CHENNAI: We are a nation of conceptual artists. For those who have never heard the term, it means an individual who generates a visual representation for an item, character or area that does not yet exist. Aren’t we all then, experts at finding a symbolic meaning to everything? Sounds, almost all living and non-living beings, occurrences — everything around us and beyond, evokes a deeper meaning that could baffle the uninitiated. A noisy lizard may be announcing its presence to other geckos in the vicinity, but to someone making an emphatic proclamation, it is a testimony to the fact that truth was being spoken.
A crow is symbolic of one’s ancestors during death anniversaries while at other times, it is meant to be shooed away, a banyan tree is a metaphor for countless village panchayat judgements — we could teach the contemporary conceptual artist across the shores a thing or two indeed!
Symbolism served as a powerful factor to unite the country when India was on the threshold of freedom. The chakra or wheel was one such. Though the use of chakras in India dates back to the 14th century, it was during the independence struggle that it became a symbol of resistance and self-sufficiency. When Mahatma Gandhi asked Indians to boycott foreign goods, it was the chakra that he used to initiate the Swadeshi Movement and to ask Indians to spin their own cloth. The chakra inspired the nation to seek dignity in self-reliance and soon found its way into the first Indian national flag, which was later replaced by the Ashoka Chakra. Even to this day, the image of a chakra brings on a feeling of pride and the sense of being Indian.
Salt today may be what we use in defined quantities to make our food edible. It wasn’t the case in the years before our country’s freedom however. Salt took on a whole new meaning when the British decided to levy the Salt tax. Enraged at the unfairness of this British salt monopoly, a non-violent protest was organised by Mahatma Gandhi in 1930. With a horde of people joining him from several parts of the country, Gandhiji marched from Sabarmati to Dandi on foot, and broke the law by picking up handfuls of salt from the shores, thereby producing salt. He called upon all Indians to break the salt laws too. The humble salt, at the time, became a mighty symbol of dissent.
One modest sculpture made it to this list of nationalist symbols too — the three monkeys. This sculpture of three monkeys sitting together with one covering the eyes, one covering the ears and the other covering the mouth was a favourite of the Mahatma, who carried it with him everywhere as an exception to his lifestyle devoid of possessions. Broadly seen as a visual representation of the proverb ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’, this sculpture became a metaphor for maintaining calm during the oppressive rule of the colonisers. These symbols may be redundant in an independent India but it is essential that we acknowledge the role it played 76 years ago!