Faces and frames of resistance

Vaanam Art Festival celebrates art and artistes form the DBA spectrum, in this Dalit History Month

Published on:

03 Apr 2025, 12:30 am

There is a rhythm to resistance — it echoes in the fiery speeches of Malcolm X, the soul-stirring hymns of Martin Luther King Jr., and the defiant piano keys of Nina Simone. It is the same rhythm that inspired Dr BR Ambedkar as he drafted a constitution for a nation that had long denied its people’s dignity. Oppression wears many faces, so does rebellion. Sometimes, rebellion is not just clenched fists and raised voices — it is art, literature, and the unrelenting act of remembering.

For the past four years, the Vaanam Art Festival has been carving out space for that remembrance. As Vasugi Bhaskar, editor of Neelam Publications, explains, the festival draws direct inspiration from the Black community’s celebration of February as Black History Month. “Worldwide, all the politics have been against supremacy,” says Vasugi. “In India, Dalits connect with that politics because it is essential for them.” The parallels are striking, just as The Black Panther Party emerged in the US, the Dalit Panther Movement rose in India. Both were rebellions against systems that sought to erase them.

Why a Dalit History Month?

Progressive societies often pay lip service to Dalit upliftment — economically, socially — but rarely acknowledge their role in shaping history. “A lot of Dalits are responsible for the social change today. But because they had an unavoidable power in history, the measures taken to suppress them were ineffective,” shares Vasugi. Ambedkar understood this erasure intimately and intuitively. He framed Dalit struggle as a war between Brahminism and Buddhism, a cultural battle as much as a political one.

The festival is not just about reclaiming history — it is about asserting that Dalit art is art. “We have to showcase our art and say that it is no less than any other art form,” Vasugi says. The dream is to build something permanent — a Dalit museum, much like the institutions preserving Black history in the US. Director Pa Ranjith has championed this vision. “But it’s a big job,” Vasugi admits. “In a movement like Neelam Cultural Centre, we start with festivals. Maybe one day, a museum.”

or now, the festival is an act of archival. Dalit records are scarce; the stories, systematically omitted — be it from the history textbooks, or mainstream cinema. “Whatever we can do by ourselves, we are doing. Re-registering this into history — that is the whole month’s agenda,” says Vasugi.

Who gets to tell the story?

Must artistes be born Dalit? Vasugi’s answer is nuanced. “Dalit art should come from a consciousness,” he explains. Solidarity is not just saying, ‘I am with you’— it is understanding the politics, the perspective. The festival, while centring Dalit voices, also stands against all oppression: Gaza’s suffering, gender inequality, caste discrimination. “There is no criteria that artistes should be born Dalits,” he clarifies. “This festival is against any form of discrimination worldwide.”

Self-interrogation is key. “What did we do?” Vasugi asks, anticipating criticism. “Women’s contributions are less. Women directors are less. These questions will come.” But the festival does not dodge them. Instead, it sits with the discomfort, letting it shape the journey. “We aren’t viewing this as a counteract to satisfy people asking questions,” Vasugi says. “We place ourselves in their voice. When you think like that, art forms multiply, regions get covered, democratic forces grow.”

The festival’s programming is as expansive as its vision. Historian Ramachandra Guha will speak on Ambedkar and Gandhi’s contested legacies. Literary panels span five languages; discussions range from gender discrimination to science fiction. There are poetry readings, children’s literature debates, and the Verchol Dalit Literary Award for Sivagami IAS, whose documentary and analytical panel will examine why she is being honoured.

Resistance is not always blood-stained protest. It is also the quiet labour of answering the questions within, of insisting on joy amid the struggle. The Vaanam Art Festival is both fight and feast: a refusal to let history forget, and a celebration of all the ways Dalits have shaped it. Oppression spreads like wildfire, so doea the power of creation. As Vasugi puts it, “We go on and on about all kinds of oppression.” And in that going on, there is power.