![Sample our Area Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5922/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Area-Studies.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
The decolonization of the Indian subcontinent remapped the subjects of cultural past for posterity. The reception entwined with continuity and preservation necessitates acculturation of colonial knowledge system. The essay is based on the premises that history is used as a point of reference to evoke a thread of inspiration and shift. From this perspective, the essay studies the visual remanifestations showcased at the exhibitions: The Ethnographic Series, part of Native Women of South India by Pushpamala N. and Pageants of the Raj – The Workforce by Devangana Kumar. The essay attempts to highlight how in the past few years, contemporary India has fostered artists who keenly replay the British conception of oriental representations. If the proximity of cultures, a counter-product of spatial–temporal compression, is instrumental in bringing supposed inclusiveness of state and market, then the essay investigates how the images are a bid to restructure a society by the artists.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Dilpreet Bhullar
Dilpreet Bhullar works as Art Coordinator at the Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, India. She is Associate Editor of the journal published by the same gallery. She has an MPhil from the University of Delhi in Comparative Indian Literature. Her dissertation is titled Mapping Colonial Gazing(s): A Study of The People of India: A series of Photographic Illustrations with Descriptive Letterpress of the Race and Tribes of Hindustan from 1868–75. Her essays on visual ethnography, identity politics and partition studies have been published in book and journals including Voices and Images (Penguin Random House), South Asian Popular Culture (Taylor and Francis), Violent and Vulnerable Performances: Challenging the Gender Boundaries of Masculinities and Femininities (Inter-Disciplinary Press), Indian Journal of Human Development (Sage Publications) and digital archive www.criticalcollective.in.