Art Attacks C: Violence and Offence-Taking in India

380 Pages·2018·1.527 MB·English

by  Malvika Maheshwari

Title Pages
Art Attacks: Violence and Offence-Taking in India
Malvika Maheshwari
Print publication date: 2018
Print ISBN-13: 9780199488841
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: March 2019
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780199488841.001.0001
Title Pages
Malvika Maheshwari
(p.iii) Art Attacks (p.iv)
(p.v) Art Attacks
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Praise for the Book
Malvika Maheshwari’s careful study is an important contribution to
our understanding of the complex dynamics of India’s liberal demo-
cratic culture. It explores how liberal democratic laws aff ect the sphere
of artistic culture in paradoxical ways: it examines the legal arrange-
ments that seek to protect artistic freedom, but also demonstrates
how a liberal sensibility about communal dignity generates infl amed
and exaggerated conceptions of injury which try to force the state
to legislate restrictions, and often uses direct violence against artistic
expression. Th is is a highly instructive study of the intersection of art,
liberal law, and democratic politics.
— Sudipta Kaviraj , professor of Indian politics and intellectual
history, Columbia University, New York, USA
Th is is a well-conceived and strongly argued book on an extremely
urgent and topical theme. It is based on a conceptual engagement
with the confl ictual nature of Indian democracy, and with the poli-
tics of liberalism, secularism, religious fundamentalism, and multiple
other forms of dissensions that have motivated the attacks on the free-
dom and licenses of art.
— Tapati Guha-Th akurta , director and professor of history,
Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata, India
In this original and compelling study, Malvika Maheshwari situates
the increasing attacks on artists and vandalizing of their work in India
in the context of changes in India’s democracy and public life. Liberal
freedoms of speech and expression have since the 1980s been severely
challenged by violent campaigns against artists whose works of art are
said to cause off ence to certain communities and collective sentiments.
Th rough a careful analysis of such campaigns, and the people behind
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them, Maheshwari argues persuasively that the performance of anger
and off ence, accompanied by demands for bans and punishment of
individuals and communities, have become central features of Indian
politics, and central to the making of political reputations. Although
Maheshwari shows that the Hindu majoritarian right today has cap-
tured this ‘politics of off ence’, the most pertinent achievement of this
study is to demonstrate how the very intensity of India’s democracy
also allowed public violence and starkly illiberal sentiments to become
acceptable and routinized elements of the country’s public life.
— Th omas Blom Hansen , professor of anthropology and South
Asian studies, Stanford University;
director, Centre for South Asia, Stanford University,
California, USA
Th is is an extremely valuable work on a much-neglected topic. Malvika
Maheshwari carefully exposes the dark side of India’s democracy—
its proclivity for violence. By meticulously wading through violent
attacks on artists, the vandalization of their work, and the cynical,
instrumental politics of off ence-taking, she proposes that violence
must no longer be seen as external to Indian democracy but as its
constitutive element. By nurturing violence as a norm, democracy
has severely tested our constitution’s liberal vision. An excellent book
showing how ‘liberal’ and ‘democracy’ in India are continually mov-
ing apart, pulling Indian society in opposite directions. Disturbing
but highly recommended.
— Rajeev Bhargava , professor at Centre for the Study of
Developing Societies (CSDS);
director, Institute of Indian Th ought, CSDS, New Delhi, India
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VIOLENCE AND
OFFENCE-TAKING
IN INDIA
malvika maheshwari
1
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1

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ISBN-13 (print edition): 978-0-19-948884-1
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Copyright Page
Art Attacks: Violence and Offence-Taking in India
Malvika Maheshwari
Print publication date: 2018
Print ISBN-13: 9780199488841
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: March 2019
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780199488841.001.0001
(p.vi) Copyright Page
Malvika Maheshwari
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research,
scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered
trademark of
Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries.
Published in India by
Oxford University Press
2/11 Ground Floor, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110 002,
India
© Oxford University Press 2019
The moral rights of the author have been asserted.
First Edition published in 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as
expressly permitted
by law, by licence, or under terms agreed with the appropriate
reprographics
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PRINTED FROM OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (oxford.universitypressscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press,
2020. All Rights Reserved. An individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use. 
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Copyright Page
rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the
scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University
Press, at the
address above.
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
ISBN-13 (print edition): 978-0-19-948884-1
ISBN-10 (print edition): 0-19-948884-3
ISBN-13 (eBook): 978-0-19-909378-6
ISBN-10 (eBook): 0-19-909378-4
Typeset in Adobe Garamond Pro 11/13
by The Graphics Solution, New Delhi 110 092
Printed in India by Nutech Print Services India
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Acknowledgements
Christophe Jaff relot, my advisor for the doctoral dissertation—out
of which this work sprang—and without whom there would be
no book.
Bruno Latour, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, and Sunil Khilnani: the most
brilliant scholars, and most considerate as jury members. Th ey were
generous with their encouragement and incisive in their comments,
ensuring that the ‘ soutenance’ did not just remain a moment of the
PhD’s completion, but of starting work on this book.
Sudipta Kaviraj, who made the time to share his ideas on the issue,
helping me think more clearly, and write better.
Th omas Blom Hansen, for his advice and counsel at a critical time.
To Ashoka University, and its fi rst vice-chancellor, Rudranghshu
Mukherjee, for their support.
Much of the learning, the challenge, and the joy of doing research
lay in interacting with the respondents who were part of this study,
as much as reading, resisting, and complying to the suggestions and
comments of the ‘anonymous reviewers’. Both these sets of people
were generous with their time, nudging me in the right direction,
and for little in return. I remain grateful to them.
Urvashi and Pankaj Maheshwary in Vadodara for always welcom-
ing me, sharing my excitement and concerns about the ‘fi eld’ with
patience and copious amounts of love, an expression of which was
introducing me to Seema and Atul Dalmia. Few know the by-lanes
of the art world in Gujarat like they do, and even fewer are as large-
hearted. Kalpana and Mahesh Marda in Mumbai, whose help I could
always count on.
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