PANAJI
A new book, ‘Gandhi in the Gallery: The art of disobedience’ by Sumathi Ramaswamy and Roli Books has been published recently. In the book Mohandas K Gandhi has been described as 'an artist of non-violence,' crafting as he did a set of practices of the self and politics that earned him the mantle of Mahatma, 'the great soul.' His philosophy and praxis of satyagraha, non-violent civil disobedience, has been analysed extensively. But is satyagraha also an aesthetic regime, with practices akin to a work of art? Is Gandhi, then, an artist of disobedience? Sumathi Ramaswamy explores these questions with the help of India's modern and contemporary artists who have over the past century sought out the Mahatma as their muse and invested in him across a wide range of media from painting and sculpture to video installation and digital production. This hardcore book with 224 pages was first published in September 2020. The book is available at Mumbai Sarvodaya Mandal, Gandhi Book Centre, Gandhi Research Foundation at Tardeo Road, Nana Chowk, Mumbai.
