QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER Apr-Jun 14

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1 QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER Apr-Jun 14

2 Sheldon Pollock speaks during An Intellectual History of Rasa

3 Quarterly Newsletter What 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 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 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

4 Indian Aesthetics In this quarter of the academic year, the yearlong programme in Indian Aesthetics essentially engaged with colonialism, the nineteenth century and aspects of nationalism vis-a-vis the arts and visual culture. Various kinds and genres of art practices that emerge, take shape and develop between the fall of the Mughal empire and the rise of the East India Company and the British Empire were discussed in detail. Questions of subject-matter, aesthetic choice and decision, politics of patron and artists as well as the economic conditions that allow for certain kinds of artists and artistic practices, were all discussed. Emerging systems of knowledge production that come in with colonialism, as well as ideas like past and history, which are often the subject-matter of these paintings were described and formed the basis for the next set of lectures that begin with a discussion on Orientalism, and a specific reference to the work of Edward Said on the subject. To discuss Orientalism it becomes very important to enter into questions of colonialism and nationalism that greatly influence artistic productions through the 19th and 20th century. The structuring of an imagined 'golden past' or a future projection of nationhood that is 'discovered' in history, are all debates and preoccupations of the 19th century, from which 2 JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun 2014

5 one can view and understand the paintings of Raja Ravi Varma or the writings of Ananda Coomaraswamy and E B Havell. This is one of the occasions within the Indian Aesthetics course where art history and art criticism was studied as much as works of art were taken up for discussion; this class proceeded with reading extracts from the writings of Gandhi, Nehru and Tagore, followed by extracts from Coomaraswamy and Havell. From this year on we introduced a new session that further dwells in the production of aesthetics, and aesthetics as a signpost of culture and civilization in the narrative of the 19th century, by looking at early photography in India, the role of archaeology in writing art and architecture history, as well as the debates on decorative and fine arts. The session discussed the Great Exhibitions of London and Paris, especially the Crystal Palace in London and from thereon the development of the Department of Science and Arts and the Victoria and Albert Museums, leading to the art education programmes in the colonies. These sessions already geared a transition in the way we discuss art, from religious objects or prized possessions to art as an everyday culture, shifting the discourse from art to visual culture. Two sessions detailed out aspects of visual culture in the wake of changing economic relationships in colonial cities, fast and cheap production of images, developments with print technology, and access to images; Kalighat paintings and printed images are discussed in great detail. The protocols of viewing visual material changes in many ways, and this shift was focused upon as it indicates towards relationships between art history, visual culture and epistemology, which is crucial to students of a course such as this. These sessions then lead to the final set of lectures that discuss aesthetics in the twentieth century, beginning with a session on Tagore and then leading to conversations on architectural and artistic developments in India, in the first-half of the century. - K.M. Modernism and the Art of Muslim South Asia (January and Jan 17-18, 2014) a four day lecture series by Iftikhar Dadi Anwar Jalal Shemza ( ) born in Simla in a Kashmiri family, member of the Lahore Art Circle ( ) before moving to London to study at Slade School of Art where the description of Islamic Art as Functional leads to an existential problem, finally settling in the British Midlands as a teacher in a public school, became the springboard, in this series of lectures, for exploring the development of Modern Art associated with Pakistan. Shemza s methodical, disciplined notebooks and his patterned abstraction as evidenced in his series whether Meem or Root not only show the influence of Paul Klee but situate his earlier traumatic experiences such as partition. The larger questions that emerged are not only methodological but also one of artistic sensibility and subjectivity. The theoretical framework consisted of the exploration of Modernism in this geographical area through the discursive lens of Nationalism, Cosmopolitanism, Transnationalism, and Traditionalism by inflecting and translating their Metropolitan meanings. Artistic practices traced through intellectual history showed how JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun

6 crisis ridden, ununified and unstable this terrain is, how inherited legacies are taken forward and through a playfulness there is an attempt to foster an ethical universalism. The concept of Islamic Art, itself a 19th century colonial construct, is posited in debates of whether it is an aesthetic ghetto or an enabling conception, the speaker questioning the category and arguing that the term is catachresis neither Islamic nor art in the colonial sense. Continuing the analysis of Modernism and Modernity, building a trajectory of transformation when an artisanal subject becomes a reflective subject and situating the discourse and practice of early 20th century aesthetics in a comparative framework with the Bengal School, the speaker sketched a detailed biography of Abdur Rahman Chughtai, arguably the pre-eminent artist of this period. Chughtai s championing of orientalism, creating classicism in an age of nationalism, his self assessment as an optimist and endeavour to create a timeless Chughtai Art in a world replete of nostalgia, can be seen in the 2 Muraqqas attributed to him Muraqqa i Chughtai (1928) and Amal i Chughtai(1968). The evaluative frame of literature which was the basis of emerging intellectual paradigms is evidenced in these albums, the former, illustrations of Ghalib s Diwan and the latter of Iqbal s poetry. Chughtai s entrepreneurship is seen in his wide use of lithographic print-making through the vigorous publishing programmes of the Bengal School in Calcutta inspite of his vexed relationship with Abanindranath Tagore and others such as Havell, Sister Nivedita and Coomaraswamy. Mid-century Modernism in an independent nation state which not only faced political and economic difficulties but also lacked infrastructure, saw the persecution, repression and ban of Leftist intellectuals and artists. Ayub Khan s coup in 1958 and his interest in culture changed the scene and the emergence of 3 pioneering modernists - Zainul Abedin, Zubeida Agha, and Shakir Ali led to the shaping of a foundational artistic subjectivity and creation of institutional support for future artists. Zainul Abedin better known as the founder of National Bangladeshi Art tried to form a school of Bengali Modernist Paintings based on the appropriation of rural and tribal East Bengal as the location of modernism. West and East Pakistan with a singular political identity but a multiple cultural identity are played out in his Realist and Evidentiary works. Influenced by Sher Gil, the recluse painter from Islamabad, Zubeida Agha engaged in institutional development as the Director of The Rawalpindi Art Gallery. Isolated by class and gender, Agha never addressed nationalism but though the mystery of the east is captured in her work, her mature phase showed reflexive alienation and fracture. Belonging to the circle of aesthetes, Shakir Ali s oeuvre consisted of a tension between Realism and Modernism and his commitment to Formalism. A writer, who critiqued Chughtai for his orientalism and binaries, was fascinated by Rilke. He explored his inner dilemmas by his discursive silence and cosmopolitanism. Keenly promoted by Zia ul Haq, the celebrated Pakistani artist Sadequain not only maintained a liminal inside-outside space but reformulated classical calligraphy as a viable visual tradition. A self trained artist, he promoted calligraphy into a modernist language by continuing the process of 4 JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun 2014

7 Iftikhar Dadi answers questions during Modernism and the art of Muslim South Asia appropriation and transformation of existent cultural and artistic practices. The poet Iqbal s tropes of heroic subjectivity and of Islamic transnationalism were his indispensable referents as were verses by Ghalib, Khayyam and Sarmad which inspired him to make his own Muraqqas where his poetry and painting enmeshed. His execution of monumental public murals, several in number, also helped establish the myth of a superhuman creator and artistic hero for Pakistan. - R.P. The Buddha s 7 Weeks at Bodh Gaya (March 3, 2014) by Don Stadtner Keeping with the current scholarship on Southeast Asia alive in Mumbai circle, Jananpravaha organized 2 lectures by Don Stadtner- one on the fifteenth century monuments in Burma and Thailand that commemorate a special seven week period associated with the Buddha s enlightenment at Bodhgaya in India. Buddha s Seven weeks at Bodhgaya is a special forty-nine day period recognized by the Theravada as well as Mahayana traditions. It is a transitional period after Buddha s enlightenment that he spent fasting and in a deep contemplation, before assuming the role of a universal teacher. The seven events that surround the Buddha s enlightenment have been basis of many artistic expressions but the first event has been most popular in art. It usually depicts the Buddha in a seated position, with his right hand touching the JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun

8 earth, recalling the defeat of the demon Mara and Buddha s call for the earth. The remaining six events which are his steadfast gazing at the tree, Cankrama walk, Jeweled house, goat herder s tree and temptress, snake king Muchalinda and lastly the two merchants and the hair relic, have been rarely depicted separately. Despite the appearance of the seven events in many standard biographies of the Buddha, the theme has never been of major importance in Indian Buddhist art, except at Mahabodhi temple, Bodhgaya in Bihar, where all these events are depicted through small shrines or sites. The lecture focused on the three monuments in Burma and Thailand that depict the seven weeks of Buddha s enlightenment. The layout of the shrines, or stations was determined by a formal plan that was considered to be a replica of the original temple complex at Bodhgaya. The adaptation of the plan in Burma/Thailand reflects the process by which a venerated religious site in India and its interpretation were transmitted to Southeast Asia. Relatively less popular in Indian art, these seven stations became so important in Burma around the 15th century raising broad questions about the very nature of Buddhist art in Southeast Asia. The ground plan at Pegu reveals not only the changes that occurred at Bodhgaya over centuries but the process by which the Buddhists abroad determined the appearance of the faith s most important sacred center in India. The ground plan at Pegu was not derived from India but was based on the influential biography of the Buddha and descriptions of Bodhgaya complied by pilgrims from Southeast Asia. The entire site commemorating the stations was dedicated to king Dhammaceti (c ). The king belonged to the ethnic group called as Mons, whose political control of Lower Burma reached its apogee during the 15th century. The selection of stations as a theme has been universally explained as an effort of Dhammaceti to emulate the sacred landscape of Bodhgaya, but it s choice was also tied directly to the special Mon myth that celebrated the hair relics of the Buddha given to the two merchants on the last day of the seven week period. It is this last event of the merchants bringing the relics that became very important in Burma as it established the direct connection to India-the land of Buddha. The importance of the hair relics was elevated during Dhamamceti s reign by extensive refurbishing of the Schwedagon pagoda in Rangoon. A lengthy record at the Schwedagon pagoda fully expressed the connection between the hair relics and the seven stations and also 6 JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun 2014

9 emphasized the role of the indigenous merchants in the Buddhist story. Tackling the issue raised by these seven stations at Pagan, Pegu in Burma and Chiang Mei in Thailand, Stadtner argued about the issues of legitimizing the corporal relics of the Buddha and its association with Burma. How different myths arose among the kingdoms of Burma and Thailand that sought to connect the life of historical Buddha with separate regions. Such myths furnished a narrative matrix in which the Buddhism itself played a major role in establishing the faith in the regions of Burma and Thailand. At the same time, the patronage of monuments associated with these relics provided rulers with the opportunity of protecting and sustaining the faith. Analyzing the elasticity of myth and how they sometimes loose the original mythic quality, Stadtner talked about the problems concerning the royal patronage, legitimacy and the foundation of Buddhism in Burma and Thailand. - S.C. Fakes, Fortunes and Fraudsters: Unsolved Cases (March 4, 2014) by Don Stadtner The antiquity market, art dealers, museums and art historians are all have been part of the fakes at some point in time. Fakes and forgeries is a great issue of concern as antiquities form a part of cultural representations. If the museums start housing fakes, then historical record becomes corrupt and distorted. It forms a basis of the new theories and misleading interpretations about the entire civilization. Sometimes the replica market is flooded with identical copies for Donald Statdner speaks during Fakes and Forgeries JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun

10 which no original exist. The danger lies in the effacement of genuine memory and disappearance of authentic history in a selfreferential labyrinth of aesthetic images. Giving example of his own situation with the publication of Pagan Bornzes in Marg, 1999 and Pratapaditya Pal s paper on Kushana Shiva for Berlin Indological Studies, 2013, Stadtner discussed about art historians struggle to distinguish real from a very good fake. The matter becomes very complex when the stolen objects are involved as they are sometimes tampered and become the subject of forgeries in spite of being real. Fakes are designed to fool the expert and clever forgers have many techniques at their disposal- from simulating the accretions of grime and soot to smearing pots with the mud from genuine archaeological sites. Stadtner sited an example of an auction house where one of the objects was getting a really high price when a person from the audience stood up and called it a fake. When asked about his allegation, the person cheekily replied, I have made the object. Of course there are some obvious clues to recognize a fake and stressing on the iconography, Stadtner explained the nuances of the art objects. He argued about how the good looking objects are mostly fakes and when something is too good, it s not true. Fakes are a hazard for illicit trade. With no recorded find spot or provenance, it is left to the eye of the buyer to decide what is fake and what is not. Yet the Getty Kouros shows that even the most discerning of eyes cannot be relied on. When one reads the label placed next to the Kouros Greek, about 6th century BCE or modern forgery at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, one can t help but to wonder about the museums being victims of the chain.in the absence of a verifiable provenance, which comes only from a properly recorded context, authentication takes place by an expert or with the help of scientific tests. Is there a scientific way to solve the problem? Well yes, tests like thermoluminescence do help in dating the object but in case of Chadraketugrah terracotta tablets, Scientists and art historians are divided and we will probably never know the truth. In 1999 two Council for the Prevention of Art Theft (CoPAT) codes of due diligence were introduced to protect honest dealers and auctioneers from the activities of thieves and their accomplices, and to impede the free flow of stolen material through the market. In case of museums, many have started working on collaborative projects, travelling exhibitions and loans from other museums. Many art historians and archaeologists like Kirit Mankodi have created websites of stolen objects to alert people and trying to beat the market of fakes, stolen objects and antiquities.the evening saw a huge crowd of students, collectors, art enthusiasts and historians. - S.C. An Intellectual History of Rasa (March 14, 2014) by Sheldon Pollock In partnership with the South Asia Institute of Columbia University A magnificent attempt to chart the untold story of the History of Rasa over 1500 years began with the big question of how does literature produce emotion and where is the location of this emotion? The primal moment was perhaps the 8 JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun 2014

11 Ramayana when the poet Valmiki s sorrow shoka, became poetry - shloka. The subsequent slow development of aesthetic theory, perhaps because of the complicated relationship between theory and practice, led to the creation of the 2nd / 3rd century CE Natya Shastra Science of Drama rediscovered in Kashmir in the 9th century CE. The 6th chapter is the core text for Rasa, the undiminished intensity of which continued till the 18th century. The author, Bharata Muni s fundamental concern was the understanding of the mystifying phenomena of the real/unreal quality of emotion in art. This led to the creation of a brand new language and lexicon. Dissecting the language to its smallest elemental particle, the Rasa Sutra describes the causes both foundational and ephemeral and its effects and becomes a handbook for the stakeholders - poets, playwrights and actors. The characters of drama and the actors are considered the loci of Rasa. The 8 basic emotions (sthayi bhavas) are those that can be seen, much like the Darwinian Theory. The next big question is the relationship between emotions on a stage to emotion in a narrative poem how does emotion transfer from seeing to reading? Several rhetoricians variously championed figures of speech to style. The story continued with Ananda Vardhana of 900 CE who was really concerned with how Rasa actually came together in narrative poetry and literary literature and what the nature of communication was. The process, both ontological and epistemological, and not product, led to his theory of Dhvani in which suggestion was the preferred mode. Bhoja continued with his archaic Rasa thought but added the emotion of vatsalya to the now 9 Rasas. The next big leap was by Bhatta Nayaka of 900 CE in Srinagar, poet and hermeneutist and his now lost text called Mirror of the Heart. Nayaka s revelation of Rasa led to Abhinava Gupta s purified theory of Rasa where literary language produces a new kind of referentiality. Poetry is about pleasure, Rasa was in the reader and Shanta Rasa was pre-eminent. His Abhinava Bharati, used old books to make new arguments and the shift was from a modality of language to a modality of mind. With the coming of the devotional movement specially in Bengal, Bhakti Rasa conflated the character and spectator who then became the locus of Rasa itself. Summing up the lecture Prof. Pollock spoke about the difficulty of very limited available sources in shaping this intellectual history. Some pointers to remember were that theory followed practice, the period of CE witnessed moral courtliness and choice and by about 1700 CE, the discourse was exhausted. - R.P. JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun

12 Criticism & Theory The Art, Criticism and Theory programme entered its last lap in this part of the academic year. This last one-third of the teaching programme began with a two-session seminar by Arjun Appadurai on the subject of Utopia where he discussed ideas from a philosophical perspective, relating it to our understanding and experience of culture. These sessions contributed by displaying to the students how critical enquiry is carried out and argued through a logical structure. This was then followed up by the module on Ideas and Thinkers where students engaged with practices of knowledge production and critical reading of experience in different historical periods, and through a detailed study of thinkers and figures like Aurobindo, Gandhi, Tagore, Walter Benjamin, and John Ruskin as well as broader areas like Bhakti in medieval India. In this same module we also looked at some artists such as Zarina Hashmi or Gaitonde, and engaged with their work as contributions towards a critical reading of their own cultural experience. At the same time students were also exposed to editorial and curatorial practices where certain thematics are used to structure a series of ideas and thinkers/practices; the subject Anish Kapoor: Memory, Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun 2014

13 of the 'Sacred' was taken up for this discussion. The final module of the programme engaged with issues of writing, reading and research. A two-session discussion on how do you read the image took the students through various examples from classical art history to popular culture discussing in detail ways of reading history, historiography and context politics in images, and opening them us as texts. This was indeed followed by a two-session exercise of reading a text in all its details, exposing aspects of narration, structure, form and meaning; Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Chronicles of a Death Foretold was the text taken up for this exercise. This was followed by sessions on art writing in various forms such as journalism or as an essayist, and various protocols of these kinds of writings were discussed. This module finally closed with a detailed discussion on the politics and protocols of research; ethics, framing positions, the relationships of epistemology to methodology and method, perspective and prejudice, bias and habit, were some of the areas touched upon in this session. The programme now closes by inviting three individuals to discuss their curatorial and exhibition design experiences through very specific projects, where each of the three individuals entered the practice of curation and structuring an exhibition from very specific and different positions. This will complete the yearlong programme in art, criticism and theory which proposes to exposes all participants to not only the subjects of art and criticism, but the questions of contemporary culture and theory through the fields and practices associated with art, images and visual narrations. - K.M. The Many Lives of Utopia (January 8-9, 2013) by Arjun Appadurai In a two-day seminar, the Goddard Professor of Media, Culture and Communication at the New York University, Arjun Appadurai, spoke of Utopia and Future; in these lectures he was drawing from his latest publication The Future as Cultural Fact Essays on the Global Condition (Verso. 2013). He began with a discussion on how cultural variety inhabits the world, also making a reference to Clifford Geertz s work and discussing how to be human is about being embedded in specifics. He discussed how culture is the organiser of differences, differences in world views that are quite persistent, as well as the idea of completely local as completely natural. Then the question that arose - when things are in much flux, there are many crossings, and in moments of heavy traffic, how does 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 as these, Appadurai talked about how the future is also culturally shaped, inherent in the idea where we should go ; the future is neither obvious, nor universal and signs are read as signs of things to come. In this context he also touched upon imagination and risk ; he talked about imagination as a collective practice, where the politics of imagination is about the projections of JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun

14 ideology, while the practice of imagination is about the form and structure of those projections and what they could be. Risk and uncertainty are not only part of this but also built into economics. Certain forms of uncertainty are monetizable, and it may be possible to extract future-value into the Arjun Appadurai speaks during his seminar on the Many Lives of Utopia present. Talking of the ways in which the future carries value into the present, he moved on to discussing Utopia as prediction, as aspiration. Aspiration he said is often seen as something that is associated with the individual, and is a positive core, while in actuality it is something that belongs to the collective. He went on to discuss Utopia as abstract, as ahistorical and also totalitarian, forming in ways an archive of the not yet ; so aesthetics, art or religion would be the archives of a not yet that is (yet) taking shape, and maybe only partly crystallised. Having laid out this thematic and conceptual ground, Appadurai moves into a detailed discussion on urban politics in Mumbai with a special focus on Bollywood as well as Housing in the city. He discusses the space of dreams, and the dreamscapes that Bollywood produces as a projection towards salvation, as he says cinematic ideas of urban salvation take place in this battlefield of dreams. He talks of Slumdog Millionaire and the projection of the slums in the context of the televisual game, and how in actuality the home for many is the vulnerable space, while continuing to harbour a dream of a future secured home. From this entry point he details the landscape of Bollywood where crime, politics, industry, financial games, and more play a vital role in developing the urban dreamscape, where symbolism and at times cinematic realism structure the entry point for the viewer to insert himself into a space of politics as much as salvation, 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 this chapters 6 and 7 titled Housing and Hope and Spectral Housing and Urban Cleansing: Notes on Millennial Mumbai are focussed ruminations 12 JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun 2014

15 and observations on the subject and notes from these appeared in the closing session. He geared his previous philosophical examination of Utopia and Future into a thick description of housing in Mumbai, formality and informality in the question of building homes in the city, which is otherwise often spoken of only within the technicalities of planning and infrastructure. This on one hand directed a much wider philosophical framework into the logic of the urban development and its cinematic representation; also allowing for an exploration of ideas such as security and aspiration, risk and hope, the spectral and the real, between the philosophical and the experience of everyday. The seminar engaged all participants at various levels of inquiry, as well as different details and examples could be drawn upon within the framework of the seminar; making it an ideal occasion for critical thinking and learning. - K.M. Gutai's World: Japan's postwar avant-garde and the fate of internationalism (January 23, 2014) by Alexandra Munroe Founded by the visionary artist Yoshihara Jiro in 1954, Gutai, the most influential artists collective and artistic movement in postwar Japan, spanned two generations, totalling 59 Japanese artists over its 18 year history. The Gutai Art Association, active from , originated in the cosmopolitan town of Ashiya near Osaka as against the high art centre of Tokyo. Emerging from World War II, creativity became an existential issue for the artists who tried to find a utopian way to create a free society as well as their own authentic modernism. Against the background of a wartime totalitarian regime, Gutai which literally means concreteness forged an ethics of creative freedom where Jiro s call was to explore individual creative free wills, to Do what has never been done before. This led not only to a radical definition of painting but also to the making of ephemeral and site specific works which were exhibited in public parks, bombed out ruins and the urban sky. The barriers between art, the public and everyday life were constantly being broken. The members found new ways of using the body in direct action with materials, time and space, nature and technology. Yoshihara s engagement with the worlds of art in Europe, America and beyond was evidenced in the publication and distribution of the Gutai journal through which he attempted to forge an international common ground of theory and practice. To achieve world relevance and articulate an autonomous artistic identity within the influence of Americanisation, the artists were urged to understand their very own substance specially since they had not completely digested the movements and principles of western art. Zen principles, Japanese calligraphy, became the tools for a re-nationalisation where traditional aesthetics was refashioned in modernist terms as exemplified in an encounter with Nantembo, the Zen monk painter. The dynamic rhythm and intensity of his calligraphy was compared to the paintings of Pollock and Kline. However, the yearning for a genuine transnational identity continued. For Yoshihara, Pollock s drip paintings JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun

16 Alexandra Munroe speaks during her lecture on Gutai s World were transformational which made him turn to substance itself pursuing raw being or psychological realism as the fundamental matter of art. Their brute materialism, sheer abandon and destruction of cognitive representation revealed the scream of the matter itself, cries of the paint and enamel. A concluding walkthrough of the Guggenheim exhibition of Spring 2013 with its thematic structure and aesthetic logic sectioned under Play, Network, Concept, The Concrete, Performance Painting and Environment, convincingly argued for the critical understanding of Gutai as the cutting edge of world culture and as an important international avant-garde movement active anywhere in the world during the 50s and 60s. - R.P. Aurobindo and his impact on 20th Century Nationalism (February 4-5, 2014) by Ganesh Devy Professor Ganesh Devy s portrayal of Aurobindo went into great detail, illustrating the complexities of his life, the nature of his character and the process of his actions. He articulated his legacy by contextualizing him along with Tagore and Gandhi. Beyond the fact that they were contemporaries and operated in similar ways, all three founded non-theistic ashrams and used them as laboratories for social experimentation, as microcosms of a new way of structuring the world. Aurobindo's utopian ideals were meant to be experienced within the confines of one s self. As 14 JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun 2014

17 people gradually began to realize this, liberation would become widespread and a new order would emerge from this heightened sense of collective consciousness. His desire was to redefine the zeitgeist through individual processes, deep within the self. By following an inner path, one would reach emancipation. One can only speculate as to why the British authorities decided to take Indian students to be educated in the heart of the metropolis. Characters like Gandhi and Aurobindo are the reason one should ask. The formative years are precisely that, the moment in which ideas and values are forged, and one s interface with the world is crystalized. Gandhi and Aurobindo left India at a young age, lived a life abroad, and upon their return, became the protagonists of the struggle for self-determination. Professor Devy presented the biblical parable of the Prodigal Son to illustrate the conceptual origins of how and why nationalism came into being in the European experience. He explains that it is the son who stays behind, the older one, he who tends the land and administrates the property, upon whom the notion of nation is founded. Using the examples of Italian and German Unification in the 19th century as exemplary cases of European nationalism, we come to understand the true meaning of the term nation. Judging by these examples and stemming from the etymology of the word itself, nation is best understood as people or population. Hence the tethering of a people to a land is where the transformation in the western concept of nationalism comes into play. Once you have an understanding that there is a belonging of a group of people to a designated soil, only then can we speak of nation. Devy also went into great detail to explain how and in what way the means of production, the process of taxation and the need to guarantee military security were at the core of how the idea of nationalism evolved in the western sense. In India the experience is different. For here we find a concept of nation that is referential and derivative of that of the European experience. Here, nation is articulated in the context of independence. This gives it a distinctly different flavor, since nationalism as it was articulated during the freedom struggle didn't evolve from within but was adopted from elsewhere. In Devy s words this is why the three main ideologues of the Azaad (Tagore, Gandhi and Aurobindo) all drifted away from the concept of nation the moment in which independence finally became a reality. For these three thinkers, the idea of liberation had to be articulated beyond the conceptualization that derived from the British vision of the world. In India, liberation meant a transcendental sense of emancipation. Aurobindo s understanding of liberation was not limited to or defined by a specific group of people, but was meant to apply to all of mankind. For Aurobindo, he who is not repressed in his own consciousness cannot be dominated. Having grown up in Britain, Aurobindo witnessed the weaknesses in the British system from within, facing poverty and social disparity in the heart of British soil. Upon his return to India, He also must have been faced with feeling like a JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun

18 Ganesh Devy speaks during his seminar on Aurobindo foreigner in his own land, hence his empathy towards all of humanity rather than a specific ethnic group. His understanding of the Greek epics, together with his study of Indian texts, resulted in what Devy terms a bilingual aesthetic sensitivity. His views on Indian tradition were not orthodox or exclusive, but rather reflected a complex acceptance of the idea that Indian aesthetics can only be truly Indian if they are not meant only for Indians. It was through aesthetics that Aurobindo professed his true ethics of politics. In his view, aesthetics was the ethical manifestation of a political stance. Hence if art is to have a purpose, it would have to be that of expanding the consciousness. This in it and of itself is a political posture. Aurobindo s education in the ethos of Darwinian Theory, makes it evident that there is a true order in the natural world, and our task is to understand that order through observation. Aurobindo s yoga is based on looking, seeing the phenomenological world as it is, and understanding it. Devy s observations of Aurobindo s life were just that, an attempt to understand the life of a thinker for what it was in its truest sense, through his actions, his writings and 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 implicit in the The Philosophical and Political History of the Two Indies, Dr Kamdar delivered three clarifying lectures that paved the way for her critical revision of this seminal text in her forth 16 JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun 2014

19 lecture. The first three segments were fundamental to contextualize what exactly is understood as the French Enlightenment, the French colonial participation in India, and the practical nature and evolution of the printed cotton trade between India and France. First and foremost, it is necessary to clarify the key concepts of the French Enlightenment with a focus on its protagonists Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot. These four thinkers, or philosophes, articulated a series of ideological shifts that shook the very foundations of pre-revolutionary France, striking God from the central focus of all things, and proposing Man as the core of understanding. This shift in paradigm brought about great questions regarding the true essence of mankind, addressing in particular the confines of what we consider culture and how to understand culture ontologically while considering different populations of the world. The French Enlightenment sought to shed light on the plethora of ways of experiencing the world, from the vantage point of an all-pervasive centre. This new way of understanding was hence intended to ensure European hegemony and superiority. The second lecture addressed the ways in which the French endeavoured to gain a foothold on the Indian subcontinent, starting with the founding of the Jesuit University in 1559 and continuing with the consolidation of the French East India Company by Jean-Baptiste Colbert in 1664 during the reign of Louis XIV. The French faced inevitable friction with the British who were intending to establish the same trade routes between East and West. The Seven Year War between these two European neighbours resulted in British supremacy and relinquished Mira Kamdar speaks during India in the French Enlightenment JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun

20 the French presence in the region to a handful of commercial ports. In the process of establishing their colonial presence, French thinkers also engaged in evaluating and attempting to understand the breadth of Indian culture. A true fascination with India s antiquity was born and the figure of the Brahmin as a cast of people who both usher and withhold knowledge became particularly intriguing to French thinkers. India became an example of a denatured and decadent civilization. The struggles to ensure feasible and efficient trade between East and West posed various intrinsic paradoxes. How could free trade reconcile with exploitation? Was capitalism compatible with democracy? The centripetal nature of capitalism is by definition contrary to the concept of free trade, and yet one does not exist without the other. In Dr Kamdar s words, Liberalism and Liberality are hence bound by a paradox. The third issue at hand is the practical manifestation of this whole history. The substance of trade was, in the case of India, its printed cotton. At the time of the Age of Discoveries, cotton was an exotic material in the eyes of Europeans, and the nature of how it was made, stamped, printed, coloured and manipulated was totally unknown. The long process of assimilation of les indiennes as the fabric came to be called, was lengthy and tedious. Initially the cotton was imported directly from India for an elite market of wealthy Europeans. However with time, the clientele began to grow, the market range widened and diversified to the extent that it included even interior decoration. Eventually the ban imposed by the French government on the import of Indian printed cottons in 1686 generated both a black market as well as a need to establish workshops within French territory that would fulfill the needs of an eager consumer. Marseille became the center for Indian cottons made in Europe that would supply an existing market in compliance with the government ban. This industry, that effectively was a copy of a copy, was intended to become an import substitution scheme that would ensure business breaking away from dependence on trade with Asia. With time, what was born with the intention to mimic Indian fabrics eventually became a style by itself. The advent of the Technological and Scientific Revolutions with the incorporation of their practical applications, particularly in the field of chemistry, made it possible for European producers to effectively manipulate textiles in ways unknown to the Indians. Modern copper plate printing techniques were implemented as a hybrid between paper printing and textile printing, and within a century, Europe replaced India as the leading producer of printed textiles. Having clarified all of the above, Dr Kamdar s fourth lecture provided a critical analysis of The Philosophical and Political History of the Two Indies with a specific focus on Diderot s editorial note in which he poses a radical critique of empire. The problematic nature of this text is in many ways indicative of the conflict that existed during the Enlightenment between a true intention to democratize the world and a 18 JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun 2014

21 conviction of European superiority. The lofty ambitions of a publication that attempted to cover the entire philosophical and political history of the Indies, included contributions of many of the same authors as the Encyclopedia. This text however, presents the untenable contradiction between a radical discourse of universal human rights and the discourse of Eurocentric hegemony. These two paradigms of the Enlightenment seem irreconcilable and codependent at the same time much in the same way that capitalism seeks to ensure free trade whilst concentrating wealth in a centripetal manner. With its igniting sense of counter-culture ideas, disregarding the institutions of the establishment and making way for subsequent theories of de-colonization, the impact of The Philosophical and Political History of the Two Indies was pivotal. - A.M. Invoking Introspection (February 25-26, 2013) Aniket Bhagwat in conversation with Kaiwan Mehta This is the inaugural lecture in the Architecture, Resources and Culture lecture series In this new series of conversations about architecture, architect, author and critic Kaiwan Mehta invites architects and thinkers in the field from across India to discuss, understand and document contemporary architectural practice in keeping with a sense of history and culture that architectural practice has been a part of in the sub-continent. Renowned architect and designer Aniket Bhagwat was the speaker at the inaugural edition of the series, where he spoke at length about his work as a landscape architect at landscape design firm M/S Prabhakar B. Bhagwat, as well as about other issues related to Indian architecture and design practices. For the first part of the lecture, Bhagwat introduced the audience to the firm s body of work through photographs of various projects and brief commentaries on the concept behind each project. The projects varied in style and scope from small houses to large master-plans for townships, but they all showed a strong engagement with the needs and desires of the stakeholder or community, as well as an emphasis on the idea of craft or the expression of hand. He also spoke of the design process of his firm, which emphasizes passion, a little creative chaos, and a strong skepticism regarding modernism in the Indian context. This was followed by a discussion between Bhagwat and Kaiwan Mehta which kicked off with a question about values and ethics in architecture and the sort of approach required for various types of projects. Bhagwat explained how they approach every project as an interrogation, and how that spirit of enquiry encourages them to avoid any theoretical constructs or pre-concieved notions about the project. The conversation touched upon a number of subjects, including the importance of materiality, the limits imposed by typology, the difficulty of designing large housing projects that are innovative and exciting for the residents and the effects of declining patronage on the arts. The event ended with Bhagwat answering questions from the audience about his work. B.K. JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun

22 Community Engagement Early Representations of the Other Globalization and Image Production (February 3, 2014) by Benjamin Meyer-Krahmer In collaboration with Goethe Institut Notions and concepts of the colonized world, nomadic practice and mobility, images and objects as representation of the other, the An image from Benjamin Meyer- Krahmer s lecture presentation. divide between Art and Ethnography, the practice of collecting, archiving and producing images in the Age of Discovery from the 16th-18th century framed this lecture which focused on the Dutch - trading companies, artists and collections and suggested an alternative to the display and consumption of ethnographic objects. The Dutch East India trading company established in 1602, the first multinational, and the first company to issue stock, not only had trading monopolies in the New World and Africa but also developed intra-asian trade. Referred to as the Golden Age full of glories, military conflict and slave trade found no mention in this era of instrumental colonization which coincided with the age of scientific progress. Nature and natural phenomena were now being questioned through the disciplines of biology, botany and geography and realism becomes the paradigm. Artists such as Theodor de Bry, Eckhout and Frans Post constructed realist images based often on second-hand reports, with elaborate compositions of elements reflecting an assemblage of the exotic. Physical anthropology included depictions of cannibalism and nudity as well as orgiastic motifs of music and dancing which were juxtaposed against scientific inquiry. These European colonized constructions of ethnography were regarded as authentic and accurate till recently and were housed in museums, sites of education and knowledge. Artists such as Lothar Baumgarten in the 1960s 20 JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun 2014

23 started questioning such displays of decontextualised nomadic practice where the objects had no biographies and were themselves unsettled and blurred. Questions of alterity and specificity, othering and exoticising within the concomitant confined, neutralized, fetishised, curiosity cabinet, were raised and answered through an exhibition held not in an ethnography museum but in an art museum. Evening of Time. Senores Naturales Yanomani attempted to retrieve the context of a nomadic, rain forest, tribal people by showing their works and processes without a European taxonomy. However this auto ethnography has not fully sorted out the problem of representation and debates continue. - R.P. Piano Recital by Shani Diluka (February 20, 2014) The artist was jointly presented with the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation The Sri Lankan Pianist Shani Diluka performed a piano recital at Jnanapravaha on February 20, 2014 to a well-attended audience of enthusiastic music lovers. The programme chosen reflected three distinct composition styles, the Romantic, Impressionist and the Classical. Each of her pieces were introduced with a description of the compositions performed and this gave an extra dimension and understanding to the listener. The programme opened with a scintillating performance of Schumann's ' Papillons ', a suite of piano pieces in a variety of dance- like movements at a masked ball, many of them waltzes. This was followed by piano works by the French Impressionist composer Debussy - Clair de lune (Moonlight) and Estampes consisting of three movements. The exquisite tonal dynamics and colour washes evoked images of East Asia (Pagodes), Granada (La soirée à Grenade), and the gardens of Normandy in the rain (Jardins sous la pluie). The programme concluded with Schubert's Sonata in B flat major written during the last months of Schubert's life and considered amongst the most important of his major masterpieces. Shani interpreted this work with great power and virtuosity and convincingly conveyed the diverse structural, harmonic and melodic elements which connected all three movements 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 first proposed as an idea, Pakistan might well possess the most successful national history of any of the world s states. And yet it is by the same token a country where nationalism has never been dominant as a political ideology. But while it has become a commonplace to see Pakistan as a failed state and work out when it started coming apart, I want to argue that the country has never been a nation state in any conventional sense. Instead I will demonstrate that Pakistan belongs to another political logic, one that is critical of nationalism and oriented in an internationalist direction. Emerging as it did in the wake of the Second JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun

24 World War, whose destruction of the international order set in place by the Paris Peace Conference had put into question the very survival of the oldfashioned nation-state, the Pakistan Movement was more attuned to the abstract and internationalist ideologies of fascism and communism. Founded, moreover, as the consequence of a struggle against Indian nationalism, Pakistan was conceived as a state based on an idea or ideology rather than some immemorial link to the land. ANNOUNCEMENTS 1. Announcing a collaboration between Jnanapravaha, Mumbai (JPM) and Deccan Heritage Foundation, India (DHFI). JPM is an institution which focuses on a global exchange of creative Indian art and thought. It is a place where ideas and innovative concepts generate a discourse that allows glimpses into new and unchartered abstract and concrete perceptions relating to art and culture in general. DHFI would like to be an active participant in this exchange of ideas as it aspires to create an understanding, through education, publications and sustainable preservation, of the cultural heritage that distinguishes a little known, visited and appreciated area of India, the Deccan. It is the Deccan that well represents different civilizations that flourished in the subcontinent, from Neolithic times to Independence. This region s Heritage, replete with innovations and creative adaptations, is widely seen in other parts of the sub-continent without an awareness of the place of origin of such ideas and practice. An attempt to go beyond the barriers of current knowledge is being made through discursive means by renowned international authorities. This collaboration will witness lectures by internationally renowned scholars starting the winter of 2014/2015. Announcements will be made in due course. 2. The 17th edition of our seminal year long POST GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN INDIAN AESTHETICS starts Saturday 19th July JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun 2014

25 Most sessions on Saturdays from 1:30-5:30pm. ADMISSIONS OPEN. 3. The 7th edition of our year long course titled ART, CRITICISM & THEORY starts Tuesday 15th July Sessions on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 6:00-8:00pm. ADMISSIONS OPEN. 4. The 2nd edition of our semester long course titled YOGA & TANTRA - CONCEPTS AND VISUAL HISTORY starts Tuesday 16th September Sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:30-5:30pm. ADMISSIONS START 1ST July For details visit website or to.jnanapravaha@gmail.com Contributors A.M. - Armando Miguélez B.K. - Bhanuj Kappal K.M. Kaiwan Mehta M.J. Mehroo Jeejeebhoy R.P. Rashmi Poddar S.C. Swati Chemburkar JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun

26 [L-R] Aniket Bhagwat and Kaiwan Mehta in conversation during Invoking Introspection 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 India. JPM Quarterly Newsletter Apr-Jun 2014