IIT Gandhinagar has found itself in a spot after a graffiti camp hosted by the campus led to portraits of Bhimrao Ambedkar, Savitribai Phule and Phoolan Devi — all icons of lower caste assertion in India — being painted and eventually erased by the administration in a little over a month.
While the institute has in a statement insisted that the paintings were never meant to be permanent, students and outside artists commissioned for the event have said all was fine until the portraits of Dr. Ambedkar and of Phoolan Devi started to emerge on the walls earmarked for impromptu paintings. They have now alleged of other incidents where they were restricted from hosting events in the campus.
Meanwhile, the Student Senate, which had protested the paintings in chat groups first, insisted that the paintings had to go because they did not have the appropriate permissions.
The graffiti camp was hosted by ART@IITGN, the campus’ art wing, and promoted as an opportunity for creative expression, where about 15-20 students, were being mentored by professional artists and artists from NIFT to draw over a total of 12 walls over two nights in the first week of November.
All other paintings were pre-approved by the authorities, including Phule’s but two walls were earmarked for impromptu graffiti, where the portraits of Dr. Ambedkar and Phoolan Devi were coming up. Campus WhatsApp groups soon began buzzing over the political undertones of the graffiti and by the time a portrait of Phoolan Devi with a gun in her hand began to take shape, the administration intervened to stop it. All graffiti has now been painted over, and the walls now sport a silent, fresh white look.
The wall which had a mural of Savitribai Phule after it was painted over. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Phoolan Devi, was an icon for the backward classes, a lower caste woman, who took up guns against upper caste Hindus to avenge her gang rape in 1981 in Behmai village, Kanpur Dehat and surrendered two years later. She was elected to Parliament in 1996 on a Samajwadi Party ticket two years after her release. In 2001 she was killed by an upper-caste man Sher Singh Rana, who claimed to have wanted to avenge the Behmai massacre.
The Institute, in a statement released through its communications officer, said, “The Art initiative of the campus intends to engage students in performing and practising different forms of art to cultivate creative thinking. The two wall paintings, along with other graffiti paintings, were a part of this initiative. There is no intention to ‘permanently install’ artworks as part of this initiative. Reuse of different parts of the campus for this purpose is imperative. As a result, walls are re-prepared from time to time for other activities. IITGN is an equal opportunity academic institution that respects inclusive views and icons from diverse backgrounds. A number of diverse initiatives and student groups are active within the community for various activities with mutual respect for diverse beliefs and cultures.”
The Director, Registrar and Administration of IIT Gandhinagar have not responded to The Hindu’s requests for a comment.
Mitesh Solanki, an MA student at IITGN, and coordinator of the graffiti camp, said that almost all the paintings were pre-decided and approved by the Curator on campus. When Rohini Bhadarge, a pop artist and fine art student from Thane was called to guide and assist the students, she was given a wall to herself and another was given to a team for impromptu sessions — where the portraits of Dr. Ambedkar and Phoolan Devi came up.
“My piece was initially meant to be just his (Dr. Ambedkar’s) portrait. But I was told that would be making it too political and was asked to add some text, or books, or a message,” the 24-year-old, Ambedkarite Buddhist artist said, adding that the real problems started when the Phoolan Devi painting started to materialise.
As the sketch was completed, showing Phoolan Devi holding a gun, students present at the workshop said they were stopped by a Project staffer associated with ART@IITGN who said, “It was fine until the gun was in her hand. This could promote violence.”
Mr. Solanki, who is also a member of the Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle and a student body called SBAMKAV (Savitri Birsa Ambedkar Malcolm Kanshiram Ansari Velammal), said earlier an event associated with Phule was stopped by the administration. “Beginning of this year, we were supposed to do a play on the birth anniversary of Savitribai Phule but we were stopped citing Covid protocol when at the same time faculty were celebrating a retirement without following any protocol.”
After the graffiti camp, the Phoolan Devi painting was ultimately not allowed to be finished, according to the artists. ART@IITGN posted about the works on their official Instagram page. But as the campus started to empty out in December, some who stayed back started seeing that the paintings, about a dozen, had been painted over.
The general secretary of the Student Senate said, “I cannot talk about this. Please speak to our Communications officer.”
However, multiple students from the Senate that led the protest say their only opposition was to paintings that were not approved by the authorities and not the politics of it. One of them said, “It was a matter of procedure. They did not take appropriate permissions and students were overwhelmed with so many paintings.”
Another student, part of the Senate Student WhatsApp group where the first questions were raised about the paintings’ approval, said he was speaking on behalf of the student senate but “unofficially” and that the administration removed them because they were not approved.
“It was an official institute exercise. They paid for the paint, paid a commission to Ms. Bhadarge. How could they remove it? And there have been multiple other similar graffiti events, paintings from which are still up after 3-4 years,” Mr. Solanki asked, adding that even the walls for the impromptu paintings — one of Dr. Ambedkar by Ms. Bhadarge and another of Phoolan Devi by a team — had been pre-approved.
In an Instagram post, after finding out the paintings had been erased, Ms. Bhadarge attributed it to complaints from “Oppressor caste people” who did not like the ideals of Dr. Ambedkar.
