Portraits of a nation state

Chennai: There are many things that indicate how established a metropolis is — multi-storeyed apartment complexess, speciality hospitals, IT corridors. But along most of the roads these structures stand on, there is at least one manhole where a worker cleans muck with bare hands.

For Chennai photographer Palani Kumar, the idea of a nation state reflected in this absence of change and optimism for one community of city dwellers who worked hard to keep the city running on its wheels.

Palani Kumar is one of five young photographers from India and Wales working on the theme, ‘Imagining the Nation State’, with a grant by Chennai Photo Biennale Foundation, in collaboration with the Diffusion Festival, Wales. The project is being supported by the British Council and Wales Arts International, and intends to bring together diverse perspectives on the concept of the nation state using sub-themes like gender, art, land, folk culture traditions, language and food. "In India, a narrative of an imagined expansive Hindu nation is being created. I believe the invitation to critically engage with questions around the nation, states, and identity is both timely and significant," says artist and writer Sheba Chhachhi, one of the jurors and curators of the project.

At the other end of the country, Tarun Bhartiya, a documentary filmmaker and photographer from the Khasi-Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya, is delving into the unique relationship of the locals with Christianity that was adopted and proliferated in their matrilineal society unlike anywhere else in India.

"Popular opinion about Christianity is that it was brought in unlawfully by missionaries. In these hills, where the earliest missionaries were Welsh Presbyterians, the conversion has been an encounter of equals and a conscious intellectual choice," says Tarun. "People here have adopted and transformed western Christianity. They practice with their own tribal world views, dances and culture. I thought this challenged the idea of the nation-state today, when national solidarity is being viewed as spiritual solidarity. What do you do in the context of a multinational state like India and its transformation into a singular confessional state that is happening now?"

Damarice Amao, one of the project jurors, says the pandemic, migration, and geopolitical tensions undermine more than ever the foundations of the concept of "nation state" born in the 19th century. "At the same time these tensions reveal a continued desire to build community beyond borders or even with neighbours from our building or locality."