Shravani Hongadu

What is "bharatiya sanskruti" really and on what basis do we quote the term?

The words LGBTQ community and QUEER were always thought by me to be an influence of the western culture, as most of India today is. The course provided a deep insight into India's history by looking at historical evidences that showed the existence of a third nature. Dating back to the Harappan times when third gender figurines were found, Indian history has always acknowledged their presence, and the paintings and writings clearly put it out. The fact that British colonialism completely disrupted our ways of life troubles me .Their incapability to understand the varied forms of nature then has affected our perspective of the QUEER till date.

The painting caters to the larger concept of "WHAT IF?". What would today's India look like if the British hadn't "corrupted" our minds? What would have been considered normal and what would be different?

Taking references from history, characteristic traits like unibrow, having hair of the body, curled soft hair in front of the ear, not growing a beard etc; are thought to be abnormal. Without the influence of colonisation, this is how a bus stop in today's India would have looked like. The painting urges its viewers to question themselves and their thoughts, to answer the question of "What's their normal?", and what biases do they already have and "why?".