T H E N A T U R E O F T H I N G SD E AT H A N D D UA L I S M I N I N D I A N V I L L A G E S

A N E X H I B I T I O N O F PA I N T I N G S & P H O T O G R A P H S B y K O T A N E E L I M A

T H E N A T U R E O F T H I N G S

Death and Dualism in Indian Villages

There have been above 3.2 lakh farmersuicides between 1995-2016, andMaharashtra leads in the number offarmer suicides in the country. Of thetotal toll since 1997, 69,642 farmersuicides have taken place in Maharashtraalone. (Source: National Crime RecordsBureau). Within the state, the regions ofMarathwada and Vidarbha havewitnessed the highest number ofsuicides by farmers.

The reasons for farmer suicides areseveral: inadequate loans and cropprices, unsuitable seeds and agri-practices, low public investment inirrigation and other infra-structure,policy shortfalls of agricultural planningand financial management, landfragmentation and poverty, climatechange and drought, incompatible agri-

Market structures, increase in crop inputcosts, health and education expenses,etc. Further, the research in bothMarathwada and Vidarbha shows severeimpact on households of farmer suicidesthrough a negative convergence ofvarious distress para-meters. Besidesthis, the widows of farmer suicides faceinvisibilities imposed by a patriarchalsociety, which are manifest as tradition,status, procedure, opportunity, value,ownership, and vote, as elaboratedbelow:

One, Tradition: Widowhood does notreturn to the farmer’s wife the controlover her life, but merely transfers it tothe family and community. Two, Status:Only when the widow conforms to rulesof patriarchy is she rewarded withsecurity and respect. Three, Procedure:

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Location of Beed district in Maharashtra

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The state does not facilitate herempowerment beyond the stereotypesthat keep her dependent, and fails torepresent her rights and interests. Four,Opportunity: from an early age, a womanis denied education and employment,which limits the access of the widow tothe outside world. Five, Value: Her work isnot recognised, and the widow does notderive any financial freedom because ofher labour. Six, Ownership: Despite laws,the widow has no claim on land andresidences, which entrenches andmaintains her dependence on the male,land-owning members of the family. Six,Vote: The widow is unrepresented andremains outside the promised rights ofproperty, financial independence, andlivelihood.

Also, there are several consequences offarmer suicides on the children of thehouseholds. Education is the firstcasualty of rural distress, which ironically,only further adds to it. The drop-out rateof students between 5-15 years is 60percent in rural India. (Source: GoI, 2017).First, the education of school-goingchildren, even if free as in case of BelowPoverty Line families, becomes lessimportant than survival. Second, this isespecially so for girls, whose education atbest is indifferently supported andsubject to their reaching marriageable

age. The farmer suicide householdscannot afford the investment’ in the‘continued education of girls. Third, theeldest children, whether boys or girls,help their mothers with earning alivelihood and running the family afterthe farmer suicide. The children,therefore, turn overnight from school-going students to daily wage labour afterthe farmer suicide. Fourth, there is littleor no chance of the children continuingwith education beyond Class X, oracquiring any income-generating skill,due to lack of time and money. The studyof such widows and households will bepart of the State of Working India,Report-2020 by the Azim PremjiUniversity, Bangalore, where a moreelaborate description and analysis will beavailable.

In just the last three years, the Beeddistrict of Maharashtra has faced 651farmer suicides, highest for any onedistrict in the country; that’s 18 suicidesper month in the 11 talukas of the district(Source: SCRB). Beed is 80 percent rural,where about 50 percent of women arecultivators more than men at over 46percent, and more women work as farmlabour at 37 percent than men at 24percent (Source: Census, 2011). The percapita income of the district ismuch lower than the state average, and itis also low on human development

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indicators. Bajra, cotton and wheat, andin some parts sugarcane, are the mainagricultural crops, but drought has beena constant feature of the district since2012, affecting all the talukas.

The life and death in the villages of Beedis best represented through the storiesof survival of the widows of farmersuicides. The painting and photoexhibition, The Nature of Things, byauthor, researcher and artist KotaNeelima, engages with the state of thefarmer suicide households through avisual narrative, which contains over 50photographs, all taken duringconversations with the women survivorsof rural distress. They not only representthe crisis in their own lives, but must beseen as symbols of the acute ruraldistress across the villages of India.

The paintings by the artist are inspiredby the rural life and death in the worst-affected parts of the country, includingMaharashtra. The paintings are the lastmemory of rural landscapes, and howthe villagers remember their world. Theworks draw from the rural Indian’sseveral imaginations of the Presence,and who must now reconcile with theAbsence of everything. This duality isnecessary for survival in the twilightbetween the present and the absent. Areconciliation with unmitigated poverty

and desperation is unavoidable, as oneprepares to fight battles that aredestined to be lost. No arguments of thehigher Truth or the scientific Fact canreproduce a semblance of the Presence,whether of God or of the Government.Only nature is the witness of such longjourneys, and the paintings (oil oncanvas) borrow from the trees and skiesof a vanishing rural India. The works arevibrant, energetic and optimistic; waythe hope is imagined. The theme of theshow is inspired from the Upanishads onthe nature of the Self and the world in allits incompleteness and the unrecon-ciled. The exhibition transposes thisduality on the ground realities in Indianvillages, and engages with the absolutesof distress and dualism throughphotographs and paintings.

As part of an effort for distress alleviation,the exhibition will endeavor to assist thefamilies of famer suicides through theearnings from the sale of the paintings.Part of the proceeds will go to thechildren of farmer suicide households toensure they continue with theireducation or return to school in caseswhere they have dropped out due to thedeath of the farmer. The exhibition isbeing conducted through StudioAdda,which is an outreach initiative of theartist, as well as her studio in New Delhi.More at www.kotaneelima.com

Dr. Kota Neelima is an author, researcherand an impressionist-abstract artist. Shewrites and researches on rural distress,farmer suicides, gender and poverty. Shehas a Ph.D in Political Science and hasbeen a Senior Research Fellow, SouthAsia Studies at The Paul H. Nitze Schoolof Advanced International Studies (SAIS),Johns Hopkins University, WashingtonDC.

For that past 15 years, Neelima’s workshave been displayed in several cities ofIndia and abroad, and among her soloshows are, First Cause (2012), What theEyes Can See (2015), Places of Worship(2017), Metaphors of the Moon (2018). Herworks have been part of shows in severalcountries, and her latest solo show, TheManifest Absence (2018), was held at theNehru Centre, London. Her works weredisplayed at the China Art Museum inShanghai, and are part of the permanentcollection at the Museum of Sacred Art,Belgium.

THE NATURE OF THINGS

Visual Arts Gallery,Ind ia Habi tat Centre,

Lodhi Road, New Delh i . 23-29 Augus t 2019

10am - 8pm (a l l days )

AN EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS & PHOTOGRAPHS

www.kotaneelima.com

kotaneelima@hotmail.com

+91 9810395996

DEATH AND DUALISM IN INDIAN VILLAGES

By Kota Neelima