Session Name: Contested Borders and Heritages in Contemporary Art in Asia
3 - Timed Out?: Mughal Pasts and South Asian Futures
Tuesday, July 30, 2024
09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)
Presentation Abstract The Mughals. Their very name spells power and prestige. Of Turkic-Mongol origin, the dynasty ruled most of northern India from the 16th to the 18th century, its emperors ranking among the Subcontinent’s greatest patrons of the arts, famous for their cultivation of ornate Miniature painting, for their jewels, lush gardens, and the splendour of their architectural creations like the oft-lauded Taj Mahal. Their spectre still looms large in the Subcontinent. This paper will investigate how this most glamorous of Muslim dynasties in South Asia, haunts the art, culture, and political agendas of both India and Pakistan. If in Pakistan, the Mughal past is celebrated, in India today it is increasingly, and insistently, denigrated by Right-wing politicians. And yet, artists of both countries continue to be inspired by the Mughals. Is this current fascination in South Asian art merely a nostalgic reworking of a golden age of glory? This paper argues otherwise. Focusing on contemporary artists responding to or utilising the Mughals stylistically or thematically in paintings and installations, it will propose that in both India and Pakistan, revisiting the ‘glittering’ past of this bygone era serves to protest against an increasingly conflict-ridden present. Examining London-based Kashmiri Raqib Shaw’s gold-embossed paintings, Indian artist Gulammohammed Sheikh’s Mappa Mundi series of jewel-hued collages, and American Pakistani Shahzia Sikander’s mini and massive miniature painting-inspired output, this paper will demonstrate how their use of Mughal motifs deliberately undermines religious fundamentalism.
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