From 14-17 November 2024, the second Art Mumbai, considered the very first art fair of the city (1), was held in Mahalaxmi Racecourse, after the first being held in 2023. For its launch in 2023, the iconic Bollywood film director and producer Karan Johar, associated with the era of the internationalisation of Hindi language film market centred on Shahrukh Khan, was declared its brand ambassador. Johar was declared its brand ambassador, who in popular perception is not associated with visual      art. For commoners, the clout of Karan Johar could be felt on Instagram, which became flooded with pictures of a number of celebrities that visited the Exhibition, showcasing over fifty galleries and hundreds of artists in its first year. 

What was perhaps the most iconic moment of the first edition of Art Mumbai of 2023 was the showcasing of two young and celebrated Dalit artists: Vikrant Bhise and Rajyashri Goody. Vikrant Bhise narrates the crucial moments in the Dalit and Ambedkarite history of anti-caste politics through oil in small, medium, and large canvases. In 2023, he was represented by Anant Art Gallery (2), and was the first artist to visually compare the oppression of Dalits and Palestinians, both of whom experience racial discrimination in the form of profiling, segregation, humiliation, and brutal violence.

Rajyashri Goody is a multimedia visual artist who often pieces together a narrative from everyday objects associated with Dalit livelihoods that may be perceived as ‘scraps’, ‘rags’, or ‘garbage’ at first glance. In 2023, Gallery Ske featured Goody’s installation ‘Ukadala’, (3) a ceramic representation of an assortment of food items that conveyed the sense of them being the objects that were discarded by the dominant castes, and collected, and almost protectively cherished and honoured, by the lower castes who are not ashamed of how they acquired their food.

However, in November 2024, the second Art Mumbai seemed to have found a new iconic work to represent itself to the masses: Ravinder Reddy’s brass sculpture of a woman’s head. The female cephalic object reveals the relational network in which art is received. The same cephalic object was earlier used to introduce Shalini Passi, a rich art ‘patron’ and socialite, during her stint in Karan Johar’s reality tv show, Fabulous Wives vs Bollywood Wives that aired on Netflix in October 2024. The masses could now identify the installed head, or even the entire body, not necessarily just as Ravinder Reddy’s artwork, but ‘the head that was seen in Shalini Passi’s house’. And thus, art moved beyond the domains of the critic and the theorist to that of Bollywood, reality tv, and the socialite celebrity culture of Mumbai. 

However, along with the brass head, in the minds of a digital-first, politically educated, content-consuming audience, Dalit iconographies were also steadily gaining currency. Vikrant Bhise’s work was announced as the cover of a new edition of Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s monumental Annihilation of Caste.(4) Osheen Siva’s portrait of ‘Ravan as a Gond King’ (5)was the cover of the November 2021 issue of The Caravan, a magazine that had begun publishing in 1940, and in the last decade the most influential anti-caste publication in India. Yogesh Barve, along with Bhise and Siva had been featured by a small but influential gallery in Bandra, Mumbai called Art and Charlie. Through these developments a new audience for Dalit art had been created who could identify, receive, and engage with the works of Dalit artists, especially at Art Mumbai 2024. That is, there is another domain of art which makes a componential relationship with the Dalit intellectual traditions and writings, including those of B. R. Ambedkar. 

Despite forming over 90% of the Indian population, lower castes (Dalits, Bahujan, and Adivasis) are invisibilised by the upper castes who form less than 10% of the population; but this 10% disproportionately control 90% of the wealth and resources in the country. (6) Dalits are excluded from public and social spaces, denied representation in cultural forms such as cinema and music, and hence, are invisibilised to the wider international eye who falsely perceive India as the nation of majority upper castes. At the same time, the dominant castes who oppress Dalits, practice caste-blindness, and pretend before an international community that ‘caste is a thing of the past’, that discrimination occurs only in rural spaces, and assert that the construction of a liberal society must not be ‘sullied’ with conversations on caste. (7)

The problems of invisibilization and the upper caste strategies of caste-blindness that affect Dalits lives plague their pursuit of art as well. (8) For decades, Dalit art has not been able to break through elite art spaces like museums and exhibitions. Often when Dalit art has been represented, the Dalit identity of the artist has been erased, and thereby presenting the Dalitness of the artist as a mere coincidence as opposed to the very truth that has been the condition of creation their art. An instance of this upper caste stratagem is to be found in the reception of the works of Amba Das Khobragade (member of Group 1890 (9) and Group Nonrepresentational) and Krishnaji Howlaji Ara (member of the Progressive Artists Group with F.N. Souza, M.F. Hussain, and S.H. Raza), that has been recognised, featured in multiple leading galleries in the country, auctioned at millions, but has been interpreted outside of the caste location of the artist since the 1960s. Leading art galleries employ Savarna (‘the good colour’ or upper caste) vocabulary and blur Khobragade’s Dalit descent by representing him as an artist of ‘subaltern origin’ (a term deployed by postcolonial historians to suppress the discussion of caste oppression) or overshadow Ara’s work in favour of the art of Hussain, Raza, and Souza.

One can already imagine the feeble attempts that dominant castes can make in defending the erasure of Dalitness while interpreting the work of artists like Khobragade and Ara: “their work is abstract and has nothing to do with caste”, “the artists did not like to speak about their caste identity or remembered as Dalits”, and so on. In the 21st century, it is critical that we pose the following questions: can the existing frameworks of art theory and art history be used to interpret Dalit art and would the knowledge of the experience of Dalitness of the artist have changed the perception of their artwork, and even challenged beliefs that Dalits are not meritorious or talented? Rather, this question reveals the necessity to conceive a new theoretical and historical systematic to understand the meaning of Dalit art and anti-caste art, and through that the very history of art in India as upper caste dominance. 

The other instance of invisibilzation has been that of Savindra Sawarkar, who has unmistakably represented the untouchability experienced by Dalits in his works, but could not receive the support of major galleries due to Savarna monopolization of capital markets that dictate which art should be bought, which is worth preserving, and which should be showcased. In the words of the Dalit performer and writer Rajesh Nirmal, 

The power and capital-holding communities of this country own the major galleries of the country. Frankly, gallery owners would not want to put up protesting Dalit Art, which stands against their own community’s authority in the society. (10)

Sawarkar’s art reflects Ambedkarite consciousness in his painting of an untouchable couple that has been forcefully incorporated into the recently invented Hinduism and made to bear a painful mark of a religion that will never accept them in its fold as equals. 

Sawarkar received his Master’s of Fine Arts in Printmaking from the prestigious Faculty of Fine Arts at Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda. He describes how artists, whether Progressive, Left, or Radical, alienated him because of his anti-caste art through a plethora of strategies to suppress the caste question in politics and art, which includes both Indian upper caste’s version of ‘secularism’. He describes the trauma of his student days at Baroda,

In Baroda, everyone positioned themselves as secular and radical. But yes, caste exists everywhere. Even in Baroda, there was no engagement with caste as a discursive category because they believed that this wasn’t their issue. I experienced loneliness, especially when I would talk about Ambedkar. People used to ignore me, including my classmates. They used to say that Ambedkar had only worked for the Dalits and Scheduled Castes. Their definitions and understanding of caste were very limited, existing only at the level of materialist analysis. (11)

Further, Sawarkar found the influential Kerala schools of art which were Marxist to be an even cleverer strategy to erase caste and Dalit existence,

The Kerala Radicals were a little after my time as a student, but the milieu from which their ideas emerged was already there in Baroda. They were hardcore Marxists, rejecting the galleries and the art market. However, I found that class issues go deeper than caste issues – if you are born in a particular caste, you have to die in it. The Kerala Radicals held the stereotypical Marxist belief that these caste-based problems of inequality would automatically be resolved when issues of class were. (12)

The artists of the 1980s would believe that caste does not affect everyone and employed the rhetoric that is endorsed even in the present day, that class is the real problem to address in politics, a strategic deployment of Marxism in India by the upper castes that has been called “Savarna Marxism” by Divya Dwivedi and Shaj Mohan. (13) When we think about the need to create a new systematics for understanding Dalit and anti-caste art, we must also address the most dominant paradigm of art and literary criticism in India, the many strands of Savarna Marxism.

Given this context, the foregrounding of the Dalitness of the artists and the political contributions of their work in the anti-caste movement disables conventional dominant caste invisibilization and caste-blindness. Bhise’s work in Art Mumbai 2024 was featured at multiple galleries, like Experimenter Gallery and Anant Art Gallery. His huge canvas at Experimenter represents the behemoth of “Mahad Satyagraha”, the march of Dalits led by Ambedkar to drink water at the Chavdar water tank. (14) Ambedkar is the fulcrum in this work, that holds the march together and moves it forward, carrying the book of the constitution, and hence the power of the law, in his hand. Ambedkar is fused with workers visualised as naked limbs, carrying hammers, sickles, and sticks, accompanied by the Pariah dog who can already taste the success of the anti-caste egalitarian movement. 

At Anant Art Gallery, Bhise depicted snapshots of history, contemporary Ambedkarite politics, and the impact of caste on Dalit lives. The statue of Ambedkar peeking through the tarpaulin places him in proximity with the working class and, the badges and ribbons thrown on the ground bear the weight of Dalit presence at multiple political rallies. At the same time, Ambedkar’s statue points hopefully towards a future where caste has been annihilated as he desired, whereas in the present-day manual scavengers are robbed of dignity in life and death, murdered for doing a task the caste order has confined them into through the calypsology of caste. (15) Ambedkar reading out from a paper to Jawaharlal Nehru reminds the viewer of Ambedkar’s role as the Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution of India while Nehru was the Prime Minister. Nehru remains seated, almost meditating as he listens to Ambedkar, who perhaps is announcing Article 17, that untouchability in India shall be abolished. However, Ambedkar is a minority in the painting, standing alone on one side, revealing that politics then and today is unrepresentative of the Dalit, Bahujan, Adivasi community that constitutes 90% of Indians.    

At Art and Charlie, Osheen Siva’s futuristic art depicts magical and ethereal beings bringing things to life from out of the earth; they symbiotically enter the veins of beings that have just come alive, controlling them in ways that the being remains unaware of, or perhaps, even unbothered by that which determines it. These beings have relationships with those creatures that are often looked at suspiciously or even as inauspicious or harmful by dominant caste Hindus, such as the raven. There is yet to be a bestiary of the animals of the caste order—Cow (Savarna)/Pig (Dalit), Deer (Savarna)/Raven (Dalit). 

The alliance between the fantastic and the gothic lends itself to a process of imagining Dalits anew, capable of re-envisioning themselves and building new alliances or polynomia. (16) Yogesh Barve introduces movement into abstract art such that it no longer remains static. The movement appears to emerge from out of rotation, speed, stretching-out, and circulation. In capturing the dynamism of static images, Barve’s art asserts that things do not stay the same forever and always carry a kernel of unpredictability, or the power to obtain other regularities—freedom. 

The India Art Fair held in Delhi in 2025 featured the work of Yogesh Barve’s      LED installations (through Art and Charlie) and has featured the work of Prabhakar Kamble earlier, whose      performances and      sculptures draw attention to caste-based inequalities and call for the annihilation of caste. 

Perhaps the presence of Bhise, Goody, Barve, Kamble, and Siva marks the end of caste-based gatekeeping in exhibitions, but there remains a long way to go. Artists like      Madhukar Mucharla have been featured at Vadehra Art Gallery,      Jithinlal NR has been featured at the Kochi Biennale, and      Kirtika Kain has been featured by Roslyn Oxley9 gallery, and they must be welcomed by other popular Indian multi-gallery exhibitions. 

Furthermore, there are many talented artists like      Priyanka Paul,      Shrujana Sridhar,      Rahee Punyashloka,      Siddhesh Gautam,      Prajakta Kedare and Rohini Bhadarge, to name a few, all of whom are incredibly talented, have a substantial Instagram following invested in their work, whose work is finding space in art galleries and book covers, and would even further diversify the representation and participation of lower castes in the Indian art scene. This article hopes things change for the better by 2026 when exhibitors are able to shed the shackles of caste-blindness towards Dalits and are forced to end their invisibilisation of anti-caste politics.

NOTES

1 See its cinema and celebrity centred representation in the prestigious newspaper, “For its second edition, Art Mumbai is back with a blend of visual and performative arts, including a dynamic sculpture walk, a lively performance by Dharavi Rocks, fashion parade by Tarun Tahiliani, and a thought-provoking speaker series including a session with Karan Johar.” https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/art-mumbai-returns-with-70-galleries-9661527/ 

2 https://www.anantart.com/artists/138-vikrant-bhise/works

3 https://www.rajyashrigoody.com/#/ukadala/

4 B. R. Ambedkar, Annihilation of Caste, Navayana, 2024. 

5 Ravana is the demon king of Sri Lanka who was slayed by Rama in the text Ramayana, however there are other interpretations of this figure, and recently this name has been seized by Dalit political figures. See “Ravan was a Gond king” https://caravanmagazine.in/religion/ravan-gond-king

6 The central question of anti-caste politics is how “the 90% majority can gain the power that is currently held by Brahmins and their stooges, who constitute less than 10% of the population”. See Aarushi Punia, “Book review: ‘Indian Philosophy, Indian Revolution’; Imagining a country led by lower castes”, 25 April 2024, https://maktoobmedia.com/more/bookshelf/book-review-indian-philosophy-indian-revolution-imagining-a-country-led-by-lower-castes/ 

7 See Yashpal Jogdand, “Pursuit of 'life of the mind' in contemporary India”, Divya Dwivedi (ed) “Philosophers, Intellectuals, Women in India: Endangered Species?” special issue of Revue des Femmes Philosophes (CNRS Paris-UNESCO, Women Philosophers’ Journal), No. 4-5, https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000377789 .

8 See Aarushi Punia, “The Necessity of Dalitude: Being Dalit in Urban and Academic Spaces in the Twenty-First Century in India” in Divya Dwivedi (ed) “Caste and Racism in India”, Critical Philosophy of Race Special Double Issue (Penn State University Press), 2023., doi: https://doi.org/10.5325/critphilrace.11.1.0008 .

9 Group 1890 was an influential Indian artists’ collective formed in 1962. The members included Jeram Patel, Raghav Kaneria, M. Reddeppa Naidu, Rajesh Mehra, Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, Himmat Shah, S.G. Nikam, Eric Hubert Bowen, Jyoti Bhatt, and J. Swaminathan. The only exhibition of the Group 1890 was held in 1963 in New Delhi, inaugurated by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The brochure essay titled “Surrounded by Infinity,” was written by the Nobel laureate Octovio Paz, the Mexican ambassador to India. See Sandip K Luis, “Group 1890”, Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism, Taylor and Francis, https://www.rem.routledge.com/articles/group-1890.

10 Nitya Choubey, “Why is No Dalit Artist on India’s Most Expensive Artists list?”, Abir Pothi, 26 July 2023, https://www.abirpothi.com/why-is-no-dalit-artist-on-indias-most-expensive-artists-list/ 

11 Interview with Savindra Sawarkar, “In all my years, no gallery has represented me’: Savindra Sawarkar on Brahmanism in the arts”, Kamayani Sharma, Scroll, 27 September 2022, https://scroll.in/magazine/1033348/in-all-my-years-no-gallery-has-represented-me-savindra-sawarkar-on-brahmanism-in-the-arts 

12 Ibid. 

13 See Shaj Mohan and Divya Dwivedi, “April Theses: On Democracy, Anti-caste politics, and Marxisms in India”, Maktoob Media, 28 April 2024, https://maktoobmedia.com/india/april-theses-on-democracy-anti-caste-politics-and-marxisms-in-india/ 

14 Water touched by the Dalits was and is considered impure in India. Dalit children are killed even in this century for ‘drinking upper caste water’. See the news report for example, “Dalit boy beaten to death for touching water pot”, The Hindu, 16 August 2022, https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/dalit-boy-beaten-to-death-for-touching-water-pot-ncpcr-asks-rajasthan-government-to-take-strict-action/article65774943.ece 

15 See Aarushi Punia, “Calypsology of Caste through Metaphorization: A Review of Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste”, Philosophy World Democracy, 22 November 2020, https://www.philosophy-world-democracy.org/book-reviews/calypsology-of-caste 

16 See See Aarushi Punia, “Book review: ‘Indian Philosophy, Indian Revolution’; Imagining a country led by lower castes”, 25 April 2024, https://maktoobmedia.com/more/bookshelf/book-review-indian-philosophy-indian-revolution-imagining-a-country-led-by-lower-castes/ and “Polynomia” in the Glossary of philosophical concepts by Maël Montévil, Indian Philosophy, Indian Revolution: On Caste and Politics, Edited and annotated by Montévil, Hurst Publishers, 2024.