तस्वीर का पंक्टम

तस्वीर का पंक्टम
एक तस्वीर है। इसकी जमीन पर कुछ पेड्‍ हैँ और उन पर टीन के छोटे-छोटे प्लेट लगे हुए हैँ। यह कुछ एसा मजमा पेश करता है कि मानो ये पेड्‍ इन्ही प्लेटों के लिए खडे हों, मानो ये प्लेटें इन्ही पेडों के लिए बने हों। यह दूसरी बात कुछ अधिक यर्थाथता का बोध देती है। लेकिन, यकिन मानिए, इस तस्वीर में इन पेडों का वजूद इन प्लेटों के साथ अनिवार्यत: संबद्ध है वरना ये तस्वीर ही शायद नही ली जाती और अगर तस्वीर नही ली जाती तो हम और आप बात ही नही कर रहे होते। यह तस्वीरों के हस्तक्षेप से हो रहा संवाद है। यह एक तस्वीर के चंद लम्हों की कहानी है।
इस तस्वीर में, उस पेड्‌ पर लटके टीन प्लेटों पर अंग्रेजी के बड्‍े अक्षरों में लिखा है-' एवार्सन'। नीचे एक फोन नंवर दिया गया है, एक 'समस्या' के समाधान के लिए। अपनी आवाज को पहुँचाने के लिए और किसी आवाज को दुनिया में आने से पहले ही दबा देने के लिए।
इस तस्वीर के जरिए हम एवार्सन के आसपास बुन रहे ताने-बानों, और उनके विमर्शों की बात कर सकते हैं। राज्य-तंत्र और राजसत्ता, कानुन की सत्ता, इस कानुन के पुरुषवादी स्वरुप और उसकी नारीवादी व्याख्याओं में शहर की इच्छाओं, डरों और क्रूर यर्थाथों कि दुनिया में इस सामान्य से लगने वाले तस्वीर के सहारे प्रवेश कर सकते हैं। वासना और शहर की खौफनाक हकीकत से भी बात आगे बढाई जा सकती है। पर यहां मेरा सरोकार फिलहाल कुछ और ही है। इस तस्वीर में अपनी ही आँखों को ढूंढा जा रहा है-इस तस्वीर को देखते हुए, इस तस्वीर में भटकते हुए…
अपनी आँखों की तलाश कहां से शुरु की जाए? मशहूर रोलां बार्थस् के 'पंक्टम ' को ढुंढता हूँ। 'पंक्टम अर्थात् वह बिन्दु जिस पर नजर ठहरती है और उसी की होकर रह जाती है। जो किसी तस्वीर के फ्रेम को परिभाषित करती है,स्वरुपित करतीहै। जो बिन्दु आँखों को कैद करती है, जिसमे नजर बन्द हो जाता है और जिसके सहारे आप तस्वीर के पाठ की दुनिया में प्रवेश करते हैं।
एस तस्वीर का पंक्टम इसके फ्रेम के भीतर नही बरन् बाहर है। यह इस फ्रेममें अनुपस्थित जितना नही है उससे अधिक अदृश्य है। यह पंक्टम तस्वीर के कैपसन के जरिए इसके फ्रेममेंअपने होने का अहसास दिला रहा है। यह पंक्टम दौलतराम कालेज की वह दीवार है जिसके आगे यह पेड्‍ खडा है, जिस पर तीन के प्लेट में एक इबारत है। एवार्सन की इस पंक्टम के बनने की चर्चा यहां कुछ अप्रासांगिक नही होगा।
यदि जूम आउट करें तो यह चित्र दिल्ली विश्वविद्यालय का है। दिल्ली विश्वविद्यालय में कई सड्‍कों के नाम हैं। सौभाग्य या दुर्भाग्यवश इस सड्‌क का , जिसपर एवार्सन वाले ये पेड्‍ हैं, का कोई नाम नही है। यदि इसका कोई नाम हो भी तो वह प्रचलित नही है। खैर,नाम के अभाव में एस सड्‌क, जिसपर हमारे तस्वीर का पंक्टम मौजूद है, का ठोस ज्योग्राफिया बयान लाजिमी हो जाता है। यह सड्‌क रिंग रोड, जो दिल्ली के मुख्य सडकों में से एक है, से ही निकलती है और मानसरोवर छात्रावास, खालसा कालेज, मिराण्डा हाउस, आर्टस् फैकल्टी और दौलतराम कालेज होते हुए कमलानगर, रुपनगर और शक्तिनगर तक जाती है। कुछ और भी जगहों को शामिल किया जा सकता है लेकिन फिलहाल उन्हें रहने दें। यहाँ गौरतलब हो कि तस्वीर का पेड्‍ कोई अकेला पेड्‍ नही है जिसपर टीन की यह पट्टी लगी है। एवार्सनकी पट्ट बाले पेड्‌ खालसा कालेज से ही शुरु हो जाते हैं। और जब भी इस सड्‍क पर आप शहर से परेशान होकर इन पेडों की छाह की ओर, इनकी हरियाली की ओर नजर दौराएंगे आपको इनकी तना पर एवार्सन की पट्टी मिल ही जाएगी। दिल्ली विश्वविद्यालय की यह सड्‍क जो अपनी 'रंगीनी' के कारण खासी तादाद में शहर के मजनुओं का सैरगाह, उनका ख्वावगाह है और इस कारण से कई महत्वपूर्ण रुपों में इस तस्वीर के पाठों को स्वरुपित करता है।
यह पंक्टम परेशान करता है। तस्वीर के पाठों एवं इनके बहुतेरे 'अन्य' को विस्थापित करता है। लेकिन कुछ सवालात हैं जिनसे रुबरु हुए बगैर पाठों के इन बहुतेरे अन्य का विस्थापन नही पढा जा सकता है। सबसे पहले, दिल्ली विश्वविद्यालय की यह सड्‍क, ग्लर्स् कालेज की यह दीवार ही क्यूँ? इन टीन प्लेटों को इस सड्‍क पर लगाने वाले, ग्लर्स कालेज के सामने (बहुत चुपके से) प्रदर्शित करनेवालों के बाजारीय हथकँडों में किस प्रकार के मिथकों का बोलबाला है। इस सड्‍क, इस कालेज के बारे में वे कौन सी पुरुषवादी सोच काम कर रही है जिसने इस सड्‍क को, इस कालेज को इस तस्वीर की 'सबसे नजदीकी पृष्टभूमि' प्रदान की? एवार्सन करने वालों के द्वारा इस जगह का चुनाव क्योँ?
इस 'क्योँ के साथ कई प्रकार की समस्याएँ जुडी हुई है। इस 'क्योँ' के साथ हम कितनी दूर तक जा सकते हैं?
संस्‍कृति , खासकर जनसंस्कृति के अध्ययन में अक्सर बिच मझधार में ही यह 'क्योँ ' हमारा साथ छोड्‍कर बोरिया बिस्तर समेट भाग खडा होता है। जिस तरह के दृश्य जगहों की बात हम करना चाहते हैं उनके पीछे के व्यक्तियों खि ठीक-ठीक मंशा जानना असंभव है और मेरी माने तो सैद्धांतिंक रुप से गैर-जरुरी भी। यह प्रयास असंभव इसलिये नही कि आप उन तक नही पहुँच सकते या फिर वो अपनी मंशा आपसे साझा करने के लिये तैयार नही होंगे। समस्या तो तब खडी होती है जब आप उस 'कहे गये' मंशा को पढने, व्याख्यायित करने बैठते हैं और पाते हैं कि जो कहा गया है वह महज चेतन मानस कि एक अभिव्यक्ति मात्र है। यह अहसास होता है कि इस व्यक्त चेतन के पीछे का अव्यक्त अचेतन अधिक महत्वपूर्ण होगा। और फिर, आप पुरे पाठ में अकेले रह जाते हैं- अपनी ही कल्पनाओँ के साथ, अपने ही विम्बोँ में उलझे हुए।
एक दुसरी भी समस्या है, थोडी अधिक जटिल। यह पाठ के लेखक के बहुवचन होने कि समस्या से उपजता है। इस समस्या में लेखक स्वयं ही विस्थापित होता चलता है। जिसने ये टीन प्लेट लगवायी क्या उसे ही इस पाठ का लेखक माना जाय? क्या उस संस्‍कृति और उन मिथकों को इनका लेखक नही माना जाय जिसने इस तख्ती लगवाने वाले की मनोबृति को प्रभाबित करते हुए उसे इस जगह पर टीन प्लेटें लगवाने हेतु प्रेरित किया? क्या हम ही इस पाठ के लेखक नही हैँ जो इस अदने से तस्वीर के बहुतेरे संभाब्य पाठों में से महज एक खास हिस्से को तरजीह दे रहे हैं? या फिर आप ही क्योँ नही जो अपने पठन के दौरान अपने अनुभवोँ और ज्ञान के द्वारा पुरे पाठ को परिमार्जित करते चल रहे हैँ? और भी बहुतेरे सवाल हैं जो लेखक के कटघरे में खडे होने से उपजते हैं। और…लेखक स्वयंही एक पाठ हो जाता है। लेकिन, अभी इसे भी रहने दें। यहां उस जनसंस्कृति, शहर के उस जनस्थान की ओर लौटें जिसमे तस्वीरका यह विम्ब, इसके बनते बिगडते अक्स एवं इस अक्स में साँस लेता शहर हमारे आँखों से टकराता है। यह देह होता शहर है और है, देह पर फिसलती कुछ जोडी जुडी आखें। शहर और देह का रिस्ता बहुत पुराना न भी हो लेकिन नारीवादी विमर्श के लिए कुछ नया भी नही है।
थोडी देर के लिये इस पँक्टम से अपना ध्यान हटाकर वापस इस तस्वीर के उपस्थित फ्रेम की ओर लौटे तो पाते हैं कि इस दृश्य के मूल में एक देह है-अजन्मा, अनदेखा लेकिन अपरिचित अनजाना नही। इस तस्वीर के सारे दावे/प्रतिदावे इसी देह पर हो रहे हैं। इस अजन्मे देह के अस्तित्व को मिटाने का आहवान है यह टीन-प्लेट परन्तु, इस देह के अस्तित्व को हम कहां खोजें?
निश्चित तौर पर इस देह की अहमिता जितनी इसको धारण/परित्याग करने वाले गर्भ पर निर्भर है उतनी ही यह डर व असुरक्षा की एक सामान्य शहरी मनोबृति में भी। इसप्रकार, हम पाते हैं कि दावे/प्रतिदावों का स्थान उस अजन्मे गर्भ से बदलकर उस गर्भ धारण करनेवाली नारी देह पर आ जाता है। इसका मतलब यह कती नही है कि कोख और उसको धारण करने वाली देह, दो भिन्न ईकाईयां हैं। यहां इन्हे महज संवाद और विमर्श के बहाने दो दैहिक जगहों के रुप में प्रयोग किया गया है जो एक दुसरे में उपस्थित होते हुए भी भिन्न दृष्टिकोण की मांग करते दिखते हैं।
एक नजर से देखें तो एवार्सनकी यह टीन-प्लेट इस देह को मुक्त करती है। गर्भाधान भारत में अनिवार्यत: एक सामाजिक बंधन की पूर्वकल्पना करता है और अपवादों को छोड्‍ दें तो कोख द्वारा मातृ-देह पर की जा रही दावों की वैधता वस्तुत: विवाह की सामाजिक प्रक्रिया के माध्यम से ही होती है। दुसरे शब्दों में कहें तोकोख मातृ-देह पर दावे पेशकर उस देह को औपनिवेशिक बनाता है। उस देह को अधिकृत कर लेता है (भले ही यह औपनिवेशिकरण, यह अधिकार प्यार/मातृत्व की सबसे मूल, सबसे स्फूट और सबसे मूक अभिव्यक्ति ही क्योँ न हो)। एवार्सन का यह प्रचार मातृ-देह को अपने ही कोख के द्वारा किए गये अधिकार को खत्म करता है। गर्भाधान के साथ संबद्ध सामाजिक बंधनों को तोरता हुआ, यह फ्री-सेक्स के साथ जुडे उस थोडे से भय को भी खत्म करता है जो एक नारी देह तमाम गर्भनिरोधक तरीकों और कंडोम के उपयोग के बाद भी अपने साथ ढोती है। अब यह देह उस सामाजिक भय से मुक्त होकर दुसरे देह से मिल सकती है, जो एक अजन्मे, अनजाने और अनचाहे (बच्चे की) देह की संभावना का प्रतिफलन है।
लेकिन यह तो महज एक स्तर है। इस स्तर के ठीक नीचे देह का एक बिल्कुल भिन्न और आभासी तौर पर कहैं तो ठीक बिपरीत रुप नजर आता है। इस दूसरे स्तर पर यही टीन-प्लेत और इनकी यही इबारत, देह को बिबाह के सामाजिक बंधनों से मुक्त करने के बजाय सामाजिक संस्था के रुप में बिबाह की उपयोगिता और देह की इस संस्था पर निर्भरता के मुद्दे को पुन: आरोपित करती है। यह विज्ञापन नारी देह को उसके कोख की भय से तो मुक्त करता है लेकिन उस भय के पीछे के मूल कारण सामाजिक भय को अपने विमर्श के केन्द्र में बनाए रखता है। यह पोषता है इस भय को। यह पहले नारी देह पर सामाजिक वक्तव्यों को स्थापित करता है-शादी गर्भाधान की अनिवार्य पूर्वकल्पना है ( या फिर कुछ दुसरे तरह के सामाजिक-आर्थिक भय जो शहरी जीवन की गतिशीलता और गर्भाधान के कारण होती अधिक व्यवहारिक परेशानियों द्वारा उत्पन्न होता है)। फिर यह नारी देह को उस प्रक्रिया का निदान बताता है जिसके कारण यह भय आरोपित होता है। लेकिन एसा करते हुए यह कभी उस भय का निदान नही करता है बल्कि यह भय को और अधिक व्यापक बनाता है।नारी देह को हमेशा सामाजिक मान्यताओं के भय के आगोश में रखता है। यह आगोश और इस आगोश का अहसास इस टीन-प्लेट को देखते हुए जागृत हो उठती है। पहला संदेश दुवारा लोटकर आता है- फ्री-सेक्स की संसकृति में गर्भाधान सबसे बडी सामाजिक समस्या है और एवार्सन हि इसका एकमात्र उपाय है। इस टीन-प्लेट से नजरें फिसलती हुई नारी देह पर अटकती है उसे असुरक्षित, भयाक्रांत करते हुए कमजोर बनाती चलती है।
शहर द्वारा, इसकी दृष्टि के द्वारा नारीदेह पर कब्जा करने का यह महज एक हथकंडा है। शहर के नजर के पास ऐसे हथकँडों की एक पूरी श्रृखला है जिसके द्वारा शहर और इसके पुरुषवादी नजरों का राज चलता है। यह नारी देहों पर होता दस्तदराजी है: शहर के देह पर, इबारतों कि नारी देहों पर पुरुषवादी नजरों की। "दस्त=हाथ, दराज=लम्बा करके छुलाना, काफी हद तक अश्लील तरीके से जुल्म; अत्याचार; दुस्साहस ; गुस्ताखी; मार पीट”।1 इतिहासकार शाहिद अमीन /ज्ञान पांडे ने औपनिवेशिक काल के अंग्रेज परस्त उर्दु अखवार के 1921 में छपी एक रपत का हवाला देते हुए इस शब्द का इस्तेमाल किया है। औपनिवेशिक देह तो अब रहा नही लेकिन दस्तदराजी तो शायद हमेशा ही कायम रहेगी।
यह एक ऐसा उदाहरण है जहां जनस्थान की रचना, महिलावादी स्वरों को शांत कर नही हो रही है। कुछ गहरा और बडे नाजूक हाथों से पक रहा है। पुरुषवादी शक्तियां उभरकर मैदान में आमने सामने नही हैं। यह खेल तो महिलाओं की उपस्थिती से ही हो रहा है। शर्त बस इतनी कि देखने वला, मजा लेने वला हमेशा पुरुश देह हि है। दस्तदराजीके नये नये नुस्खे ईजाद करता-देह का शहर, शहर के देह…देह में ढलती नजर।
सदन झा (सदन झा और प्रभास रंजन, शहर के निशान)।

Shahar ke Nissan: some notes

Sahar Ke Nishan: Politics and Poetics of Visual Representations (Delhi)
Thematic Areas covered

Although, at this stage of our research, it is bit difficult to classify and categorise pictorial spaces which we have covered yet a brief list of them is important:

Advertisements in the forms of hoardings of shops and other similar market forces. Here, we have tried to capture the complexities of different kinds which are products as well as producers of relationship between agencies of ‘globalization’ and ‘traditional culture’. However, it needs to keep in mind that both these words/concepts are used here very loosely. These advertisements lead us to those processes in and through which local symbolic spaces work hand in hand with standard symbolic spaces.

Multiple use of certain spaces: During the field work we have come across many once upon a time government hoardings, hoardings of road signs and walls which are used as locations to put posters and for writing different messages. The very use of these spaces as standard place as recognised places are interesting. If you remember, one of our meetings, you had suggested abut few such spaces( notice boards, information boards of art galleries etc.)

Posters and Hoardings depicting Pahalwans and their culture. These are again abundant and offer interesting semiotic readings. The location of these hoardings quite interestingly pose several questions on the socio-cultural dynamics of a city. From the perspective of semiotics, for example, many of these pahalwan posters present Hanumanji as the fatherly ideal figure but Hanumanji is devoid of all his insignias and symbols. His gada has been taken over by pahalwans and Hanumanji is shown only as showing the figures of Ram and Sita. There may be various ways of entering into this semiotic field but this is not a place to go into the details of it.

Advertisements of local sex doctors, hakims, faith heelers, astrologers etc. An extremely rich field and a very problematic one. One of the most troublesome aspect of this field is its vastness and its fluid character in terms of their cultural belongingness. This is the category where, the mobility of the city culture can be seen at it’s best.

Wall writings putting common man at the center. These kinds of writings range from warnings( gadhe ke put yahan mat mut) to the following social message:

Yadi IAS wa IPS adhikari nihswarth bhav se maatra betan par nirvar hokar desh ki seva karain to desh maatra ek maah main hi sudhar jaiga.—Srinath graam+ post, Nadini, Zila- Mirzapur. Uttar Pradesh.> (If IAS officers discharge theire duties in honest and selfless manner , the state of the country would improve in just one month. --Srinath. Village+post-Nadini, Zila- Mirzapur. Uttar Pradesh)

Pictorial Spaces circulating myths. Although all kinds of spaces create their own myths and operate in various mythic structures but even we get down from the couch wagon of Roland Barthes and move to Lajpat Roy market of Delhi, we get stickers telling the whole story of a temple.

Religious and moral messages. Here, we would like to mention a case of an old lady living(?)/ working(her wrok is defined here, primarily from our vantage point, and not as her own occupational engagement) in the area of Shakti Nagar. In this area, we find walls written all over with religious slogans. We have come to know about the author, this lady, and planning to interview her if possible. This wall writing has a potential to provide a very rich field, to explore various constructs of psycho-religious discourses of the city

Dalit Spaces. Pictures of Guru Ravidas at street side cobblers’ shop is a good example and offers interesting reading.

There are various other spaces and lot of examples but now I would like to mention some of the unexplored areas which we are planning to cover and which we feel extremely difficult. These are classroom desks (we have not been getting entry into schools, In the university, due to exams, desks have been removed yet we are trying to get to this space;) Monumental spaces (this we will cover in next few weeks) and most important among difficult spaces is the graffities of public urinals and toilets( we are trying our best to document this space).

Our field work covers the following areas:

East Delhi:
Yamuna Vihar, Chand Bagh, Bhajan Pura, Dayal Pur, Karawal Nagar, Jagat Puri, Lakshmi Nagar, Shakar Pur, Ganesh Nagar, Sita Puri, Pqatparganj and Pandav Nagar.

West Delhi
Mahavir Enclave, Sadh Nagar, Mangla Puri, Palam, Raj Nagar, Uttam Nagar, Mangol Puri and Vikash Puri.

North Delhi
Inderlok, Shakti nagar, Jahangir Puri, Azadpur Gaon, Azad pur, Kabel Park, Majlish Park Camp,, Model Town, Kamla Nagar, Vijay Nagar, Azad Market, Sadar Bazar, Jhandewalan, Idgah Road, Malka Ganj, Ridge area, Karol Bagh, Darya Ganj and ther area near ISBT.

South Delhi
South Extension, Houz Khas, Yusuf Sarai and Green Park.

This is not an exhaustive list of the areas covered during the field work neither it is to say that all the areas mentioned above are documented exhaustively (keeping in mind the horizontal coverage this word, documentation demands). This is just to give you an idea of the geography of our field work. We selected these areas both on the basis of certain predetermined notions and also due to the proximity of these areas with our own locations of stay and daily movements.

In the coming weeks, we are planning to revisit these areas. We would also like to expand the field little further. In coming weeks, the focus will be more on recovering comparative field experiences at different geographical locations.

Recovering Experiences

We are obsessed with the idea of recovering our own experiences during the course of field work. We would like to share an excerpt of field diary.

10 December 2001
· This is my first day, when I am traveling with a preconceived notion that in densely populated area I will get dense forest of advertisements.
· Classification of advertisements:
i. advertisements of newly inhabited middle class areas.
ii. gallion ke advertisements
iii. advertisements of lower middle class.

Advertisements of main road and advertisements of lower class colonies( J.J.colonies, lower class government staff colonies etc.) differ substantially. In lower class areas pictorial spaces dominate while in the middle class or upper class market areas or residential areas written messages acquire dominant place.

After initial hesitations, I have started taking pictures, even on the crowded streets. People are looking at me with amusements. They look at me taking pictures of those advertisements which they see every day. These are pictures, they are quite accustomed to see. It is a matter of surprise for them that some body is taking picture of these ordinary spaces.

The first picture that I am taking is of Baba Kurwan Shah tantrik. This poster, I have seen at various places in the 'trans-Yamuna' area. Every where, posters have been posted in very dense manner so that you should not miss it just because of its small size. Secondly, because of short time span of paper posters, it is necessary that maximum number of people read it in a minimum time period.

I move ahead and now I am in Yamuna Vihar area. Here, on the school sign- board, I find a picture of a boy. In the background there is a clear blue sky and green grass. This is just opposite to the low light and narrow space of the inside of the school.

Behind this locality is Suhas Nagar./ I am standing at a painter’s shop. The name of the shop is “Tanha”. Painter has tried his best to paint this emotion. One can easily be tempted to call it a self portrait of the painter. The painter is standing there and he is happy by seeing me taking the picture of his signboard. He says, “kyon bhai sahib! Achhi lagi! Andar aur bhi hai. I say,
“ nahi main bahar ki hi picture leta hun"(no, I take pictures that are outside).
“ aap picture kyon le rahe ho?"(why do you take pictures?)
“study ke liye”(for research)
……
I am taking picture of Shivam Public School in Bhajan pura for its background. Here the school gate directly opens at the street but in the picture, there is a long field with green grass and in the picture you enter into the school only after crossing this long green field.

Now, I am at the Kamal Sari Palace. Here is a picture of a lady sitting in a deep red sari. With a grace there is an emotion of ownership on the face of the lady. This signboard is inviting as if, please come inside, maalkin.

Now I am in Chand Pura. This is a kingdom of flees. They are in lakhs sitting atop the signboard. I am taking picture of a sign board. 20-30 of them are there even on this board. I ask the reason for this number. Nobody gives satisfactory reason.’ Bagal main nala hai.’ Purani wasti hai’. One has even said, ‘musalmano ki wasti hai’.

I get a board in which loan scheme to open your own work and for self-employment is mentioned and its been said to contact Saif clinic. Saif clinic is a dental clinic. You will find many such advertisements in the market which will put you in surprise by their combination of purposes.

Gulawati wale pahalwan hazi majid and farid pahalwan repair broken bones and sell langots (loin cloth)of pahalwans. The message of the picture shows that breaking of bones is hardly a matter of concern for pahalwans and they hardly pay any heed to this. They can work on it quite easily and they can do it in tassaliwaksh manner. Apart from this another angle to the message is also that you are yourself responsible for your own body and must not treat it in passive way. This offers itself as an alternative option to costly allopathic treatment.

On the Sign-board of Kalua pahalwan merathwale, the word, merathwale has been hidden by sticking a paper over it.

At the end I take two pictures of Diwakar painter.

Hope you would like it. The resistance posed during the course of the field work by owners of (these representational spaces) shops and local people is another interesting area which I would discuss next time.

Please send your comments and suggestions

Prabhas Ranjan.
Sadan Jha <jhasadan@hotmail.com>
This small write up is taken from www.sarai.net ( from the section:language---popular culture).

Flag Staff Tower

Located in the northern ridge of Delhi, the flag staff tower is an important signpost of colonial times. The structure occupies crucial place in the history of 1857 and Delhi. Here are few images of the 'monument'. The first two images are from Jim Masselos and Narayani Gupta ( ed.), "Beato's Delhi 1857,1997", Ravi Dayal Publisher, Delhi,2000, p.25. The other three images( taken by me) are from 2004 when metro rail contruction work was under progress. The traffic was diverted in and through the northern ridge.
sadan.

malwa, wall and Nehru

From "Shaher ke Nishan: Politics of the Visual Symbolic Spaces of the City: A Case Study of Delhi"by Sadan Jha and Prabhas Ranjan, Independent Research Fellowship scheme of Sarai,CSDS 2002.

abstract: Likho Script apna apna: Aesthetics of language and the Body of the City

This is the abstract of my paper,"Likho Script apna apna: Aesthetics of language and the Body of the City", presented in "Language, Culture and Urban Publics Workshop", organised by Sarai,CSDS, Delhi on April 2-3, 2004.

“Idhar khuda hai udhar khuda hai,
aage khuda hai pichhe khuda hai,
jidhar dekho udhar khuda hai,
jahan nahi khuda hai wahan kal khudega.... Metro Railway.”

----SMS message figured in Times of India as narrated to me by a friend.

The abovementioned message is an unusual inscription of the city. Digging the body, playing with ( and mocking over) the omnipresence of the almighty and commenting over the temporal landscape ( of Delhi), this message is crucial (for a researcher) as it has traveled a long journey – from oral to SMS to print to oral mediums. The language, the city and the body ( of almighty and the landscape) find new partners in the form of Metro Railway and the SMS messages.
This paper seeks to analyse the politics of the language, its temporal dimensions and the ways in which the city becomes a body for inscribing various language games. The focus will be on the zones of engagement between the (written) word and visual in the context of the signs and images produced by the city ( in this case Delhi). An attempt will be made to read the vast and scattered representational field (consisted of wall writings, graffiti, signboards, hoardings, pamphlets, stickers, SMS messages etc.) to analyse the politics that go in the construction of this city of visuals.
Without going in for the content analysis and the construction of the meanings generated by this field, I will restrict my focus, rather narrowly, on the ways in which written words are used in visual regimes. In the studies of visual cultures, not much attention has been paid to the relation between word and the image, curtailing dangerously the richness of the visual field. The fact that words can also be seen and not merely read out opens up a range of possibilities to play with the aesthetics of the representational spaces as well as with the networks of the power operational among different signifier ( partners) in the language game. What, for me, is equally crucial is the body of the city which is both the location for the play of these signifiers as well as the consumer of images generated by these language games. What is also significant in this regard is the temporality of the field and the gendered dimensions of the whole web of city-visuals.
In the language of this visual field, the image of the city appears to be an anthropomorphic body with its desires and frustrations. These desires and frustrations, obviously can not be delineated in clear binaries of masculine and faminine. The play of gender is much more complicated. This complicated gendered body acquires further complexities due to the politics of space and temporal nature of the imageries . The problem in this multi- layered field of cultural practices ( culture of the production of visual regimes) is then how to read this field. The politics of language torn in between figural and the written gets actualised in this vast and highly unexplored field in and through a whole range of strategies, networks and relationship making the contours of both the city and the language highly fractured ,fragmented and fluid. This study should obviously be seen as an attempt to problematise the field and not as mapping of the territory.

Workshop on Gender and Visuality, Cape Town. 26-29 August 2004.by Sadan Jha.

Earlier posted report on the blog was by the convenor of the workshop. Below is my reflection on the workshop.

A Reflection on Workshop on Gender and Visuality, Cape Town. 26-29 August 2004.
by Sadan Jha

Both in terms of its objectives as well as in its constituency, the workshop on ‘gender and visuality’ was ambitious, huge and yet a very focused event. The combination of these three qualities makes the experience of the workshop quite vivid as well as a lasting one. It is primarily due to these abovementioned aspects of the workshop that I find it difficult to reflect or review the event in a coherent fashion. The workshop opened up many threads which motivates me to ponder into different mental landscapes. In this manner, the workshop was more successful in opening up new ways of looking as well as new areas of looking rather then providing an answer to these intellectual questions.

The threads opened up during the course of the workshop may be perceived as rooted in some of the fundamental questions related to the field/s of ‘gender’ and ‘visuality’. The first and foremost among these problematics can be formulated in terms of the area of scholarship: How to reconstruct the margins in the existing discourse on gender and visuality?

In the long as well as immediate histories of colonialism and colonial knowledge formation, the ways of looking at subject has been a monopolistic culture of euro-centric male gaze. It is not that the non-European, non-white, non-male subjects were not present or not visible but, in the academic discourses, these subjects were not visible or more appropriately not considered as worth viewing. At best, one can argue that these subjects were viewed as objects devoid of any life spirit, any history, any eye of their own. Hence, at one level, some of the papers of the workshop aimed at recovering these objectifies subjects of European history (or eurocentric historiography). Joan Marsh’s paper on ‘recovering the black presence in British art 1800-1900’ is a representative of this endeavor. Engagement with the presence of black bodies for the consumption of the white gaze of the empire is focused in the paper in terms of African bodies. The paper also clears the ground to ask a number of questions i.e. how these bodies have traveled as pictorial bodies? How the gaze looking at these bodies was differentiated by a number of social hierarchies including class and gender? Earlier Catherine Hall’s book, White male and Middle Class actually provides an opening by demonstrating that the responses over question of race ( more specifically slavery) in European society in the middle of eighteenth century was differentiated by both class and gender dynamics. Joan Marsh’s pioneering work opens a ground to ask similar question in the context of gender and visuality. It also motivates one to ask, how these black presences have their own histories? How these bodies were looked not merely by European whites but by themselves? The questions are obviously too many. But, for a historian the more crucial fact is the availability of sources to ask such questions. Alternatively formulating, is it possible to read conventional sources in fresh manner to ask some of these questions. The second presentation of the workshop quite successfully demonstrated this intellectual quest.

Looking at a range of conventional reprtesentational registers, Patricia Mohammed charted the historical journey of the image of the Caribbean itself. Certainly , the paper was an advancement on the history of representations and the history of images . However, despite this long journey and traveling in and through a range of registers, the paper remained closely tied up within the frame of history and history writing. This methodological dimension can be accepted either way. Close dialogue or the disciplinary framework which was present in most of the papers of the workshop may be regarded as a strength of the workshop. However, this same point can also be recognized as a major drawback of the workshop. This is especially more crucial as the workshop had a rich potential to achieve major methodological breakthroughs in the context of gender and visuality. I will elaborate this speculative aspect later in the report.

In the rest of the report, I will be less concerned on mapping each and every paper and panels and instead try an attempt to analyse, in random fashion, some of the impressions and insights that I gathered from this intellectual exercise. This will then help me to locate the workshop in wider discourse that is around gender politics and visuality.

Most of papers were addressed to charting out a complex histories of representations. In this context, visual was defined as an engagement with certain representational registers. The history of appearance related practices making both the human body and a range of advertisements as a site where the politics of gendered codification took place ( Katheleen Robinson on Skin Bleaching, Lynn Thomas on ‘Modern Girl’, Ayhan Akman on cartoons as site for the transfigurations of Turkish male identity, Jeanne van Eeden on the landrover, Helmut Puff on ‘Death of Orpheus’, Lindsay Clowes on manhood in Drum, Michelle Rowley on Caribean political advertisements are some of the attempts trying to decode the politics of representation by mobilizing a range of social, cultural and discursive strategies. The most prominent among these strategies was obviously the deployment of the race and gender.

In these cases, bodies (both anthropomorphic as well as symbolic bodies) which are offered to be seen, construct identities, circulate as commodities and becomes a site for the construction of histories.

The other side of the coin is, the question, who is looking at these bodies? How has the historic construction of the consumer of skin bleaching products taken place? Who is the onlooker of cartoons? But, we also need to ask whose histories are these? Does this history only contain codes waiting to be decodified by historians, cultural scholars, political scientists, littérateurs? Or, is it possible to recover viewing experiences of the subject themselves? For example, can we recover how modern girl looks at her own body when she looks at her representation in a range of images. Where is the space of desire in terms of her own when a ready made discourse is available bombarded consciously or unconscioualy with Freudian, foucauldian and feminist politics. Lorna Quejong’s reading of her own experiences along with billboards, monuments and signs in urban visual public sphere is an attempt to problematise this question of the desire and the politics of looking at images.

Lorna’s attempt to read her own desire in this context further provokes me to address the issue of the contemporary, personal and temporal experiences of ‘eye’ looking at images and the recovery of narratives of visual experiences which are located in the past and accessed only through one another representational forms. Hence, unlike the case of Lorna who can access the body ( which is her subject of study also) directly, for others ( abovementioned ) the body is available only as their subject field. Hence, at least, in terms of the source material to narrate a story, history or reading experiences the engagement of ‘eye’ over the body remains mediated only through representational bodies. What is also needed in this context, is to pose a question about the technologies in and through which these representational bodies make themselves visible before the eye of a reader ( historian, political scientists). This demands a further problematisation of the regimes of memories/ amnesias of representations, politics in/of the archive and the politics of the discourse as well as discipline itself.

Through out the workshop, the politics of the discipline hounded me the most. The engagement with visuality and gender is merely another exercise in already established disciplines i.e. history, literary theory, cultural studies, gender studies or does this engagement has a potential to challenge the dominant paradigms of these disciplines? In the analytical exercise, is it possible to be led by the sources ( representational registers) themselves rather then by any chronological frame? We all know the significance of contextualising the subject in terms of time and space. However, we often end up guided by the time or space in our engagment with images. Why do we always restrict the flow of images within a particular time frame?

A very rich presentation by Lindsay Clowes and comments made by Ciraj Rasool provoked me this question quite obviously. Dealing with a rich source, Lindsay was trying to understand the changing constructions of manhood in Drum in 1950s. Ciraj demanded her to look at the web of representations to open the comparative dimensions of images in a wide range of registers and practices to further problematise the construction of manhood. The richness of the sources, I believe, allows another methodological opening. The paper can be pitched radically different manner. I find the time frame too restricting in this context. It is possible to be guided by the representational registers, abandon the restriction of the timeframe and analyse the construction of manhood by locating the subject at some critical sites of its production, circulation and consumption. Thus, instead of making visuality as subordinate to time centric construction of history writing it is possible to be guided by the histories of the body, its (in)visibility, visual regimes and technologies of power operational in and around the site of the body. In this hypothetical situation, the time frame and other methodological tools of history writing will remain and must remain as guiding tools but not as restricting disciplinary boundaries. Here, social sciences need a very careful and cautious engagement with art practices.

The dangers of the interact between social sciences and art practices often come in the form of one resisting others' methodological viewpoints. In this case, I wished more contextualisation of the art works while art practitioners wanted their works a free floating and abstract engagement with representations. In discussions the split between artist and academics came more sharply. Responding over Patricia Mahmood's methodological remarks, Colette Veasey expressed her uncomfort with this division. The discussion was crucial as people in social sciences often take old and taken for granted notions of academics and artist community. On the other hand the history of learning informs us that many art practices are now very much part of academics.

In this context, the fruitful way of asking a question may not be about the division between fields and disciplines but how do one interact with other domains and how does the politics of gender influences at the level of knowledge formation. The question of public sphere is also closely linked with the formation of academic field. The work which was very provocative and needs to be pitched both at the level of academic discourse as well as at the level of the politics of visibility in public sphere was by Zanele Muholi ( on the politics of everyday-ness in the lives and representation of lesbians). As a social scientist, how can we make use of such powerful photographic images by Zaneli. This also then leads to the ways in which everyday lives are approached in recent history.

The cinematic mode is another register to approach the issue. There were two papers directly dealing with this register. Marianne Gullestad worked on the issue of race and gender in missionary documentary movies. Drawing upon the rich archive her paper was located more at the level of historic construction of images of charity and other-ness. On the other hand, Onookome Okome's paper on nigerian vedio films opens a rich mine of visual data where the construction of daily lives of middle class womenhood is taking place. However, again the paper does not ask the question of viewership and the ways in which these representations of womanhood are influencing the gender relations in the family or outside the family. In fact, we need to fracture the omnipresent eye of analyst/ researcher while being engaged with visual registers or the issue of gender politics. We need to go beyond mere 'historical reconstruction'/ 'reading' of the discursive fields of visuality and gender. The discussions were helpful in this context.

The workshop was quite packed up with presentations. However, the little discussion time often turned into quite thought provoking and heated moments. Lot of openings were made and threads of the discussions again led to various complex terrains of the gendered visuality. The issue of ethics and methodology may be considered one such.

The question is how to show any representational register as a reference material when the visual appearance of the material itself has a potential to do violence against specific community. The ready made answer , in favour of ethics of academics will be not to show the images which violate personal or communitarian dignity. But, the methodological impulse would be to demonstrate the source material while making an argument on the basis of it. The dichotomy between these two moods becomes quite crucial in the case of dealing with visual materials. How can you talk about the the ways in which female bodies are consumed by a particular historical gaze without actually revisiting those bodies in representational registers. Revisiting is re looking. History of genocide has taught us the revisiting is also re-opening ( the forgotten wounds/ traumas). Can we leave those tortured bodies or can we make them victim of double gaze. They were looked at once in the past. Now, these bodies are looked at again by historian/ academics. The question will remain open, 'how to look back when we look back', as polemically posed by Kopano during the workshop. The brilliant observation by Lorena Rizzo on the values attached to animals in Namibian society ( if i remember correctly) actually opens the way on how to 'look at' and demands to venture outside the territories hegemonised by rational Eurocentric gaze of the first world. We need to look at the bodies which are left outside the dominant discourses in terms of their own eyes and in the manner of their own. Sadan.

report on gender and visuality workshop, Cape Town 26-29 August 2004.

Below is is a link to a report on gender and visuality conference held in Cape Town, 26-29 august 2004. I also participated in the workshop which to me was quite a thought provoking and learning experience.
www.sephis.org/pdf/genderandvisualityreport.pdf

My earlier article on Bharat Mata

This is my earlier article published in Manushi:issue142.
(This publication mentions that I am a Ph.D. scholar with Jawahar Lal Nehru University. This is not correct. I am a Ph.D. Student in Delhi University).

The article is taken here from:
http://www.indiatogether.org/manushi/issue142/bharat.htm

The life and times of Bharat Mata
The image of the dispossessed motherland found form in Kiran Chandra Bandyopadhyay's 1873 play, Bharat Mata, that influentially entered into early nationalist memory. But very soon the terms of engagement and iconographic vocabulary shifted to the form of the goddess. Sadan Jha traces the emergence of nationalism as invented history.

Maye ji ki paon ki chamari phat gayi thi. Lahu se pair lathpath ho gaye the .... Maye ji ka dukh dekh kar, Ramkishan babu ka bhakhan sunkar aur Tiwari ji ka geet sunkar wah apne ko rok nahi saka tha. Kaun sambhaal sakta tha us taan ko? .... Ganga re Jamunwa ki dhar nayanwa se neer bahi. Phutal bharathiya ke bhag bharathmata royi rahi.... Wah usi samay Ramkishan babu ke paas jaakar bola tha -"Mera naam suraji main likh lijiye.

(The mother's feet were torn and bloodied. After seeing the mother's agony, listening to Ramkishan babu's words and hearing Tiwari ji's songs, he could not stop himself. Who could resist that pull? .... Tears flowing from her eyes like the waters of the Ganges and the Yamuna. Mother India sorrowing over the fate of her children? .... Straightaway he went to Ramkishan babu and said, "Put my name on the Suraji list.")

- Phaniswarnath Renu, Maila Anchal, 1953, p.35

Manushi, Issue 142: The image of the suffering mother, found in these lines from the popular Hindi novel, Maila Anchal, is undoubtedly the most central among those visualisations which have shaped and reshaped national identities, spanning both pre- and post-colonial India. As we see in the above-quoted example, the crucial aspect of this image of the nation as body is that the body involved is neither anonymous nor abstract. It is a familiar one, revered and adored, one which evokes profound memories, and one which, at this narrative moment, is in grave distress. Even in deep pain, this body commands respect. What is also worth pointing out is that this body is presented as perishable, in the most literal sense of the word.

We have a number of instances where the anthropomorphic form of the nation, Bharat Mata, has been shown along with India's cartographic form, its map [1]. A popular wall calendar of the Hindu right wing organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is one such example. We can divide this poster into three main subtexts. These are a) the central image; b) a quotation attributed to a certain Swami Ramtirth, including a passport-size photograph of the man; and c) the photograph of RSS supremo Rajju Bhaiya and the announcement of an upcoming mass meeting in New Delhi.

In the central image, we see a woman occupying the map of the nation, giving the nation as body a very tangible female form. We have here an image which takes its meanings from a wide range of cultural signifiers: the smiling face of the goddess standing in front of her lion, looking directly into the gaze of onlookers. In the second subtext, however, the body of the nation has been defined in a very systematic and anatomical fashion. The cultural signifiers of the visual image have been provided with a set of concrete meanings and contexts. The quotation says:

I am India. The Indian nation is my body. Kanyakumari is my foot and the Himalayas my head. The Ganges flow from my thighs. My left leg is the Coromandal Coast, my right is the Coast of Malabar. I am this entire land. East and West are my arms. How wondrous is my form! When I walk I sense all India moves with me. When I speak, India speaks with me. I am India. I am Truth, I am God, I am Beauty.

There is an interesting contradiction here between the first and second subtexts of this frame. Note the use of masculine gender in the words in bold face that follow: "Jab main chalta hoon to sochata hoon ki pura Bharatvarsh chal raha hai. Jab bolta hoon to sochata hoon ki pura Bharat bol raha hai." The earlier subtext has given us to believe that that the body of the nation is female; however, the second subtext makes it very clear that the body in consideration is male.

The third subtext puts the poster in a contextual frame. This is an announcement of the arrival of R.S.S. supremo, Rajju Bhaiya in New Delhi. His schedule has been announced according to the Vikram Samvat, despite the fact that this calendar is not in general use. This would lead one to suppose that the objectives of this poster go much further than its temporal frame, that is the provision of information about a public event. A concession is, however, also made to the Christian or Common Era calendar perhaps simply because it would be more expedient.

Religion and nationhood

The Bharat Mata icon and its various scopic regimes are, obviously, quite mythical. In India, the imaginary bonding between nation and citizen is often mediated in and through religion. Writing on "Nation and Imagination", Dipesh Chakrabarty has questioned the use of the word 'imagination' for the phenomenon of 'seeing the nation' in the Indian context. He suggests that it would be "impossible to gather up the heterogeneous modes of seeing the nation in the subject centered meaning of the word 'imagination'. For the nation in India was not only 'imagined', it may have been darshan-ed as well." [2] Unfortunately in the dominant discourse of recent decades, the complexity of the relationship between nation and religion has been reduced to an analysis of communalism. An alternative way to examine the multilayered discourse on the relationship between religion and nation is via an understanding of some of the representational sites where nationhood and religious practice meet.

The imageries of Bharat Mata provide one such location. From Abanindranath Tagore and Anand Coomaraswami's treatments, to the calendars of the RSS, there has always been a celebration of the nation's female body - and of her citizens' male gaze. Nor has Bharat Mata failed to find a place in the plethora of "invented traditions" that abound in the popular religious space. [3] Her temples have even been accorded room in at least two of India's holiest sites of pilgrimage, Haridwar and Benaras.

The icon in history

The genealogy of the figure of Bharat Mata has been traced to a satirical piece titled Unabimsa Purana ('The Nineteenth Purana'), by Bhudeb Mukhopadhyay, first published anonymously in 1866. Bharat Mata is identified in this text as Adhi-Bharati, the widow of Arya Swami, the embodiment of all that is essentially 'Aryan'. The image of the dispossessed motherland also found form in Kiran Chandra Bandyopadhyay's play, Bharat Mata, first performed in 1873. The play influentially entered into nationalist memory in its early phase. [4]

The landmark intervention in the history of this symbol was Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's Ananda Math. In this classic text, the figure of the mother has an evolutionary biography marked in three phases. The journey takes place from the figure of 'mother as she was in the past' to 'mother in the present' who still retains the power to transform herself into 'mother as she will become in the future'. In her present form she is Kali, supposedly haunting the cremation grounds and dancing on Shiva's chest, signifying the reversal of order and suggesting a parallel between the land of Bharat and a cremation ground. The final image is that of Durga, the ten armed mother, the symbol of power with all her shining weapons. Such representations suggest a nascent nationalism in the process of widening its popular appeal by appropriating prevalent religious culture. Jasodhara Bagchi also points out that Ananda Math was Bankim's response to the positivist ideology of order and progress. [5]

Very soon the terms of engagement and iconographic vocabulary shifted to the form of the goddess. The artist Abanindranath Tagore portrayed Bharat Mata as Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity and wealth, clad in the apparel of a vaishnava nun. For Sister Nivedita here is "a picture which bids fair to prove the beginning of a new age in Indian art." She says:

In this picture...we have a combination of perfect refinement with great creative imagination. Bharat Mata stands on the green earth. Behind her is the blue sky. Beneath the exquisite little feet is a curved line of four misty white lotuses. She has the four arms that always, to Indian thinking, indicate the divine power. Her sari is severe, even to Puritanism, in its enfolding lines. And behind the noble sincerity of eyes and brow we are awed by the presence of the broad white halo. Shiksha-Diksha-Anna-Bastra, the four gifts of the motherland to her children, she offers in her four hands? What [Tagore] sees in Her is made clear to all of us. Spirit of the motherland, giver of all good, yet eternally virgin.... The misty lotuses and the white light set Her apart from the common world, as much as the four arms, and Her infinite love. And yet in every detail, of "Shankha" bracelet, and close veiling garment, of bare feet, and open, sincere expression, is she not after all, our very own, heart of our heart, at once mother and daughter of the Indian land, even as to the Rishis of old was Ushabala, in her Indian girlhood, daughter of the dawn? [6]

From Goddess to Mother

The post-swadeshi period witnessed another shift in imaging India, from goddess-figure to housewife and mother, as seen in a short story entitled Bharat Mata by Anand Coomarswami. This is a story of "a tall, fair and young woman". She was "wealthy and many had sought her hand, and of these, one whom she loved least had possessed her body for many years; and now there came another and stranger wooer with promises of freedom and peace, and protection for her children; and she believed in him, and laid her hand in his."

The story goes on: Some other children were roused against him, by reason of his robbing them of power and interfering with the rights and laws that regulated their relations to each other; for they feared that their ancient heritage would pass away for ever. But, still the mother dreamed of peace and rest and would not hear the children's cry, but helped to subdue their waywardness, and all was quiet again. But, the wayward children loved not their new father and could not understand their mother.

In India, the imaginary bonding between nation and citizen is often mediated in and through religion. Unfortunately, in the dominant discourse of recent decades, the complexity of the relationship between nation and religion has been reduced to an analysis of communalism.

The turning point of the story comes when [the] mother bore a child to the foreign lord, and he was pleased there at, and deemed that she (for it was a girl) should be a young woman after his own heart, even as the daughters of his own people, and she should be fair and wealthy, and a bride for a son of his people. However, when this child was born, the mother was roused from her dream.

But, the girl grew strong, and would carry little of her father's tyranny, and she was mother to the children of the children who came before her, and she was called the mother by all?" Her children rose in revolt against their father but were subdued. The mother helped her children this time and she left the foreign lord, and when the foreign lord would have stopped it, she was not there, but elsewhere; and it seemed that she was neither here, nor there, but everywhere.

And the writer concludes philosophically, "And this tale is yet unfinished; but the ending is not afar off, and may be foreseen." [7]

Ninety years after its publication, this story, read from a post-colonial location, is perhaps not very exciting. Yet, while its personification of the nation is one to which we are now accustomed, the shift that has taken place here, from nation as goddess to a more earthly figure is crucial. A parallel can also be observed in Sri Aurobindo's ways of looking at Bharat Mata. Writing in 1920, he remarks,

... the Bharat Mata that we ritually worshipped in the Congress was artificially constructed, she was the companion and favourite mistress of the British, not our mother .... The day we have that undivided vision of the image of the mother, the independence, unity and progress of India will be facilitated.

But Aurobindo warned that the vision had to be one that was not divided by religion. He concluded, "... if we hope to have a vision of the mother by invoking the indu's mother or establishing Hindu nationalism, having made a cardinal error we would be deprived of the full expression of our nationhood. [8]

India of the villages

Sumitranandan Pant's famous poem, Bharat Mata, provides a different vision of romantic nationalism. Here the image of Bharat Mata is a rural one; Mother India is a woman of the soil, worn with centuries of suffering, dispossessed and an alien even in her own home. In its original, this poem employs the metaphors of the Ganges and the Yamuna as rivers of tears, symbolising the pain of the nation. In a post-Independence version, however, lines were added to reflect the buoyant, resurgent mood of the times. Here, India's most celebrated rivers become the bearers of prosperity and wealth. A similar thought is evident in M.F. Husain's sketch, specially created for The Times of India's special issue for the fiftieth year of Indian independence.

In the 1920s, Bharat Mata's representations take on sharper political overtones. The inclusion of political leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, and of scenes such as those of Bhagat Singh in prison, began to redefine the constructs of suffering in the semiotic space. [9] A tendency can be seen to push Bharat Mata into the background, making her a kind of inspirational force for political figures. Another significant change in the semiotic field was the introduction of the tricolour flag. However, unlike in the literary treatments, what remained unchanged in the visual registers are the goddess-like qualities of Bharat Mata.

Temples to a new deity

The institutionalised entry of the icon into the domain of religious practice goes back to the 1930s. In 1936, a Bharat Mata temple was built in Benaras by Shiv Prashad Gupt and was inaugurated by none less than Mahatma Gandhi. The temple contains no image of any god or goddess. It has only a map of India set in marble relief. Mahatma Gandhi said, "I hope this temple, which will serve as a cosmopolitan platform for people of all religions, castes and creeds including Harijans, will go a great way in promoting religious unity, peace and love in the country." [10] In the Mahatma's speech we see a concern for the universal mother, not restricted to the mother that is India but the mother that is the earth.

A little under fifty years later, Swami Satyamitranand Giri founded a Bharat Mata temple in Haridwar. The consecration of this temple took place on 15 May1983, followed six months later by an ektamata yajna, a sacrifice for unity, involving a six-week, all-India tour of the image of the goddess. Both these events were organised by the Vishva Hindu Parishad. Unlike its Benaras precursor, this temple contains an anthropomorphic statue of its deity. Here, Bharat Mata holds a milk urn in one hand and sheaves of grain in the other, and is accordingly described in the temple guide book as "signifying the white and green revolution that India needs for progress and prosperity." The guide book also tells us that, "The temple serves to promote the devotional attitude toward Bharat Mata, something that historians and mythological story teller may have missed."11

I look at these two temples as a process of the institutionalisation of a particular form of nationalism. These shrines to Bharat Mata frame not merely the gaze of onlookers (as do posters and popular prints) but make claims over the entire body of the visitor. The moment one enters a temple complex, the human body is, potentially at least, transformed into the body of a devotee. This transformative characteristic has sufficient ability to change the nature of the icon, Bharat Mata itself. In the Benaras and the Haridwar temples, we may see a shift in the locale of the image of Bharat Mata, from nationalism drawing upon the vocabulary of religious cultures to religious cultures trying to upgrade themselves by mobilising resources from nationalism.

The proliferation of Bharat Mata's imagery as a member of the Hindu pantheon has other effective and fluid popular registers. Her incorporation in the long list of the gods and goddesses of the Hindu pantheon can be seen, for instance, on the web-site of Vaishano Devi, one of the most popular goddess of twentieth century north India.

Shifting the scopic register, one can say that posters and calendars carry out this task at much more ordinary moments of daily life. For instance, at the back of the RSS poster discussed in the beginning of this essay, a loop is attached, so that it can be properly displayed on a wall. This simple loop converts the poster into a wall-hanging, and, as a wall-hanging, this text transforms the domestic into the public sphere.

A different framework

I have so far discussed the ways in which the icon of Bharat Mata has travelled in history within a modular frame of deity and motherhood. However this framework, with its enphasis on the pure, sacred nature of the Bharat Mata icon, is disrupted once we turn to a different visual register, the world of cartoons. The famous cartoonist Shankar, in a clever satire on the Boticelli Venus, depicted Nehru as an elderly and avuncular cherub, drawing a cover over the nude form of the nation. The cartoon, with all its wit, can hardly be termed asexual and this goes against all stereotypical treatments of the nation symbol.

Such cartoons provide a counterfoil to images of Bharat Mata, such as those here discussed, whose symbolic value depends heavily upon the religious vocabulary and practices of this country. Heterogeneous modes of engagement with the representations of nation similarly demand a search for non-modular and fragmentary forms of the ways in which the nation has been produced, circulated and consumed."

Sadan Jha
Manushi, Issue 142
(published August 2004 in India Together)

The author is a Ph.D. scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Endnotes

1. See, Ramaswami, Sumathi. "Visualising India's Geo-Body: Globes, Maps, Bodyscapes", Sumathi Ramaswami (ed.), Contributions to Indian Sociology, New Series, vol.36, nos.1&2, January-August 2002, pp:151-190.
2. Chakrabarty, Dipesh. "Nation and Imagination", Studies in Histroy, vol.15, no.2, 1999, p.204.
3. See, Eric Hobsbawm and Terrence Ranger (ed.), The Invention of Traditions,Cambridge University Press, 1983.
4. Indira Choudhury, The Frail Hero and Virile History, OUP, Delhi, 1998. p.99.
5. Jasodhara Bagchi, "Reprsenting Nationalism : Ideology of Motherhood in Colonial Bengal", Economic and Political Weekly, 20-27 October 1990, pp: WS-65-71.
6. Sister Nivedita, "Bharat Mata", The Complete Works of Sister Nivedita, Birth Centenary Publication, vol.III,Ramkrishna Sarda Mission, Calcutta,1967, p. 58.
7. Coomaraswami, Anand. "Bharat Mata", The Modern Review, April 1907, pp:369-71.
8. Cited by Bose, Sugata. "Nation as Mother: Representations and Contestations of 'India' in Bengali Literature and Culture, in Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal (ed.), Nationalism, Democracy and Development: State and Politics in India, OUP, Delhi, 1999, p. 68.
9. Gandhi, Mahatma. "Speech at Bharat Mata Mandir, Benaras", The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol.63, The Publication Division, Delhi, 1976, p.388.
10. Mc Kean, Lise. "Bharat Mata: Mother India and Her Militant Matriots", in Devi : Goddesses of India, edited by John S.Hawley and Donna M.Wulff, Motilala Banarasidass Publishers, Delhi, 1998(1996), p. 263.

street barber

This image is from a locality, named Malkagunj in Delhi. The wall forming the background is that of old Birla mills with its own history. The image was shot by me when along with Prabhas Ranjan I was working on a joint project, "Shaher ke Nishan: Politics of the Visual Symbolic Spaces of the City: A Case Study of Delhi" under the Independent Research Fellowship scheme of Sarai in 2002. The project was about documenting and analyzing the politics that go into the making of vast and scattered field of ordinary visual representations of the city of Delhi. The project was re-awarded with the fellowship second time in 2003. sadan.