Blog - Ravinder Kaur

Goddes and the Virus

Ravinder Kaur and Sumathi Ramaswamy, in this essay, explore the viral art of twenty-first-century pandemic politics in India. Grounded in the world’s “harshest” lockdown, the essay traces the hyper-nationalist battle against the virus with and through images on the twin fronts of health and economy. A key figure in this viral warfare is the familiar…

Consider the arresting image of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi astride a tiger (Fig. 01). What strikes the gaze is not the colourful picture-perfect scenery but the subdued corporeal posture, making this an unmistakable drawing of pessimism in more ways than one. Take a close look. Dressed in his familiar style code of churidar-kurta…