Since the end of the 1980s in India, self-styled representatives of
a variety of ascriptive groups (religious, caste, regional, and
linguistic among others) have come to routinely damage artwork,
disrupt their exhibition, and threaten and assault artists and
their supporters. Often, these acts are said to be a protest
against the allegedly 'hurtful' or 'offensive' artworks. They are
even claimed to be a prescient call to save the identity of the
community, in a manner that makes the communal identities hinge
entirely on that artistic (mis)representation. Yet, at the time of
these attacks, many who indulge in this kind of violence have
seldom heard of the artist before or even seen, read, watched, let
alone engaged with the artwork. Such is the wrench on the right to
freedom of speech and expression in general, and on the physical
safety and security of artists in particular, that has inspired
fear, anger, and discomfort within the art world, marked by ominous
declarations of a 'cultural emergency' owing to the loss of lives
and property, and without the due processes of law-a consequence
that was hardly synonymous with art practice in India, at least
until a few decades ago. This book tells the story of violence
against artists in India, marked by the intensifying sense of
insecurity, fear, frustration and anger within the art world. But
to bring out its complexities-to build an analytical account for
understanding what such destructive and, even competitive, attacks
on artists convey about India's liberal democracy, given that
violence in its many avatars has not so much been an aberration to
the form of India's liberal democracy as much as its very
condition-the book attempts to map the concrete political
transformations that have informed its dynamic unfolding. In other
words, as opposed to simply adding to the prevalent commentaries on
violent regulation of free speech in India, this work focuses on
the dynamics of violence in that regulation. Based on extensive
interactions with assailants and artists, I argue that these
attacks are not simply 'anti-democratic.' But are dependent in
perverse ways on the very logics of democracy's functioning, as
much they are contained by it, along with the wider material
conditions that have prevented both free speech in India, and India
at large, from being immutably locked in a downward spiral.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
