Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

‘The Imaginary Institution of India’ exhibition at the Barbican: Displaying many shades of India

Show underscores essence of truly democratic society, says curator Shanay Jhaveri

THE Barbican Centre in London has put on a fabulous exhibition called The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975-1998.

It has been curated by Shanay Jhaveri, a Bombay boy who is now head of visual arts at the Barbican.


Bombay is, of course, now Mumbai with all the socio-cultural changes that implies.

With the help of lenders, notably the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in Delhi, Jhaveri has chosen some 150 works from 30 artists, both well-known and not so familiar.

The first thing to say is the Barbican Arts Centre feels very spacious. The works are beautifully displayed and given plenty of space to breathe.

Taking the exhibition in the round, it seemed to me to be almost an antidote to the propaganda we get about “India shining” and how the country has become a superpower.

To be fair, in some areas, such as IT, India has indeed become a superpower, but alongside that, the exhibition reminds us problems such as violence against women have not gone away. The recent fatal rape of a young woman doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata is a painful example.

It is worth listing the artists represented in the exhibition – Pablo Bartholomew, Jyoti Bhatt, Rameshwar Broota, Sheba Chhachhi, Anita Dube, Sheela Gowda, Sunil Gupta, Safdar Hashmi, MF Husain, Rummana Hussain, Jitish Kallat, Bhupen Khakhar, KP Krishnakumar, Nalini Malani, Tyeb Mehta, Meera Mukherjee, Madhvi Parekh, Navjot Altaf, Gieve Patel, Sudhir Patwardhan, CK Rajan, NN Rimzon, Savindra Sawarkar, Himmat Shah, Gulammohammed Sheikh, Nilima Sheikh, Arpita Singh, Jangarh Singh Shyam, Vivan Sundaram, and J Swaminathan.

What would our ayah have thought of Sheila Gowda’s installation made from cowdung cakes? Our ayah looked after us when we were children growing up in Patna, Bihar, in north India. We didn’t have gas or electricity for cooking. Instead, every morning, she used cowdung cakes to light the little choolah (clay oven) in the kitchen before she and my mother began cooking breakfast. If she had seen the cowdung cakes in the Barbican, she probably would have gathered them in her basket and taken them home. It’s still the way things are done in rural India.

Works in the The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975-1998 exhibition

Initially, I thought the years that Jhaveri had picked, 1975 and 1998, were chosen at random but he convinced me otherwise.

I acknowledged that 1975 was the year when prime minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency, locked up thousands of her political opponents and imposed press censorship.

But 1998? It was the year when India exploded a nuclear device in the Rajasthan desert.

Jhaveri said: “I think 1998 is important in the sense that it is when we become a nuclear power, and that capability of having nuclear warfare was celebrated. It was seen as a symbol of India arriving as part of a new global order.

“It also marks quite a distance from the non-violent ideals we achieved our independence on, and that’s something I was keen to emphasise – the distance the country has travelled from when we became independent to where we had arrived at that point.”

Shanay Jhaveri

He explained: “This show surveys 23 years of artistic production from the Indian subcontinent. It’s framed by two national events – the declaration of the emergency in 1975 and the Pokhran nuclear test in 1998. The period between these two significant occasions is one marked by great social upheaval, economic instability, and it led to us defining four thematics around which the exhibition unfolds.

“These are rapid urbanisation and change in class structure; questions around gender and sexual growing connections with indigenous culture; and the rise of communal violence and politics.

“Featured in the exhibition are 30 artists who were making work as the landscape around them was changing. What we see across all of their practices is that as you move between the street and the home, the boundaries between the private and the public blur. And each of them strive to communicate through their work and affirm what (BR) Ambedkar, one of the chief architects of the Indian constitution, said, that the basis of any political democracy is a social democracy.

“The show has about 150 works in a range of media, from painting to installation, photography, drawing, sculpture and various mediums. We are very fortunate to have the support of our founder and principal funder, the City of London. But also, it’s our great privilege to have collaborated with the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in New Delhi.”

Jhaveri told me about the issue of violence against women: “We have a number of artists in the show engaging with questions of feminism – Nilima Sheikh, Arpita Singh, Nalini Malani, Sheba Chhachhi.”

He referred to Chhachhi’s Seven lives and a Dream and also her 19 black and white photographs “that document women’s protest movements and female activists from the 1980s. Unfortunately, what they were responding to at that time continues to be very much a matter of urgency and concern in the country as to what unfolded in Calcutta (Kolkata) very recently. I hope audiences can sense that these have been ongoing struggles for the artists.”

Rummana Hussain’s floor-based works use broken terracotta pots to reckon with widespread communal violence across the nation following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992 by militant right-wing Hindu mobs.

As for the freedom enjoyed by artists, he said: “The works in the show speak for itself, how resilient they are. They can adapt to various circumstances and changing conditions. And it’s really their imagination and their courage to say certain things that I draw great inspiration and solace from.”

I asked about Sudhir Patwardhan’s oil on canvas diptych, Memory: Double Page. “That landscape felt important to include because it was really about Sudhir going back to his childhood town, and it is this difference between something that you hold in your memory and how it’s also evolved as a place,” commented Jhaveri. “The landscape is fractured. You have these details of maybe the childhood home he lived in, but then also it’s all about memory and how you hold something in your mind versus how it’s actually transformed.”

He said: “The show is about celebrating the plurality and the cosmopolitanism (of India) and the secular nature of our democracy. It’s reminding people of those ideals. Some of the work certainly is contending with fissures and ruptures and the challenges that we’re sensing among various communities that live within India.”

He added: “The exhibition takes its title from an essay by Sudipta Kaviraj, which discusses the processes of instituting democracy and modernity in a post-colonial society characterised by diversity and plurality. These negotiations form the core of The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975-1998, a show that underscores, through powerful and evocative artworks, the essence of a truly democratic society – where people communicate, coexist, and connect on various levels, from the exuberantly sexual to the defiantly political.”

The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975-1998 is at the Barbican Arts Centre until January 5, 2025.

More For You

uk-railways-iStock

The package includes £415 million to upgrade the rail line between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds, and York, a route affected by delays and disruptions. (Representational image: iStock)

iStock

Government announces £1.7 bn transport investment for the North

THE GOVERNMENT has announced a £1.7 billion investment to improve transport infrastructure across the North, focusing on buses, roads, and rail.

The funding aims to upgrade key routes and improve connectivity across the region.

Keep ReadingShow less
 20 Years of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ – A TV Legacy That Lives On

20 years of love, loss, and unforgettable moments—Grey’s Anatomy continues to define TV drama

Pinterest

20 years of 'Grey’s Anatomy': The show that became a lifeline

For someone who has always craved fast-paced crime shows, I never thought I’d care about a hospital drama. The scrubs, the medical jargon, the beeping monitors, it all felt distant, clinical. But life breaks you open when you least expect it. I started Grey’s Anatomy on a night when my own grief was too loud. I needed noise to fill the silence. Then Meredith Grey’s voice cut through:

“So, do it. Decide.
Is this the life you want to live?
Is this the person you want to love?
Is this the best you can be?
Can you be stronger? Kinder?
More compassionate? Decide.

Keep ReadingShow less
IPL 2025 – GT vs MI: Who Will Secure Their First Win

Both teams eager to secure their maiden win of IPL 2025

Getty

IPL 2025 - GT vs MI: Gujarat Titans and Mumbai Indians aim for first win

The ninth match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 will take place on March 29 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, featuring a highly anticipated clash between Gujarat Titans (GT) and Mumbai Indians (MI). Both teams will be keen to register their first win of the season after disappointing starts in their respective opening matches. This game is expected to be a closely fought contest, with each side eager to make an early impact in the tournament.

Gujarat Titans: Seeking redemption after high-scoring defeat

Gujarat Titans, led by Shubman Gill, began their IPL 2025 campaign with a high-scoring encounter against the Punjab Kings, but unfortunately ended up on the losing side. Despite some positive individual performances, the team was unable to secure a victory, and they will be keen to turn things around against MI.

Keep ReadingShow less
Why Do Muslims Celebrate Eid al-Fitr on Different Days? 3 Key Reasons

Some may celebrate on one day, while others may observe it the next

iStock

3 reasons why Muslims across the globe celebrate Eid al-Fitr on different days

Eid is one of the most joyous and important festivals in Islam, celebrated twice a year by Muslims worldwide. However, it’s common to see variations in the exact day of celebration, even within the same country. Some may celebrate on one day, while others may observe it the next. This divergence can sometimes confuse people outside the Muslim community and even among Muslims themselves. But the reasons for this variation are rooted in Islamic traditions and differing interpretations of how to determine the Islamic calendar.

Here are the three main reasons why Muslims don’t always celebrate Eid on the same day:

Keep ReadingShow less
Keir-Starmer-Getty

Keir Starmer’s communications chief has resigned after nine months in Downing Street. (Photo: Getty Images)

Getty Images

Starmer’s communications chief Matthew Doyle resigns after nine months

KEIR STARMER’s communications chief, Matthew Doyle, has resigned after nine months in Downing Street. Doyle, a Labour veteran who previously worked for Tony Blair, joined Starmer’s team as communications director four years ago when the party was in opposition.

His departure follows that of Sue Gray, Starmer’s former chief of staff, who left in the autumn. Doyle’s exit is expected to lead to the promotions of James Lyons to director of communications (strategy) and Steph Driver to director of communications (delivery), according to the BBC.

Keep ReadingShow less