Citation

Dawson Varughese E. S. Asian Popul. Cult. 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/14746689.2021.1965514

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper examines three panels of public wall art on Maharshi Karve Road (Marine Lines), Mumbai, specifically artwork found on the walls of a kabristan (Muslim cemetery). Some of the artwork appeared following the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in 2008 and more latterly, Swachh Bharat Mission images have appeared since the campaign launched in 2014. Drawing on fieldwork from April 2016 and December 2017, the paper examines how ideas of Indianness and (cultural) citizenship are evoked both textually and visually. Since the paper examines wall art produced intermittently, over a number of years, I suggest that the palimpsestic nature of the artwork appearing on the kabristan wall is central to the reading of these images.The 'reading' of the 26/11 wall art specifically is shaped by the fact that the fieldwork was conducted ten years on from the terror attack of 2008 and thus takes into consideration the hanging of Ajmal Kasab in 2012 as well as the burial of Yakub Memon, convicted of the 1993 Bombay bombings, in a 'Marine Lines cemetery' following his execution in 2015. Through these readings of the larger canvas that constitutes the wall artwork of Maharshi Karve Road, the paper considers how Indianness, notions of communities and citizenship are portrayed in these panels of wall art and moreover, how these are complicated by the physical surroundings, the transient nature of wall art and the passing of time.

Language: en

Keywords

26/11; Collective memory; cultural citizenship; Mumbai attacks; Mumbai popular culture; wall art