[Reader-list] Sahar Ke Nishan: Politics & Poetics of Visual Representations

[jha sadan]

Dear Friends,

We are doing a  project on the visual representational spaces of Delhi.  
This is a brief note and an excerpt from our field notes. Your comments and 
suggestions will be of great help for us to see the field in better and more 
disturbing ways.

Sahar Ke Nishan: Politics and Poetics of Visual Representations (Delhi)

Thematic Areas covered

Although, at this stage of our research, it is bit difficult to classify and 
categorise pictorial spaces which we have covered yet a brief list of them 
is important:

Advertisements in the forms of hoardings of shops and other similar market 
forces. Here, we have tried to capture the complexities of different kinds 
which are products as well as producers of relationship between agencies of 
‘globalization’ and ‘traditional culture’. However, it needs to keep in mind 
that both these words/concepts are used here very loosely. These 
advertisements lead us to those processes in and through which local 
symbolic spaces work hand in hand with standard symbolic spaces.

Multiple use of certain spaces: During the field work we have come across 
many once upon a time government hoardings, hoardings of road signs and 
walls which are used as locations to put posters and for writing different 
messages. The very use of these spaces as standard place as recognised 
places are interesting. If you remember, one of our meetings, you had 
suggested abut few such spaces( notice boards, information boards of art 
galleries etc.)

Posters and Hoardings depicting Pahalwans and their culture. These are again 
abundant and offer interesting semiotic readings. The location of these 
hoardings quite interestingly pose several questions on the socio-cultural 
dynamics of a city. From the perspective of semiotics, for example, many of 
these pahalwan posters present Hanumanji as the fatherly ideal figure but 
Hanumanji is devoid of all his insignias and symbols. His gada has been 
taken over by pahalwans and Hanumanji is shown only as showing the figures 
of Ram and Sita. There may be various ways of entering into this semiotic 
field but this is not a place to go into the details of it.

Advertisements of local sex doctors, hakims, faith heelers, astrologers etc. 
An extremely rich field and a very problematic one. One of the most 
troublesome aspect of this field is its vastness and its fluid character in 
terms of their cultural belongingness. This is the category where, the 
mobility of the city culture can be seen at it’s best.

Wall writings putting common man at the center. These kinds of writings 
range from warnings( gadhe ke put yahan mat mut) to the following social 
message:

Yadi IAS wa IPS adhikari nihswarth bhav se maatra betan par nirvar hokar 
desh ki seva karain to desh maatra ek maah main hi sudhar jaiga.—Srinath 
graam+ post, Nadini, Zila- Mirzapur. Uttar Pradesh.> (If IAS officers  
discharge theire duties in honest and selfless manner , the state of the 
country would improve in just one month. --Srinath. Village+post-Nadini, 
Zila- Mirzapur. Uttar Pradesh)

Pictorial Spaces circulating myths. Although all kinds of spaces create 
their own myths and operate in various mythic structures but even we get 
down from the couch wagon of Roland Barthes and move to Lajpat Roy market of 
Delhi, we get stickers telling the whole story of a temple.

Religious and moral messages.  Here, we would like to mention a case of an 
old lady living(?)/ working(her wrok is defined here, primarily from our 
vantage point, and not as her own occupational engagement) in the area of 
Shakti Nagar. In this area, we find walls written all over with religious 
slogans. We have come to know about the author, this lady, and planning to 
interview her if possible. This wall writing has a potential to provide a 
very rich field,  to explore various constructs of psycho-religious 
discourses of the city

Dalit Spaces. Pictures of Guru Ravidas at street side cobblers’ shop is a 
good example and offers interesting reading.

There are various other spaces and lot of examples but now I would like to 
mention some of the unexplored areas which we are planning to cover and 
which we feel extremely difficult. These are classroom desks (we have not 
been getting entry into schools, In the university, due to exams, desks have 
been removed yet we are trying to get to this space;) Monumental spaces 
(this we will cover in next few weeks) and most important among difficult 
spaces is the graffities of public urinals and toilets( we are trying our 
best to document this space).

Our  field work covers the following areas:

East Delhi:
Yamuna Vihar, Chand Bagh, Bhajan Pura, Dayal Pur, Karawal Nagar, Jagat Puri, 
Lakshmi Nagar, Shakar Pur, Ganesh Nagar, Sita Puri, Pqatparganj and Pandav 
Nagar.

West Delhi
Mahavir Enclave, Sadh Nagar, Mangla Puri, Palam, Raj Nagar, Uttam Nagar, 
Mangol Puri and Vikash Puri.

North Delhi
Inderlok, Shakti nagar, Jahangir Puri, Azadpur Gaon, Azad pur, Kabel Park, 
Majlish Park Camp,, Model Town, Kamla Nagar, Vijay Nagar, Azad Market, Sadar 
Bazar, Jhandewalan, Idgah Road, Malka Ganj, Ridge area, Karol Bagh, Darya 
Ganj and ther area near ISBT.

South Delhi
South Extension, Houz Khas, Yusuf Sarai and Green Park.

This is not an exhaustive list of the areas covered during the field work 
neither it is to say that all the areas mentioned above are documented 
exhaustively (keeping in mind the horizontal coverage this word, 
documentation demands). This is just to give you an idea of the geography of 
our field work. We selected these areas both on the basis of certain 
predetermined notions and also due to the proximity of these areas with our 
own locations of stay and daily movements.

In the coming weeks, we are planning to revisit these areas. We would also 
like to expand the field little further. In coming weeks, the focus will be 
more on recovering comparative field experiences at different geographical 
locations.

------------------------
Recovering Experiences

We are obsessed with the idea of recovering our own experiences during the 
course of field work. We would like to share an excerpt of field diary.

10 December 2001
· This is my first day, when I am traveling with a preconceived notion that 
in densely populated area I will get dense forest of advertisements.
· Classification of advertisements:
i. advertisements of newly inhabited middle class areas.
ii. gallion ke advertisements
iii. advertisements of lower middle class.

Advertisements of main road and advertisements of lower class colonies( 
J.J.colonies, lower class government staff colonies etc.) differ 
substantially. In lower class areas pictorial spaces dominate while in the 
middle class or upper class market areas or residential areas written 
messages acquire dominant place.

After initial hesitations, I have started taking pictures, even on the 
crowded streets. People are looking at me with amusements. They look at me 
taking pictures of those advertisements which they see every day. These are 
pictures, they are quite accustomed to see. It is a matter of surprise for 
them that some body is taking picture of these ordinary spaces.

The first picture that I am taking is of Baba Kurwan Shah tantrik. This 
poster, I have seen at various places in the 'trans-Yamuna' area. Every 
where, posters have been posted in very dense manner so that you should not 
miss it just because of its small size. Secondly, because of short time span 
of paper posters, it is necessary that maximum number of people read it in a 
minimum time period.

I move ahead and now I am in Yamuna Vihar area. Here, on the school sign- 
board, I find a picture of a boy. In the background there is a clear blue 
sky and green grass. This is just opposite to the low light and narrow space 
of the inside of the school.

Behind this locality is Suhas Nagar./ I am standing at a painter’s shop. The 
name of the shop is “Tanha”. Painter has tried his best to paint this 
emotion. One can easily be tempted to call it a self portrait of the 
painter. The painter is standing there and he is happy by seeing me taking 
the picture of his signboard. He says, “kyon bhai sahib! Achhi lagi! Andar 
aur bhi hai. I say,
“ nahi main bahar ki hi picture leta hun"(no, I take pictures that are 
outside).
      “ aap picture kyon le rahe ho?"(why do you take pictures?)
      “study ke liye”(for research)
       ……
  I am taking picture of Shivam Public School in Bhajan pura for its 
background. Here the school gate directly opens at the street but in the 
picture, there is a long field with green grass and in the picture you enter 
into the school only after crossing this long green field.

Now, I am at the Kamal Sari Palace. Here is a picture of a lady sitting in a 
deep red sari. With a grace there is an emotion of ownership on the face of 
the lady. This signboard is inviting as if, please come inside, maalkin.

Now I am in Chand Pura. This is a kingdom of flees. They are in lakhs 
sitting atop the signboard. I am taking picture of a sign board. 20-30 of 
them are there even on this board. I ask the reason for this number. Nobody 
gives satisfactory reason.’ Bagal main nala hai.’ Purani wasti hai’. One has 
even said, ‘musalmano ki wasti hai’.

I get a board in which loan scheme to open your own work and for 
self-employment is mentioned and its been said to contact Saif clinic. Saif 
clinic is a dental clinic. You will find many such advertisements in the 
market which will put you in surprise by their combination of purposes.

Gulawati wale pahalwan hazi majid and farid pahalwan repair broken bones and 
sell langots (loin cloth)of pahalwans. The message of the picture shows that 
breaking of bones is hardly a matter of concern for pahalwans and they 
hardly pay any heed to this. They can work on it quite easily and they can 
do it in tassaliwaksh manner. Apart from this another angle to the message 
is also that you are yourself responsible for your own body and must not 
treat it in passive way. This offers itself as an alternative option to 
costly allopathic treatment.

On the Sign-board of Kalua pahalwan merathwale, the word, merathwale has 
been hidden by sticking a paper over it.

At the end I take two pictures of Diwakar painter.

Hope you would like it. The resistance posed during the course of the field 
work by owners of (these representational spaces) shops and local people is 
another interesting area which I would discuss next time.

Please send your comments and suggestions
Thanking You.
Prabhas Ranjan.
Sadan Jha <jhasadan at hotmail.com>






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