In a two-part series, titled Periyar in Pictures, TNM brings you the profiles of two artists who teach progressive politics through their favoured media.
It takes Shajan a minute to explain how Periyar remains relevant. “I worked on a map of India, some time ago. It shows the caste surnames for each state. In the artwork, only on the map of Tamil Nadu, it says, ‘Access Denied.’ That's what Periyar did. He broke that habit of adding one’s caste to one’s name.” As a reminder of that, a minimal line drawing of the Dravidian icon looks over Tamil Nadu.
Known as @shajan_kakfa to his followers on Instagram, this 28-year-old independent artist, has been making digital art to take the work and ideals of anti-caste activists and Dalit leaders to thousands of people using the social media app.
Most recently, Shajan had posted an artwork remembering Malaisamy, a Dalit Panther from Tamil Nadu’s Madurai district. In front of a fiery red background, a drawing of Malaisamy meets your gaze evenly. Behind him, a panther snarls open-mouthed. A statue of Dr Ambedkar, the Constitution he was instrumental in writing tucked under his arm, points to a spot off-screen: perhaps to a casteless future. Near the statue, a board proclaims Thanthai Periyar Nagar in Tamil script. Birds fly over-head. It is an artwork that stuns you into silent contemplation of a revolutionary past. Underneath the post, Shajan tells you the history of Malaisamy. How he fought for justice when Kaatu Raja, a Dalit man was beaten to death in Madurai district. How Malaisamy worked alongside Dr Ambedkar, Immanuel Sekaran (a Dalit, anti-caste leader from Tamil Nadu) and Savitha Ambedkar. How he rebelled against others in his locality to have the area named after Periyar and eventually accomplished that. How the very first statue of Dr Ambedkar in Madurai was installed by Malaisamy.
Each of Shajan’s artworks, posted on his handle, holds a world of knowledge like this. The captions, written mostly in Tamil by him, look back to moments of anti-caste rebellion or respond to events in the news cycle. One of his very popular works is of Dr Ambedkar and Periyar chatting to each other seated side-by-side. Karl Marx stands behind them. This encapsulates Shajan’s politics too.
Shajan, who studied mechanical engineering, now works as an assistant film director. Armed with a talent for hand-drawn images and training in digital media, he decided that his artwork would be a medium to talk about his own fights and the larger ideologies that drive him. “Anti-caste thinkers came into my life out of necessity. From way back when I had to find a vocabulary to refute the mockery of reservation. I knew that people who spoke disparagingly to me of reservation were wrong, but I didn’t know how to put forward an argument challenging them initially. It was a Tamil teacher I had, who introduced me to the concept of social justice. And I kept reading. My reading moulded my politics.”
The foundation of his artwork lies in the belief that art belongs to the people. “I write a lot, pages and pages. I put that into images, but the writing is also important to me. As a matter of fact, I would say my art is a way to attract people to the text I post and lead them to that issue that needs to be spoken about.”
The young artist, when he chooses a historic event to highlight, has to re-visit his old reading so that he can figure out what aspects to adapt into an image. “Other times, when it’s something from the news cycle, it’s outrage that pushes me to make the artwork.”
Periyar came into Shajan’s life at the same time he had to argue against those dismissing reservation in education. “Funnily, everything I was told about Periyar was a misrepresentation. People told me about his views on gender justice, that women should have bodily autonomy, that they should have the right to abortion, his denial of god. These are all true and just ideals, but the way these ideals were presented to me was as if they were twisted, perverse things. It used to make me wonder what was wrong with any of those ideals. Periyar is not wrong,” he says.
In Shajan’s view, if there is a different type of politicisation in Tamil Nadu as compared to North India, the credit goes to Periyar. “I often draw Babasaheb and Periyar together. Interestingly, many of my followers from North India read my posts through Google Translate and ask me where they can read more about Periyar. I’d made a work which shows Periyar saying that once the British leave India, the power will transfer to Brahmins and Baniyas. Someone who saw the post didn’t understand the context and asked me what it was about. At some level the work had an impact on this person and made them reach out. Then it becomes possible to direct people towards the historical context.”
The hope and satisfaction from this impact, Shajan says, is what fuels him to keep making his art. He recalls how Periyar had once said that his truest legacy would be even one person who fights for social justice. “That’s how I see my work too. I believe in the work I do whole-heartedly. I believe in equality. What I want for my work is for it to push people towards the social justice Periyar believed in. Those who stand in the centre; who are neutral. Those who are trying to learn more about social justice, it’s them who I want to help also believe in equality.”
Is it Hyderabad Liberation Day or Telangana National Integration Day? Watch this week's Let Me Explain on the politics over history: