QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER Jan-Mar ’11

JPM Quarterly Newsletter Jan-Mar 2011 (L to R) Dr. S.N. Balagandhara, Dr. Vivek Dhareshwar and Dr. Akeel Bilgrami at Yukti

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Quarterly Newsletter

Mumbai continues to be a challenge though an extremely satisfying one. In spite of being constantly

buffeted between aggravation and repose, chaos and order, despair and hope, we, at Jnanapravaha Mumbai,

are privileged to be engaged with a world of ideas. To be able to come into a space and meet with like-minded

individuals, to be able to share abstract thoughts, to be able to experience concrete art practice, is rare indeed.

We are fortunate that the larger community of scholars, artists and curious-minded seek us and support us in

our endeavour. Testimony to this is the selfless giving of the internationally acclaimed performing artist Anita

Ratnam who came in from Chennai and gave to the centre, 2 magical, unforgettable evenings. Testimony also

is Ram Rahman’s magnanimous sharing of rare archives, as is the continuing dialogue between Prof. Akeel

Bilgrami and Dr. Vivek Dhareshwar under the title False Consciousness and The Nature of Experience.

The unstinting generosity of all our friends is what makes our centre so special. We ask, we invite, we are

never refused. There are unforeseen circumstances that compel changes and cancellations and we are sorry

that Prof. Sheldon Pollock’s much awaited lecture had to be cancelled. We hope that this will only be a

postponement and nothing more.

Many thanks to all of you for being there with us on our journey and we wish you peace and happiness for

the coming year.

JPM Quarterly Newsletter Jan-Mar 2011

Continuing the discursive

exploration of world views in the

Post Graduate year long pro-

gramme on Indian Aesthetics, the schol-

ars incisively and succinctly brought to

the fore the essentials of Jaina thought,

the aesthetics of Bhakti and Tantra, as

well as the Islamic world view. The pri-

macy of Vira Rasa or Heroic Forbear-

ance provided the underpinning of the

Jaina world view within which the lives of

Four Tirthankaras – Rishabhanatha,

Neminatha, Parshvanatha and Mahavira

became the examples through which

Jaina aesthetics were discussed. The

next world view was of Bhakti and the

relationship of the Devotee and Creator.

The Origin, Legends, Icons, Sacred

Spaces and Places of Rudra Shiva,

Vishnu, Devi and Shakti became sub-

jects of deep study. Tantra and its objec-

tive of expanding consciousness, its

relationship with Agamas and other texts

was taught. Concepts of Nada, Bindu,

Yoga, along with Formulae for Sacred

Building and Architectonic Cosmograms

set the tone for understanding philosoph-

ical systems of Shaiva Siddhanta and

Pancharatra as exemplified through

some Khajuraho temples. The quarter

JPM Quarterly Newsletter Jan-Mar 2011

Indian Aesthetics

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Dr. Anita Ratnam during HER and BLISS...in chapters

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The semester-long Art, Criticism and Theory (ACT)

course established two years ago with approxi-

mately 32 sessions is now expanded to nearly 45 ses-

sions running from July through December. This

experiment began with many questions, and many is-

sues that needed to be addressed when one talked

about art, writing about art and art criticism. Function-

ing outside the university structure and inside a fast-

paced city has posed certain structural problems.

However the conviction that writing and criticism vis-a-

vis the arts in India needed attention and some struc-

tured approach has helped us develop this

programme, slowly but steadily. The resource persons

that we have had, including many artists, writers, cura-

tors, critics and theorists, have been a great support

network, and our continuous think-tank, and we are

grateful to them.

The course always intended to address the field

through concepts and ideas rather than take up histor-

ical, institutional or disciplinary positions. However

over the last two years specific sessions have been in-

troduced to bring in the context of, and address sub-

jects like History of Art, Art History, Critical Theory,

History of Philosophy, etc. The sessions which deal

with ideas like ‘Beauty’ or ‘Meaning and Interpretation’

or those that deal with specific texts are then viewed

within the introduced frameworks, besides being dis-

cussed for their content and argument. To make the

connecting links between the different sessions and

different voices, tutorials and working sessions are in-

troduced.

From this year onwards a central reader is com-

piled for the course. This reader draws its texts from

the bank of texts that have been taught and discussed

during the course over the last two years; and there

are also some new texts added specifically to the

reader. The reader at one level works as a primary in-

troduction to the ideas and discussions the course will

address, and on a second level it will be the common

material upon which all resource persons can anchor

on. With these evolving ideas and efforts, we hope

that the experiment we initiated two years ago will

bring in the much required critical and responsible

thinking in the fields of art and visual culture.

Meanwhile, the Iconic Images series makes come-

back in the forthcoming quarter.

1) Iconic Imagery: Myth and Midrash - by David de

Souza. (August 7, 6:30 pm)

The 'Afghan Girl' is the most recognizable image in

the last 25 years, qualifying it as an 'iconic' image.

Are images selfish, like The Selfish Gene, do they

have their own mechanisms to promote themselves,

are photographers mere, hapless carriers?

David de Souza started out as a Biochemist, a sec-

ond hand camera in 1977 dictated his life since. He

de-schools in some city colleges too.

Criticism & Theoryended with the Praise of Aj’aib, The Wondrous

through which images of paradise, sanctified writing,

architecture and design testified to the endless beauty

of Islamic aesthetics and the mystical arm of Sufism.

Following is a brief look at our programmes during

the quarter:

Lajja Gauri: An Iconological Riddle (Oct 22, 2010)

An icon which has aroused tremendous interest and

has led to some theories based on anthropology and

iconology both of which have proven to be

inadequate in explaining the multi-dimensional facets,

was the subject of a fascinating lecture by Dr. A. P.

Jamkhedkar. Drawing on his numerous specialisations

ranging from Vedic studies, art history, archaeology

and languages such as Sanskrit and Prakrit, Dr.

Jamkhedkar developed an extremely well-rounded

thesis on this difficult goddess form found in large

numbers, specially in the Deccan, from the 4th-7th

cent. CE. Autochthonous worship, megalithic culture,

Vedic suktas, fertility symbol, to name a few strands,

were expertly woven into a tapestry of extraordinary

scholarship.

HER and BLISS …. in chapters (Oct 29-30, 2010)

Two evenings, over 5 magical hours, saw Dr. Anita

Ratnam, an internationally acclaimed neo-classical

and contemporary dance-actor, approximate the “ulti-

mate and impossible”. To capture the essence of the

Divine Feminine, to communicate Her Infinity, to por-

tray Her myriad forms and moods, requires rare

courage, penetrating insight and intense devotion.

Anita combined these qualities with her profound

knowledge of not only the movement arts, but also the

literary and the aural. Interlacing texts, traditions,

legends, histories with canonical music and verse, she

took the audience on a captivating journey of evolution

and involution. Beginning with the exploration of space

through the Sri Chakra and ending with Tara in whom

all dissolves, she narrated multiplicity through Lalita

Sahasranama, and individuality through iconic Maha-

lakshmi, Saraswati, Annapoorna. The historic and po-

etic Sri Andal and Meera Bai were painted through

Shringara and mythic Yashoda through Vatsalya. The

unexpected satirical rendition of the modern and con-

temporary woman was the culmination of another tra-

jectory, circling into completion the attempt to connect

with the Goddess. This performance – discussion was

an unparalleled method of understanding “HER and

BLISS” through chapters.

Contemporary Indian Photography – 1940s till Now

(Nov 10-12, 2010) Continuing our ongoing commitment

to the dissemination of photography history and the-

ory, we had invited Ram Rahman to provide an in-

depth study of photography in India from the 1940s to

the present. Ram, who has studied photographic his-

tory and written and taught extensively, internationally,

on photography, has also been a practitioner for over

35 years. His overarching understanding of the sub-

ject, coupled with his minute insights, provided the au-

dience an unparalleled opportunity of discovering

perspectives and contexts of this rarely discussed art

form. Sunil Janah, the 93 year old iconic recluse, was

the subject of the first evening. Through matchless

archives, Rahman wove a narrative of Janah’s oeuvre,

a privilege indeed, since this photographer’s works still

remain unpublished. Photography as a cultural docu-

ment, as a political archive, as a mode of journalism

as well as an art form was explored also through

4JPM Quarterly Newsletter Jan-Mar 2011

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“Forgotten Histories” on the second evening. Photog-

raphers such as William Gedney and their contribution

to the world of Indian photography whether through ar-

chitecture, people or streetscapes were reintroduced.

The third evening saw Margaret Bourke-White, Homai

Vyarawala, Raghubir Singh, Raghu Rai, Dayanita

Singh, amongst a host of others, which prove that In-

dian photography had matured to international stan-

dards and had come a long way from its early

photo-journalistic beginnings.

Ram Rahman during his lecture on Contemporary Indian Photography - 1940s till Now

6JPM Quarterly Newsletter Jan-Mar 2011

Forthcoming Programmes:

Telling Tales: The Freer Vasanta Vilasa (Feb 8,

2011, 6:30 pm).This talk by Nachiket Chanchani will

focus on a recession of the Vasanta Vilasa,

a poem on the beauties of springtime and the tender

emotion of love, prepared on a cloth scroll in the

Sultanate city of Ahmedabad in 1451 CE and now

housed in The Freer Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

The frame and form of the scroll are most unusual: it

is eleven meters long and consists of a montage of

seventy-nine vignettes. Each vignette opens with a

verse composed by an unknown contemporary poet in

Old Gujarati, an emergent literary language. This is

followed by a verse from classical poetry composed in

one of two older trans-regional languages - Sanskrit or

Prakrit. A narrative painting, which follows the verse

appropriated from a classical source, closes the vi-

gnette. By paying equally close attention to the

selection, composition, and arrangement of the

individual verses and paintings, Chanchani shall ex-

plain how the poet, the scribe, and the painter trans-

lated the past and the present. He will also describe

how each of them negotiated regional typologies and

established canons and ultimately assembled a

masterpiece that was simultaneously traditional and

“modern.”

The Great Temple at Thanjavur: One Thousand

Years, 1010 to 2010, Old Problems, New Thoughts

(Mar 22, 2011, 6:30 pm). While the temple is familiar

to art historians, a number of difficulties in interpreting

the temple’s architecture and art remain, and George

Michell would like to offer some new thoughts.

He will discuss the problems in determining the pre-

cise foundation date of the temple; the possibility of

there being an upper sanctuary dedicated to Nataraja

reached by a double-storeyed mandapa; the curious

fact that the sculpted icons of Shiva on the temple are

wider than the actual wall openings; and the some-

what misleading earlier identifications of the royal por-

traits in the murals on the passageway walls

surrounding the linga sanctuary. He will then consider

the periods of neglect that the temple was subjected

to, and the renewal and expansion of the

monument under various Nayaka and Maratha pa-

trons, thereby fleshing out the thousand years of the

temple’s varied history.

The Art, Criticism and Theory course drew to a

close after 44 sessions. The last leg of the

course discussed ideas through texts and works

that were either thematically selected like ‘On Practice’

or ‘On Viewing’ or through texts from individuals like

Gandhi, Tagore and K. G. Subramanyan. The partici-

pant-students were exposed to a range of art practices

as well as collections, like in the case of the session

‘On Viewing’ where Mortimer Chatterjee brought in his

recent experience and material of working on the TIFR

collection; or in the case of Shaina Anand and Ashok

Sukumaran, where they brought in their own work and

spoke about their methodologies in different circum-

stances or projects, but also discussed the crucial re-

lationship between art and research processes. A

session like the conversation between Shilpa Gupta

and Kaushik Bhaumik also gave a good insight into

another set of works, from an artist like Shilpa Gupta.

The session on a text from Contemporary India dis-

cussed Geeta Kapur’s essay ‘Mythic Material in Indian

Cinema’. Prabodh Parikh discussed the nuances and

the difficult set of relationships that Gandhi shared

with art and ideas regarding art.

One of the interesting sessions that took place in

the last leg of this course was the one on ‘Beauty’

where Jitish Kallat, Ranjit Hoskote and Kaiwan Mehta

came together to discuss one of the most difficult

ideas/concepts in a course like this. The session

started with Kaiwan Mehta discussing two events/

instances from the historical context of the 19th cen-

tury. He discussed the notion and format of the Great

Exhibitions in London and Paris, especially the one in

1851, hinting specifically at the idea of ‘seeing’ or

‘viewing’ as proposed in these events, and the experi-

ence of visitors from the ‘oriental’ world in these exhi-

bitions. He also pointed out how the history of

Museums and Art Schools in India was closely related

to the Great Exhibition of 1851. The second issue

picked up was the formation, history and structure of

the Department of Science and Arts, based on the

book ‘Bureaucracy of Beauty’ by Arindam Dutta. The

discussion on this Department in the Empire raises

crucial issues around industrial production, craftsman-

ship, taste and design. Ranjit Hoskote began with an

interesting set of responses and interjections to some

of the points made by Mehta, and then proceeded fur-

ther by talking through three idea-concepts – Arche /

Agon / Agora. The ARCHE, referring to antiquity or

the ancient, hints at the idea where the spectator is

educated to perform the act of ‘seeing’. The AGON is

the ‘wrestling pit’, and the AGORA refer to the ‘market

place’, which is the public arena for debate, discussion

and further thinking. He elaborated on this triad and

discussed a set of ideas, introducing important ques-

tions like ‘is this beauty or is this art?’ or the question

of works of art that carry their own structures of read-

ing within themselves. Jitish Kallat started with an in-

teresting exercise four days before the session, he

wrote an email to a large number of friends and

Criticism & Theory

JPM Quarterly Newsletter Jan-Mar 20117

acquaintances in the art-world and asked them to

send back responses to the word ‘Beauty’ through

works/artists they think of at this moment as fitting the

term/concept/idea. He then presented the range of re-

sponses he got from all these people, which became a

thoroughly interesting compilation of the ‘moment’ on

the word ‘beauty’.

Following is a brief look at our programmes during

the quarter:

YUKTI – A Dialogue on False Consciousness And

The Nature Of Experience (Dec 20-21, 2010) This

year, Yukti brought three scholars together in

discussion – Dr. Akeel Bilgrami (Johnsonian Professor

of Philosophy and Director, Heyman Centre for Hu-

manities, Columbia University) Dr. Vivek Dhareshwar

(Independent Researcher) and Dr. S.N. Balagangad-

hara (Director, Research Centre for the Comparative

Science of Cultures, Ghent University, Belgium). This

edition of Yukti was made possible by means of a

partnership with ICSSR, SNDT Women’s University

and Sophia College for Women.

Last time, the discussion on ‘Gandhi and Liberal

Political Philosophy’ revealed a difference in the way

that Dr. Bilgrami and Dr. Dhareshwar conceived of

colonial consciousness. We decided to take the dis-

JPM Quarterly Newsletter Jan-Mar 2011 8

Dr. Akeel Bilgrami talking on 'How did the concept of 'Nature' become the concept of 'Natural Resources'?

cussion of those differences forward with ‘False Con-

sciousness and the Nature of Experience’ as the topic

for this second edition. The scholars discussed how

colonial consciousness may be considered a kind of

false consciousness and the shortcomings of Marx’s

conception of false consciousness and materialism.

Several allied Marxist and Liberal concepts such as

‘agency’, ‘will’ and ‘interest’ also came under scrutiny.

We hope to carry forward an examination of these

concepts next time.

'How did the concept of 'Nature' become the con-

cept of 'Natural Resources'? (Dec 22, 2010) Dr. Akeel

Bilgrami began the lecture with the omnibus question:

How and when did we transform the world into not

merely a place to live in but a site to master and con-

trol? He then posed 5 other questions which are re-

lated to this omnibus question and belonged to the

same line of inquiry:

1) How and when did the concept of nature turn

into the concept of natural resources?

2) How and when did the concept of human be-

ings transform into the concept of citizens?

3) How and when did the concept of people

transform into the concept of populations?

4) How and when did knowledge to live by trans-

form into expertise to rule by?

5) How and when did the concept of consensus

transform into the concept of voting?

Elegantly tracing intellectual history from 17th cent.

to the 20th, from Descartes to Newton to Gandhi, Prof.

Bilgrami discussed and explained the shifts of man’s

relation to the external world through the world of

knowledge. The parallels between Gandhi’s under-

standing of Bhakti with 17th cent. Popular Christianity

in England both of which stressed the immanence of

God and sacralized nature were persuasively drawn.

Notions of civility, egalitarianism, nationalism, van-

guardism, minoritarianism, amongst a host of others

were interwoven into this unforgettable lecture.

Forthcoming Programmes:

Iconic Images: Kaliya Mardan (Mar 14, 2011;

6:30pm) As part of our series titled Iconic Images

there will be a screening of Kaliya Mardan (1919) with

live music accompaniment, a two hour event pre-

sented and moderated by Prof. Suresh Chabria.

JPM Quarterly Newsletter Jan-Mar 20119

Following is a brief look at our programmes during

the quarter:

The Melodramatic Public: Film Form and Spectator-

ship in Indian Cinema (Oct 18, 2010) Indian Cinema

today has become a major contender for intellectual

attention and social engagement globally. The discus-

sion is no longer confined to the likes of Satyajit Ray,

Mrinal Sen and Shyam Benegal but shifted to the

wider allure of Popular Cinema – “Bollywood”, now a

branded commodity in the international market. Ravi

Vasudevan, Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Study

of Developing Societies, Delhi, a pioneer of film stud-

ies in India and an acclaimed authority, drew on Melo-

drama as a key conceptual apparatus to understand

how entertainment cinema in India attracted audiences

into complex passages of historical change. The dy-

namics of form and narrative strategy across a wide

repertoire of film practices whether American

Hollywood, Realist Art Cinema or Mainstream Bolly-

wood were explored. His innovative concept of the

imaginary public recast our understanding not only of

melodrama to Indian film making but to the theorisa-

tion of cinema itself. This lecture was organised in

collaboration with The Asia Society India Centre.

Tribal Culture and the Roots of Militancy (Oct 20,

2010) Since independence, never has India been so

close to civil war as now or more precisely since last

year. The widespread Maoist insurgencies in Central

and Eastern India are in the news everyday. Felix

Padel, an anthropologist, who has been working with

tribals in India for the past 31 years and has recently

co-authored “Out of This Earth” addressed a very con-

cerned audience on the connection between the dis-

possessed, exploited tribals and the resultant terror.

Drawing a historical trajectory of the position of tribals

with the British first, and then the powers of independ-

Community Engagement

JPM Quarterly Newsletter Jan-Mar 2011 10

ent India, he drew parallels with the Scottish in the

name of development during the 17th & 18th cen-

turies. This lecture brought home the imperative of in-

clusive development and sensitive understanding of

tribal culture, which is closely connected to cultivation

and autochthonous cults.

Splitting the Other (Nov 15, 2010) Nalini Malini, one

of the most influential contemporary artists from India,

enthralled a packed Jnanapravaha hall with her pres-

entation which included videos of her past perform-

ances. An artist whose experience as a partition

refugee has consistently challenged iconographies,

she has successfully engaged with a spectrum of

media moving easily from video and performance to

painting and installation. The past few years specially

have seen her exhibiting internationally to acclaim

whether it be Venice, Dublin, New York, Paris or Lau-

sanne. Using her path-breaking Medea as a spring-

board, Nalini, in this lecture organised in collaboration

with Chemould Prescott Road, spoke of her iconic

works such as Toba Tek Singh, culminating in the re-

cent Splitting the Other.

Three Cups of Tea and more (Nov 24, 2010) Three

Cups of Tea is the story of one man’s mission to pro-

mote ‘Peace…One school at a time’. The book, writ-

ten by Greg Mortenson, is dedicated to the 120 million

school-age children in the world who are deprived of

their right to education. It is an example of how litera-

ture, and by extension, art, can be a vehicle of aware-

ness, inspiration and social change. The book was a

pivot in conversations about problems faced by chil-

dren from conflict zones, or with challenged back-

grounds. Amole Gupte, Sunil Shanbag and Geeta

Anand spoke about how cinema, theatre and journal-

ism can play a role in bringing about social change, or

at least stimulate audiences to think about critical

issues. The discussion was moderated by Manjeet

Kripalani. The discussion was organised in

collaboration with four NGOs working with children in

Mumbai: The Education Audiology and Research So-

ciety, Mumbai Mobile Creches, CHIP and Nanhi Kali.

Dhvani III (Nov 27, 2010) This listening session en-

capsulated the contemporary approach in Hindustani

Raagdari music by some of the best present day vocal

musicians. All the pieces played during the evening

possessed multidimensional music elements, in spite

of being traditional melodies or “Raagas”. The session

was conducted by Bakul Bhavsar, who is well known

to music aficionados of Mumbai.

Leaving India to Anarchy: Gandhi as an Advocate

of Civil War (Dec 16, 2010) Even in his own lifetime,

and despite many protestations, Gandhi was

often described in Western terms as a pacifist and hu-

manitarian. This description continues to allow both

his friends and enemies to judge the Mahatma as

being either too much or too little of an idealist in poli-

tics. Dr Faisal Devji, in this lecture organised in

collaboration with PUKAR, argued that since Gandhi,

unlike pacifists and humanitarians, prized not life but

truth above all else, this made him capable of

supporting war and violence from time to time.

Devji explored the ways in which and the

reasons why the Mahatma came to support civil war

as offering the best possible opportunity for non-vio-

lence between the Quit India Movement of 1942 and

Partition in 1947.

JPM Quarterly Newsletter Jan-Mar 201111

Forthcoming Programmes:

The Chawls of Mumbai: Galleries of Life (Jan 25,

2011, 6:30 pm) The Chawls of Mumbai: Galleries of

Life is a book edited by Neera Adarkar and published

by ImprintOne. In a city where landscape is ever

changing, given the constraints of space, Mumbai has

a challenge in trying to preserve its past. While there

is a concerted attempt to preserve heritage structures,

there are others that may not fall into a government

list of threatened cultural icons. The dwellings of the

city’s mill workers are one such example. The tene-

ments put up to house mill workers, who came to sym-

bolise the growing migrant labour,

became a crucial icon of Bombay and Mumbai.

These unique buildings, called Chawls, represented

the lower middle class and middle class life and con-

tinue to do so, characterising the city at all times, in

different ways.

The intention to map these unique structures, led to

the making of the book. It is an attempt to reach out to

people and share with them a pattern of living that is

so peculiar, not only in its idea but also in the com-

plete manner it organises space so effectively. In a

city which often rendered anonymity of a kind, the

Chawl was the quintessential shared urban space.

This multi-genre book is a collection of essays, draw-

ings and images by different scholars and people,

many of who have lived in these Chawls. Atul Dodiya

will introduce the book, and this will be followed by

readings from the book and an informal discussion.

12JPM Quarterly Newsletter Jan-Mar 2011

JPM Quarterly Newsletter Jan-Mar 2011

We know we have made a difference. Our endeavour to encourage and facilitate creative expression meaningfully, contin-

ues with the firm belief that the arts are indispensable to the well-being of the community and the individual.

A session of Yukti: A Dialogue in progress, Dec 21, 2010