Coomarswamy attempted to decolonise the Indian Art- Prof. Parul Dave Mukherjee
New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts organised Second Ananda Coomaraswamy Memorial Lecture on the topic ‘Towards Decolonizing Indian Art History via the Problem of Mimesis in the Citrasutra’ to commemorate the 76th Death Anniversary of A.K. Coomaraswamy. Prof. Parul Dave Mukherji, School of Arts & Aesthetics, JNU, New Delhi was the speaker and the session was chaired by Prof. Sachchidanand Joshi, Member Secretary, IGNCA, New Delhi. The distinguished guest of the event was Shri. Ashish Khokhar, Dance Historian, Critic and Author. Dr. Kumar Sanjay Jha, Archivist, IGNCA was also present during the lecture.
Prof. Dave while delivering her lecture touched upon different facets which has emerged in the field in the contemporary times. She in the course of the lecture shed light on the topic of the lecture and said, “Decolonizing art history has recently emerged as a way of updating the discipline and bringing it in line with contemporary debates on non-Eurocentric interpretations of one’s past”. Prof. Dave in her talk drew upon from her research and asserted how Citrasūtra openly endorses mimesis or ‘anukriti’ as a key aesthetic frame. She reiterated that it is possible to read back a strand of decolonising art history in Ananda Kentish Coomarswamy’s defense of Indian art in colonial times, which however came at a price of suppression of mimesis in Indian Art.
She continued and added that Coomarswamy attempted to decolonise the Indian art and only South-Asians understand its art authentically. She further added that Coomarswamy did attempt a critical historiography in art history. Indian comparative aesthetics is dealing with different sense of mimesis where the movement and interpretation are intertwined and ‘Chetna’ is understood in the sense of art making added Prof. Mukherji.
Some pertinent questions were also raised in the course of her lecture like, ‘Is there a need to return to the overlooked theory of mimesis from a new contemporary position after 7 decades of political sovereignty?’ She concluded by saying that it is possible to look at native art in history in non-native way and it is where lies the challenge of decolonising Indian art history. Prof. Parul lecture was an attempt to move to rehabilitate a ‘native’ art and serve the interest of decolonizing art history today.
Ashish Khokhar in his remarks said that the knowledge pool is so vast in regard to this subject, that rewriting and re-positioning and the whole new approach to what is India in India today and how West perceived India needs a re-examination. He added in this context that it is where organisations and institutions like IGNCA, which is multidisciplinary in its approach, has a critical role to play. He extended his thanks to IGNCA for being the forum in bringing all the stakeholders at one place.
Earlier Dr. Kumar Sanjay Jha in his welcome address said that, “Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy was one of the pioneering art historians of the 20th century whose art-historic writing is an intellectual landmark due to its interpretative eloquence and ardent advocacy in favour of the indigenous roots of Indian art”. Dr. Jha asserted that Coomarswamy remains a unique and inspiring scholar and author across the many fields of study he made his own. He concluded by saying that Anand Coomarswamy was the first to recognize and condemn the far-reaching consequences of the Macaulayite education system.