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Business Standard
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Standard
'Sab yaad rakha jayega' poet Aamir Aziz accuses artist of lifting his work
A Delhi-based poet and activist has accused contemporary artist Anita Dube of using his popular protest poem 'Sab Yaad Rakha Jayega' without his permission, credit, or compensation. Aamir Aziz, an alumnus of Jamia Millia Islamia, called the act 'cultural extraction and plunder'. The 35-year-old poet said he first discovered the alleged unauthorised use of his work when a friend noticed the poem stitched into an exhibit at Vadehra Art Gallery on March 18. The gallery, one of India's most prestigious art institutions, is currently showcasing an exhibition of Dube's work. Aziz alleged that his poem had been renamed and recontextualised in the gallery, making it appear as if it were Dube's original creation. 'That was the first time I learned Anita Dube had taken my poem and turned it into her 'art'. When I confronted her, she made it seem normal — like lifting a living poet's work, branding it into her own, and selling it in elite galleries for lakhs of rupees was normal,' Aziz stated in a social media post. According to Aziz, this was not an isolated case. He later found out that his poem had been previously displayed without permission in a 2023 exhibition titled 'Of Mimicry, Mimesis and Masquerade', curated by Arshiya Lokhandwala, and again at the India Art Fair in 2025. 'When I confronted her, she didn't mention these previous exhibitions. She hid it. Deliberately,' Aziz alleged. He drew a clear distinction between solidarity and exploitation, saying, 'Let's be clear: if someone holds my poem in a placard at a protest, a rally, or a people's uprising — I stand with them. But this is not that. This is not solidarity. This is not homage. This is not conceptual borrowing. This is theft. This is erasure.' Aziz further claimed that sections of his poem were altered and embedded into wood carvings and velvet cloth installations, showcased in commercial gallery spaces — all without credit or acknowledgement. He accused Anita Dube and the galleries involved of exploiting marginalised voices for profit. 'The oldest trick in the book, inherited from the same colonial masters: steal the voice, erase the name, and sell the illusion of originality,' he wrote. 'Sab Yaad Rakha Jayega' rose to prominence during the anti-CAA protests, becoming a symbol of resistance. It even caught international attention when Roger Waters, co-founder of the legendary band Pink Floyd, read it aloud at a London event in February 2020. The poem also became widely known during the violent anti-CAA protests in Delhi. Now, Aziz says, the poem that once stood for defiance has been 'gutted, defanged, and stitched into velvet for profit.' Aziz said he sent legal notices to both Anita Dube and Vadehra Art Gallery, demanding accountability and the removal of his poem from the exhibition. However, he claims his concerns were dismissed. 'In return: silence, half-truths, and insulting offers,' he wrote. 'I asked them to take the work down. They refused. The exhibition at Vadehra Art Gallery is on till the 26th of April.' Anita Dube, known for her use of text, found objects, velvet, beads, bones, and ceramic eyes to explore personal and collective histories, often addresses themes of loss, regeneration, and resistance in her work. A public response from Anita Dube regarding these allegations is still awaited.
Scroll.in
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Scroll.in
‘This is theft, erasure': Poet Aamir Aziz accuses Anita Dube of plagiarism, artist apologises
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 (@ 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 — 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.
