A Nation of Imaginaries: Negotiating India’s Collective Identity through Mughal Miniatures
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Date
2024-01-22
Authors
Mohammed - Khaja, Ali
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Waterloo
Abstract
India is a nation of imaginaries. Through time, the subcontinent has been captivated by mystical and profane conceptions of collective identity which have inspired hope, fear, and belonging. Since 2014, the nation has been swept up by the imaginary of Hindutva, a cultural nationalist movement that proposes a primordial cultural and ethnic identity within the territorial region of the Indian subcontinent. The Hindutva movement has been championed by the governing political right which have deployed it to sow communal divide and establish a homogeneous society. The Indian-Muslim is particularly antagonized within this socio-political context and has been pushed to the margins of society. Rupal Oza, a scholar on nationalism, suggests that the Hindutva project is a “narrative of spatial belonging and segregation” which is complicated by the entangled histories of the Hindu and the Indian-Muslim. As such, the machinations of the Hindutva imaginary see it inscribing itself within the spatial geography of the subcontinent while simultaneously Othering the Indian-Muslim.
My research is situated within this contentious milieu where I investigate the transformation of space by an emboldened nationalist movement. Against the backdrop of an uncertain future for the Indian-Muslim, my research traces the past to uncover the shared history of myths and memories of the Hindu and Muslim communities. My study lands on the late 16th century when the Mughal Empire sprawled across the majority of the Indian subcontinent, unifying an incredibly diverse group of subjects with vast cultural and religious differences. A product of this unprecedented tolerance and social cohesion is the Mughal miniature painting tradition which I foreground as an important visual archive of politics, power, and the ideals of a society. More importantly, I posit the miniature’s characteristic spatial and temporal distortion as a unique capacity to visualize several continuous and discontinuous narratives in the space of a single image.
In this research, I propose that the distinct qualities of the Mughal painting tradition can be re-mobilized in contemporary discourse to critically engage with the Hindutva imaginary and expand the limits imposed on the marginal Other. I lean on the work of Henri Lefevbre and Jane Rendell to argue that the production of miniature images is a radical spatial practice to negotiate the Othering of the Indian-Muslim; where spatial representation is a form of spatial production. My research culminates in a number of disparate reconfigured miniatures that not only interrogate the Hindutva imaginary, but also re-inscribe the Indian-Muslim back into the socio-political fabric of India.
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Keywords
architecture, architectural representation, visual culture, art history, India, Mughal, miniature painting