their return, became the protagonists of thestruggle for self-determination.

Professor Devy presented the biblical parableof the Prodigal Son to illustrate the conceptualorigins of how and why “nationalism” came intobeing in the European experience. He explainsthat it is the son who stays behind, the older one,he who tends the land and administrates theproperty, upon whom the notion of nation isfounded. Using the examples of Italian andGerman Unification in the 19th century asexemplary cases of European nationalism, wecome to understand the true meaning of the term“nation”. Judging by these examples andstemming from the etymology of the word itself,“nation” is best understood as people orpopulation. Hence the tethering of a people to aland is where the transformation in the westernconcept of nationalism comes into play. Once you

have an understanding that there is a belongingof a group of people to a designated soil, onlythen can we speak of nation. Devy also went intogreat detail to explain how and in what way themeans of production, the process of taxation andthe need to guarantee military security were atthe core of how the idea of nationalism evolved inthe western sense.

In India the experience is different. For herewe find a concept of nation that is referential andderivative of that of the European experience.Here, nation is articulated in the context ofindependence. This gives it a distinctly differentflavor, since nationalism as it was articulatedduring the freedom struggle didn't evolve fromwithin but was adopted from elsewhere. In Devy’swords this is why the three main ideologues ofthe Azaad (Tagore, Gandhi and Aurobindo) alldrifted away from the concept of nation themoment in which independence finally became areality. For these three thinkers, the idea ofliberation had to be articulated beyond theconceptualization that derived from the Britishvision of the world. In India, liberation meant atranscendental sense of emancipation.Aurobindo’s understanding of liberation was notlimited to or defined by a specific group ofpeople, but was meant to apply to all of mankind.For Aurobindo, he who is not repressed in hisown consciousness cannot be dominated.

Having grown up in Britain, Aurobindowitnessed the weaknesses in the British systemfrom within, facing poverty and social disparity inthe heart of British soil. Upon his return to India,He also must have been faced with feeling like a



foreigner in his own land, hence his empathytowards all of humanity rather than a specificethnic group. His understanding of the Greekepics, together with his study of Indian texts,resulted in what Devy terms a “bilingual aestheticsensitivity”. His views on Indian tradition were notorthodox or exclusive, but rather reflected acomplex acceptance of the idea that Indianaesthetics can only be truly Indian if they are notmeant only for Indians. It was through aestheticsthat Aurobindo professed his true ethics ofpolitics. In his view, aesthetics was the ethicalmanifestation of a political stance. Hence if art isto have a purpose, it would have to be that ofexpanding the consciousness. This in it and ofitself is a political posture.

Aurobindo’s education in the ethos ofDarwinian Theory, makes it evident that there is a

true order in the natural world, and our task is tounderstand that order through observation.Aurobindo’s yoga is based on looking, seeing thephenomenological world as it is, andunderstanding it. Devy’s observations ofAurobindo’s life were just that, an attempt tounderstand the life of a thinker for what it was inits truest sense, through his actions, his writingsand his legacy. - A.M.

India in the French Enlightenment(February 25-26, 2013) by Mira Kamdar(Moderator: Alka Hingorani)

In order to understand the paradoxes implicitin the The Philosophical and Political History ofthe Two Indies, Dr Kamdar delivered threeclarifying lectures that paved the way for hercritical revision of this seminal text in her forth

Ganesh Devy speaks during hisseminar on Aurobindo


lecture. The first three segments werefundamental to contextualize what exactly isunderstood as the French Enlightenment, theFrench colonial participation in India, and thepractical nature and evolution of the printedcotton trade between India and France.

First and foremost, it is necessary to clarifythe key concepts of the French Enlightenmentwith a focus on its protagonists Montesquieu,Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot. These fourthinkers, or “philosophes”, articulated a series ofideological shifts that shook the very foundationsof pre-revolutionary France, striking God from thecentral focus of all things, and proposing Man asthe core of understanding. This shift in paradigmbrought about great questions regarding the trueessence of mankind, addressing in particular theconfines of what we consider culture and how tounderstand culture ontologically while

considering different populations of the world.The French Enlightenment sought to shed lighton the plethora of ways of experiencing theworld, from the vantage point of an all-pervasivecentre. This new way of understanding washence intended to ensure European hegemonyand superiority.

The second lecture addressed the ways inwhich the French endeavoured to gain a footholdon the Indian subcontinent, starting with thefounding of the Jesuit University in 1559 andcontinuing with the consolidation of the FrenchEast India Company by Jean-Baptiste Colbert in1664 during the reign of Louis XIV. The Frenchfaced inevitable friction with the British who wereintending to establish the same trade routesbetween East and West. The Seven Year Warbetween these two European neighboursresulted in British supremacy and relinquished

Mira Kamdar speaks during ‘India in theFrench Enlightenment


the French presence in the region to a handful ofcommercial ports. In the process of establishingtheir colonial presence, French thinkers alsoengaged in evaluating and attempting tounderstand the breadth of Indian culture. A truefascination with India’s antiquity was born and thefigure of the “Brahmin” as a cast of people whoboth usher and withhold knowledge becameparticularly intriguing to French thinkers. Indiabecame an example of a denatured anddecadent civilization.

The struggles to ensure feasible and efficienttrade between East and West posed variousintrinsic paradoxes. How could free tradereconcile with exploitation? Was capitalismcompatible with democracy? The centripetalnature of capitalism is by definition contrary to theconcept of free trade, and yet one does not existwithout the other. In Dr Kamdar’s words,Liberalism and Liberality are hence bound by aparadox.

The third issue at hand is the practicalmanifestation of this whole history. Thesubstance of trade was, in the case of India, itsprinted cotton. At the time of the Age ofDiscoveries, cotton was an exotic material in theeyes of Europeans, and the nature of how it wasmade, stamped, printed, coloured andmanipulated was totally unknown. The longprocess of assimilation of “les indiennes” as thefabric came to be called, was lengthy andtedious. Initially the cotton was imported directlyfrom India for an elite market of wealthyEuropeans. However with time, the clientelebegan to grow, the market range widened and

diversified to the extent that it included eveninterior decoration. Eventually the ban imposedby the French government on the import of Indianprinted cottons in 1686 generated both a blackmarket as well as a need to establish workshopswithin French territory that would fulfill the needsof an eager consumer.

Marseille became the center for Indian cottonsmade in Europe that would supply an existingmarket in compliance with the government ban.This industry, that effectively was a copy of acopy, was intended to become an “importsubstitution” scheme that would ensure businessbreaking away from dependence on trade withAsia. With time, what was born with the intentionto mimic Indian fabrics eventually became a styleby itself. The advent of the Technological andScientific Revolutions with the incorporation oftheir practical applications, particularly in the fieldof chemistry, made it possible for Europeanproducers to effectively manipulate textiles inways unknown to the Indians. Modern copperplate printing techniques were implemented as ahybrid between paper printing and textile printing,and within a century, Europe replaced India asthe leading producer of printed textiles.

Having clarified all of the above, Dr Kamdar’sfourth lecture provided a critical analysis of ThePhilosophical and Political History of the TwoIndies with a specific focus on Diderot’s editorialnote in which he poses a radical critique ofempire. The problematic nature of this text is inmany ways indicative of the conflict that existedduring the Enlightenment between a trueintention to democratize the world and a


conviction of European superiority. The loftyambitions of a publication that attempted to coverthe entire philosophical and political history of theIndies, included contributions of many of thesame authors as the Encyclopedia. This texthowever, presents the untenable contradictionbetween a radical discourse of universal humanrights and the discourse of Eurocentrichegemony. These two paradigms of theEnlightenment seem irreconcilable and co-dependent at the same time much in the sameway that capitalism seeks to ensure free tradewhilst concentrating wealth in a centripetalmanner. With its igniting sense of counter-cultureideas, disregarding the institutions of theestablishment and making way for subsequenttheories of de-colonization, the impact of ThePhilosophical and Political History of the TwoIndies was pivotal. - A.M.

Invoking Introspection(February 25-26, 2013) Aniket Bhagwat inconversation with Kaiwan MehtaThis is the inaugural lecture in the Architecture,Resources and Culture lecture series

In this new series of conversations aboutarchitecture, architect, author and critic KaiwanMehta invites architects and thinkers in the fieldfrom across India to discuss, understand anddocument contemporary architectural practice inkeeping with a sense of history and culture thatarchitectural practice has been a part of in thesub-continent. Renowned architect and designerAniket Bhagwat was the speaker at the inauguraledition of the series, where he spoke at length

about his work as a landscape architect atlandscape design firm M/S Prabhakar B.Bhagwat, as well as about other issues related toIndian architecture and design practices. For thefirst part of the lecture, Bhagwat introduced theaudience to the firm’s body of work throughphotographs of various projects and briefcommentaries on the concept behind eachproject. The projects varied in style and scopefrom small houses to large master-plans fortownships, but they all showed a strongengagement with the needs and desires of thestakeholder or community, as well as anemphasis on the idea of craft or the ‘expressionof hand’. He also spoke of the design process ofhis firm, which emphasizes passion, a littlecreative chaos, and a strong skepticismregarding modernism in the Indian context.

This was followed by a discussion betweenBhagwat and Kaiwan Mehta which kicked off witha question about values and ethics in architectureand the sort of approach required for varioustypes of projects. Bhagwat explained how theyapproach every project as an ‘interrogation’, andhow that spirit of enquiry encourages them toavoid any theoretical constructs or pre-concievednotions about the project. The conversationtouched upon a number of subjects, including theimportance of materiality, the limits imposed bytypology, the difficulty of designing large housingprojects that are innovative and exciting for theresidents and the effects of declining patronageon the arts. The event ended with Bhagwatanswering questions from the audience about hiswork. – B.K.


Community EngagementEarly Representations of the Other –Globalization and Image Production(February 3, 2014) by Benjamin Meyer-KrahmerIn collaboration with Goethe Institut

Notions and concepts of the colonized world,nomadic practice and mobility, images andobjects as representation of “the other”, the

divide between Art and Ethnography, the practiceof collecting, archiving and producing images inthe Age of Discovery from the 16th-18th centuryframed this lecture which focused on the Dutch -

trading companies, artists and collections andsuggested an alternative to the display andconsumption of ethnographic objects. The DutchEast India trading company established in 1602,the first multinational, and the first company toissue stock, not only had trading monopolies inthe New World and Africa but also developedintra-Asian trade. Referred to as the Golden Agefull of glories, military conflict and slave tradefound no mention in this era of instrumentalcolonization which coincided with the age ofscientific progress. Nature and naturalphenomena were now being questioned throughthe disciplines of biology, botany and geographyand realism becomes the paradigm. Artists suchas Theodor de Bry, Eckhout and Frans Postconstructed realist images based often onsecond-hand reports, with elaboratecompositions of elements reflecting anassemblage of the exotic. Physical anthropologyincluded depictions of cannibalism and nudity aswell as orgiastic motifs of music and dancingwhich were juxtaposed against scientific inquiry.These European colonized constructions ofethnography were regarded as authentic andaccurate till recently and were housed inmuseums, sites of education and knowledge.Artists such as Lothar Baumgarten in the 1960s


An image fromBenjamin Meyer-Krahmer’s lecturepresentation.


started questioning such displays ofdecontextualised nomadic practice where theobjects had no biographies and were themselvesunsettled and blurred. Questions of alterity andspecificity, othering and exoticising within theconcomitant confined, neutralized, fetishised,curiosity cabinet, were raised and answeredthrough an exhibition held not in an ethnographymuseum but in an art museum. “Evening of Time.Senores Naturales – Yanomani” attempted toretrieve the context of a nomadic, rain forest,tribal people by showing their works andprocesses without a European taxonomy.However this “auto ethnography” has not fullysorted out the problem of representation anddebates continue. - R.P.

Piano Recital by Shani Diluka (February 20, 2014) The artist was jointlypresented with the Mehli Mehta MusicFoundation

The Sri Lankan Pianist Shani Diluka performeda piano recital at Jnanapravaha on February 20,2014 to a well-attended audience of enthusiasticmusic lovers. The programme chosen reflectedthree distinct composition styles, the Romantic,Impressionist and the Classical. Each of herpieces were introduced with a description of thecompositions performed and this gave an extradimension and understanding to the listener. Theprogramme opened with a scintillatingperformance of Schumann's ' Papillons ', a suiteof piano pieces in a variety of dance- likemovements at a masked ball, many of themwaltzes. This was followed by piano works by the

French Impressionist composer Debussy - Clairde lune (Moonlight) and Estampes consisting ofthree movements. The exquisite tonal dynamicsand colour washes evoked images of East Asia(Pagodes), Granada (La soirée à Grenade), andthe gardens of Normandy in the rain (Jardinssous la pluie). The programme concluded withSchubert's Sonata in B flat major written duringthe last months of Schubert's life and consideredamongst the most important of his majormasterpieces. Shani interpreted this work withgreat power and virtuosity and convincinglyconveyed the diverse structural, harmonic andmelodic elements which connected all threemovements of this turbulent masterpiece. -M.J.

Forthcoming Programmes

Muslim Zion: Pakistan as a Political Idea(April 3, 2014, 6.30 pm) by Faisal Devji

Founded less than a decade after it was firstproposed as an idea, Pakistan might wellpossess the most successful national history ofany of the world’s states. And yet it is by thesame token a country where nationalism hasnever been dominant as a political ideology. Butwhile it has become a commonplace to seePakistan as a failed state and work out when itstarted coming apart, I want to argue that thecountry has never been a nation state in anyconventional sense. Instead I will demonstratethat Pakistan belongs to another political logic,one that is critical of nationalism and oriented inan internationalist direction.

Emerging as it did in the wake of the Second



World War, whose destruction of the internationalorder set in place by the Paris Peace Conferencehad put into question the very survival of the old-fashioned nation-state, the Pakistan Movementwas more attuned to the abstract andinternationalist ideologies of fascism and

communism. Founded, moreover, as theconsequence of a struggle against Indiannationalism, Pakistan was conceived as a statebased on an idea or ideology rather than someimmemorial link to the land.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. Announcing a collaboration betweenJnanapravaha, Mumbai (JPM) and Deccan Heritage Foundation, India (DHFI).

JPM is an institution which focuses on a globalexchange of creative Indian art and thought. It isa place where ideas and innovative conceptsgenerate a discourse that allows glimpses intonew and unchartered abstract and concreteperceptions relating to art and culture in general.

DHFI would like to be an active participant inthis exchange of ideas as it aspires to create anunderstanding, through education, publicationsand sustainable preservation, of the culturalheritage that distinguishes a little known, visitedand appreciated area of India, the Deccan. It isthe Deccan that well represents differentcivilizations that flourished in the subcontinent,from Neolithic times to Independence. Thisregion’s Heritage, replete with innovations andcreative adaptations, is widely seen in other partsof the sub-continent without an awareness of theplace of origin of such ideas and practice. Anattempt to go beyond the barriers of currentknowledge is being made through discursivemeans by renowned international authorities.

This collaboration will witness lectures byinternationally renowned scholars starting thewinter of 2014/2015. Announcements will bemade in due course.

2. The 17th edition of our seminal year longPOST GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN INDIANAESTHETICS starts Saturday 19th July 2014.



Most sessions on Saturdays from 1:30-5:30pm.ADMISSIONS OPEN.

3. The 7th edition of our year long course titledART, CRITICISM & THEORY starts Tuesday15th July 2014. Sessions on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from6:00-8:00pm. ADMISSIONS OPEN.

4. The 2nd edition of our semester long coursetitled YOGA & TANTRA - CONCEPTS ANDVISUAL HISTORY starts Tuesday 16thSeptember 2014. Sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:30-5:30pm. ADMISSIONS START1ST July 2014.

For details visit website www.jp-india.org oremail [email protected]

Contributors

A.M. - Armando MiguélezB.K. - Bhanuj KappalK.M. – Kaiwan MehtaM.J. – Mehroo JeejeebhoyR.P. – Rashmi PoddarS.C. – Swati Chemburkar



We know we have made a difference. Our endeavour to encourage and facilitate creative expression meaningfully,continues with the firm belief that the arts are indispensable to the well-being of the community and the individual.

Queens Mansion, 3rd Floor, G. Talwatkar Marg,Fort, Mumbai - 400001. India.www.jp-india.comwww.facebook.com/JnanapravahaAtMumbai

[L-R] Aniket Bhagwat and Kaiwan Mehta in conversationduring ‘Invoking Introspection’

quarterly newsletter apr-jun ’14 · jpm quarterly newsletter apr-jun 2014 1 ... and the latter of...

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