While founding the Ceylon Social Reform Society in 1905, Ananda Coomaraswamy talked of two essential pre-requisites that needed to be fulfilled before any social reform could be ushered in Ceylonian society.
First, the basis of the revitalization of society should be cultural pluralism. Hence, all Sri Lankans should be taught Sanskrit, Pali, Sinhala, and Tamil to truly appreciate their culture. And the understanding that Sri Lankan heritage could not be separated from the Indian one.
Second, what was ideally the requirement for modern times was the blending of the superior features of Eastern civilization with the best features of the West.
The philosophy behind this organization and its activities was to retrieve and rejuvenate the traditional society of Sri Lanka, embodied in the village communities that were untouched by what he called 'phony westernization'.
For him, an 'illiterate villager' personified the unbreakable bonds between nature, life, and a higher being. And what modernity/westernization had done was, to not only break this bond but also disfigure their relationships with each other.
R. Mahalakshmi, a Professor at JNU, discusses how she faced a peculiar challenge while teaching of the works of stalwarts like Coomaraswamy. Students refused to read him unmediated by the fashionistas of the art history world.
While these students offered sophisticated (yet empty) critiques of the apparently 'traditionalist' viewpoints of Coomaraswamy, they didn't seem to have any problem with Walter Benjamin, who in his work, proposed a similar worldview when it came to modernity and technology.

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More from @Anuraag_Shukla

28 Oct
~ A girls' school in Mangalore, Karnataka (c. the 1870s). Image
Another picture of the same school. This school for girls was housed in a big building. Image
~ Photograph of a Girls' School at Bombay in Maharashtra (c. 1873) Image
Read 9 tweets
12 Oct
~ The Art of a Patachitra Artist, Rupsona Chitrakar, 2018

From the collection of Banglanatak, Patachitra of Durga
~ A painting by the acclaimed Patua Anwar Chitrakar.

Here, the priest, worshippers, and the dhaak players have gathered to offer prayers to Maa Durga. ☀️🚩
~ another depiction of Maa Durga in Bengal patachitra paintings.
Read 23 tweets
11 Oct
How the principle of 'interdisciplinarity' was so integral to even a text that was written some 1000 years back. The Samarangana Sutradhara was written by Maharaja Bhoja of Dhara (c. 1010-1055) as a complete manual on all arts.
Even though it had a special focus on architecture, it also talked about how the same principles can be used in paintings as well. These principles can be further used to define human psyche, by linking different color schemes to different human emotions.
A painting, says the text, should have six limbs; pramana- appropriate size, rupabheda- variations in form, sadrishya- a reflection of reality, bhava yojana - the ability to evoke the desired mood, lavanya yojana- a glimpse of the beauty & varnikabhanga- the choice of the color.
Read 4 tweets
7 Sep
~ Kesa-vinyasa: Hairstyles (coiffures) in early Indian arts

The scriptures/mural representations, ranging from the 2nd-century BC to the 17th century AD, have detailed out the everyday living of Indians. This literary data has immense value in analyzing the culture.
The Harappans were quite interested in unique hairstyles and using combs and mirrors for making their hair-do. The picture here shows a Mirror, hairpin & collyrium pot, dated 2700 BC.
The dancing girl of the Harappan period is one of the finest examples of Indian art. An exclusive feature of this sculpture is her hair, coiled beautifully in a thick mass falling over the right shoulder.
Read 13 tweets
6 Sep
The same pipeline/network effect can now be seen in the education sector. So many of them with the one-year-long degree from Harvard are now in the business of 'revolutionizing' education, neatly aligned with agendas of the world bank/IMF/Impact bonds.

@subirshukla
A typical trajectory for such organizations/start-ups is to avail initial funding from the impact fund instituted at the graduating institution. Get recognition for your 'revolutionizing' work from the same network and get invited to a symposium organized by the same cabal.
What drives these organizations is not what structural problems education sector is facing, but what can attract funding and instant recognition. Hence, playing around with popular educational discourse, by using terms like 'at scale', 'evidence-based', 'theory of change' , etc.
Read 4 tweets
4 Sep
Reading this fascinating account on Shyamji Krishnavarma's life & work. A graduate of Balliol College, he founded the IHRS, India House, and The Indian Sociologist in London.

He believed in Spencer's dictum: "Resistance to aggression is not simply justified, but imperative".
Krishnavarma founded India House as a hostel for Indian students to help Indian students who were facing racist attacks in Britain. It was inaugurated in presence of Dadabhai Naoroji, Lala Lajpat Rai, Madam Cama, etc.
Despite Krishnavarma being one of the first activists to organize militant anticolonial resistance outside India, his name does not figure among the celebrities of the official versions of the Indian independence struggle. His scholarly contributions have been forgotten, too.
Read 10 tweets

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