Hakhoo of Hockey Stadium
Artist Brij Mohan Anand in Kashmir
We know how the rightwing loonies in India react to nude art. We know what happens to the art and the artist. We know how the leaders of the right react. We know how the left intelligentsia argues back. But, what happens in Kashmir.
It’s 1947 and Sheikh Abdullah sets up a cultural front in Kashmir to promote art. Left allied artists are at the forefront of the front. An exhibition is planned. Prominent from all over India are invited for exhibiting their work. Among these artists in Brij Mohan Anand who is invited by Kashmir Sahayak Sabha of Punjab. He spends time in Kashmir, travelling, sketching and painting. In September 1948, the exhibition is inaugurated by the Sheikh at Hadow Memorial College Premises, Shiekh Bagh, Srinagar.
At the exhibition, some visitors are offended by the work of Brij Mohan. He had included some nudes among his work. Sheikh sides with the Kashmiri moral brigade. Sheikh and Brij Mohan have a heated argument that soon turns physical. Later, the artist is told arrest warrants have been issued in his name. The artist silently packs as many of his paintings as he could and heads for the national highway where he finally hitches ride in an army truck, leaving Kashmir hiding under sheets of tarpaulins like some sheep.
The story is told in the book “Narratives for Indian Modernity: The Aesthetic of Brij Mohan Anand” [Aditi Anand / Grant Pooke, 2016]
First art exhibition in Kashmir. Srinagar. 1948. |
Pandit Woman, 1948 |
Cover designed by Brij Mohan Anand for Jamna Das Akhtar’s novel “Kashmir ki Beti” (1978) based on Zooni Gujjar. |
Chashmashahi. 1948 |
Kashmiri Muslim Woman, 1948 |
Portrait of a Raider
~ Ian Melville Stephens, ‘Horned moon: An account of a journey through Pakistan, Kashmir, and Afghanistan’ (1953). Back then, Ian Stephens, former editor of ‘The Statesman’, was one of the first person allowed to cross into India from Pakistan by walking across LOC. Back then, he was also one of the few person’s sympathetic to Pakistan (even quit his job possibly because he thought Pakistan was getting a raw deal), someone who believed that the country had a shot at been a progressive nation. Stephens would meet these simple natives, men capable of abominable deeds in bouts of mass madness, and yet he found them admirable as that is how things were region between Delhi and Karachi, a region he lovingly re-christened ‘Delkaria’.
Defending Kashmir (1949)
Defending Kashmir (1949)
Gives account of fighting in all the major sectors in Jammu and Kashmir in year 1947-48. Appendix for the books gives timeline of events starting from September 1947 leading to war. Also, the conditions and the terms of various ceasefires before the end of war, alongwith the first UN documents, letters and resolutions on India and Pakistan dealing with ‘Kashmir Questions’.
Two Tempests on a reconnaissance flight over the Kashmir valley |
Pandit at Nehru’s Reception, 1948
Pandit Families in Shikaras and Doongas greeting
Nehru in Srinagar, 1948.
[grab from a video via British Pathé archive]
Pampore, 1948.
‘Saffron Market’. Pampore, 1948. By Volkmar Wentzel. For National Geographic. |
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Saffron Market. Pampore, 1948
Here’s a sample from year 1948:
‘Saffron Market’. Pampore, 1948. By Volkmar Wentzel. For National Geographic.
[Created by combining a two page spread]
Caption read: “At Autumn Harvest, Farmers, Pickers, and Buyers Swarm in Pampur’s Saffron Market. Homer sang of the “saffron morn,” Solomon of “spikenard and saffron.” Greeks perfumed theaters with saffron, a royal color; Romans tossed it in Nero’s path. England once cultivated the plant at Saffron Walden.”
Kashmir in The Wide World, 1948
Continuing with theme of Kashmir in European style…
From my personal collection, Kashmir on the cover of July 1948 issue of a London based magazine called The Wide World.
Women Militia, 1948
Kashmiri Militia Women.
Henri Cartier-Bresson. 1948.