‘This is theft, erasure': Poet Aamir Aziz accuses Anita Dube of plagiarism, artist apologises

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21-04-2025

Poet Aamir Aziz on Sunday accused artist Anita Dube of plagiarising one of his poems in a recent exhibition in Delhi.
'My poem Sab Yaad Rakha Jayega has been used without my knowledge, consent, credit or compensation by the internationally celebrated artist Anita Dube,' Aziz alleged on social media.
Aziz first shared the poem on his YouTube channel in January 2020 amid the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests.
Aziz said he was informed on March 18 that phrases from the poem had been 'stitched into a work on display' by Dube in her exhibition, which was titled Timanjala Ghar, or 'Three-storyed Home', at Vadehra Art Gallery in Delhi.
In a post on Instagram, Aziz identified four pieces in which his poem was used. The artworks are abstract pieces made with fabric, wood and paint. The gallery said they would not be sold until the matter is resolved.
Aziz's answers to questions sent by Scroll were awaited. This story will be updated once we receive a response.
In a statement shared with Scroll on Monday, Dube said she hoped to 'resolve this issue in a fair manner'.
'I am replying to this social media trial initiated by Aamir Aziz with sadness,' Dube's statement read. 'I have been in love with Sab Yaad Rakha Jayega, especially some lines which swirled around in my head like dervishes… The intent of quoting words from Aamir Aziz's poem was to celebrate them.'
Dube added: 'I realise that I made an ethical lapse in only giving credit, but not checking with Aamir using words from his poem. However I reached out and called him, apologized, and offered to correct this by remuneration. Aamir instead chose to send a legal notice, and then I had to go to a lawyer as well.'
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Aamir Aziz (@aamir.aziz.3785)
Aziz said that when he confronted Dube, she tried to make her actions 'seem normal'. He accused her of 'lifting a living poet's work, branding it into her own, and selling it in elite galleries for lakhs of rupees'.
Aziz also alleged that Dube had been plagiarising his poem 'for years', including at a 2023 exhibition titled Of Mimicry, Mimesis and Masquerade.
'She didn't mention this in our first conversation,' Aziz alleged. 'She hid it deliberately.'
Aziz said he would not object to someone using his poem on a placard at a protest. However, in this case, his poem had been 'hung inside a commercial white cube space, renamed, rebranded and resold at an enormous price without ever telling me'.
Aziz described the alleged plagiarism not as 'solidarity' or a conceptual borrowing, but 'theft' and 'erasure' of his work.
'This is entitled section of the art world doing what it does best extracting, consuming, profiting while pretending radical,' he said.
He added: 'This is outright cultural extraction and plunder – stripping authors of autonomy while profiting off their voices, especially those from marginalised backgrounds. Their work is used without their knowledge, precisely so they can be excluded from the wealth produced through it.'
And the irony?
The poem raged against injustice.
Anita Dube turned it into a luxury commodity—proof not only that injustice is alive, but that it now wears silk gloves and sells itself as art. That a poem written in defiance was gutted,defanged,and stitched into velvet for profit pic.twitter.com/1ldmB24yN9
— Aamir Aziz (@AamirAzizJmi) April 20, 2025
Aziz said he had sent Dube legal notices demanding answers and accountability for the alleged plagiarism, but received 'half-truths and insulting offers' in return. The artwork was still on display at the exhibition, he said on Sunday.
The Vadehra Art Gallery said on Monday that it had taken the situation 'very seriously'.
'We immediately ensured that the works Aamir Aziz has concerns with were not offered for sale,' the gallery said in a statement. 'We hope that the discussions that are ongoing between Aamir Aziz and Anita Dube can be resolved in amicable and constructive manner.'
Sanjana Shah, an art collector and co-director of Mumbai's Tao Art Gallery, said that Aziz's allegations do not come under the grey area of 'debating whether any art is 'truly original''.
'This is clear malpractice and plagiarism,' Shah said on social media. 'It wasn't inspired from or credited as a collaboration. It was copy pasted with subterfuge.'
Shah added that galleries and curators 'must do their due diligence' when featuring artists and, if alerted to incidents like this, must take action in good conscience.