Electoral Symbols, EC and the Visual Terrain of Indian Elections
Sruthi MuraleedharanA study of the shifting political, ideological and aesthetic ideas and agendas reflected in the symbols allotted to prominent Indian political parties by the Election Commission since 1951.

26 Jun 2024 | Essay

Biswin Sadi: Politics and Popular Readership in Urdu Print Culture
Umara ZainabFocusing on the Delhi-based magazine, Biswin Sadi, the writer examines the role of Urdu political commentary and cartoons in critiquing state structures.

23 May 2024 | Essay

To See or Not to See…That is the Question
Ganesh V. ShivaswamyOn the origins of the concept of “obscenity” in art, the debates around it and its evolution as a societal and legal construct.

24 Apr 2024 | Essay

Art in the Indian Constitution
Umara ZainabThe illustrations in the Indian Constitution must be recovered and contextualized within the guiding principles that went into the nationalist ethos and history-writing in the 1950s.

26 Feb 2024 | Essay

The Sounds of Radio in India
Vebhuti DuggalThis article looks at how radio policies affected the creation of sound standards on All India Radio and produced and maintained a citizen-listener over the decades.

23 Jan 2024 | Essay

Soap Advertising: Decently Negotiating Law, Identity and Nation
Sreyashi MukherjeeOn the navigation of notions of decency and obscenity through female-centred soap commercials from the 1980s and 1990s.

22 Dec 2023 | Essay

Queer and Here: Sexuality in Hindi Cinema
Madhavi MenonA look at how we understand queerness in India, and Hindi films which do or do not count as “queer-friendly”.

27 Nov 2023 | Essay

The Many Memories of Bahadur Shah Zafar and Hindustan
Umara ZainabThe subcontinent’s last Mughal emperor holds a mirror to older pasts of a syncretic 'Hindustan' that were later usurped by a more tightly controlled narrative of 'British India'.

26 Oct 2023 | Essay

On Birsa Munda: In Conversation with Rahul Ranjan
Vasudha ChatterjeeOn the commemoration of adivasi leader Birsa Munda, the politics of memory, and subaltern resistance through the act of making statues, samadhis and memorial sites.

25 Sep 2023 | Interview

Interview with Ishan Tankha
Critical CollectiveIshan Tankha addresses questions on the aesthetics of photojournalism, the challenges thrown up by social media circulation, and photography's current stakes in claims of truth.

20 Jul 2023 | Interview

Review: How Secular is Art?
Malvika MaheshwariThe author writes on the relationship between devotion, secularism, art and politics, as explored in a new book edited by Tapati Guha-Thakurta and Vazira Zamindar.

20 Jul 2023 | Review

Interview with Zishaan A Latif
Critical CollectiveThe photographer/visual artist discusses his politics, sense of ethics and use of different strategies while reflecting on the role of the photographer in recording people's stories and struggles.

26 Jun 2023 | Interview

The Trajectories of Change in Urdu Women’s Magazines Post-1947
Saba NehalThe article examines how Urdu women’s magazines reoriented themselves post-1947, keeping in mind the new social reality of independent India.

27 Feb 2023 | Essay

The Sharif Bibi: Partition and Urdu Women’s Magazines
Umara ZainabThe author studies the covers of the Urdu women’s magazine, Ismat, to highlight how the imagination of the ideal Muslim woman changed following the Partition of the subcontinent.

27 Feb 2023 | Essay