05-05-2025
‘Samathuva Paravaigal' photo exhibition inaugurated
Madurai Corporation Commissioner Chitra Vijayan inaugurated a 'Samathuva Paarvaigal,' a photo exhibition event at Government Museum in Madurai on Monday.
The event which was part of the 'Samathuvom Kanbom,' - an awareness programme conducted by the Centre for Social Justice and Equity of Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department and Madras School of Social Work.
The exhibition featured pictures of photographers from various parts of the country.
Starting from a tribal wedding, the photos depicted wornout slippers of workers, wedding procession of a Dalit youth with heavy police protection, series of newspapers run by Dalit personalities, Zadipatti – a unique form of rural theatre in Maharashtra, among others.
J. Balasubramaniam, professor, Journalism Department Madurai Kamaraj University, one of the organisers and who has displayed the newspaper series, said that unlike other government events, the photo exhibition, which was curated by photographers named Steevez Rodriguez and J. Ajay Kumar, was done with an idea of bringing together artists who worked on the life of marginalised people in various parts of the country.
As the organisers were aware of how a progressive idea would be conceived when it was just another event where speakers would be preaching the struggles faced by the oppressed people, it was made into a unique photo exhibition which could not be possibly seen in any other government events, he added.
'As we usually look down to see a slipper, here at the exhibit, the photographs of badly wornout slippers taken by photographer Palani Kumar, used by workers of various sectors were hung above,' he noted.
Such a perspective would be a different experience to the viewers, Mr. Balasubramaniam said.
By allowing them to conceive a different idea, the perspective of the viewers would automatically change to understand the photograph, he pointed out.
Another photograph series about a Dalit youth's wedding in Rajasthan which was carried out with a heavy police deployment would have read by many of the people as just some news, he said.
But seeing them visually as a life experience, he added that would allow them to think out of the box about the life and the struggles still faced by the Dalit community in the so-called developed world.
Writer Stalin Rajangam, another organiser, said that photographs of various political events involving Dalits that have unfolded in the past century were displayed as Artificial Intelligence images.
Though the images were AI-generated, it strongly proclaimed the aspirations of several Dalits, he added.
'The justice cut for a chair' displayed Melavalavu Murugesan, a Dalit leader from Melavalavu who was hacked by caste Hindus, as sitting on the chair as a panchayat president.
Other displays included uprising for water, a struggle to access public waterbodies, and submission of 1969 untouchability report by Ilayaperumal.
Mr. Rajangam noted that though the photographs were a creative idea inspired from real events, in reality, those were aspirations of the Dalits to be treated equal in the caste-ridden society of ours.
C. Santhalingam, former archaeologist and secretary of Pandiya Nattu Varalattru Aivu Mayyam, said though there were several top court judgements and laws mandating equality and treatment of all humans as equal, in reality, they were just on papers.
