Abstract
This paper offers a conceptual reading of the subject of memory and memorialization in the context of the nation though an analysis of the images of Mohandas K. Gandhi circulating in popular culture and contemporary art. Continually re-invoked in official imagery, currency and public memorials, Gandhi is a foundational figure in the meta-narrative of modern India, a figure who links India's freedom struggle with her sovereign identity. The man who complained of a ‘darshan dilemma’ was among the most intensely photographed and caricatured subjects of his time, but he is also unique in the stability of his image. This essay focuses on two major sites of representation. The first half of the essay considers Gandhi as a subject in popular visual culture, print media, and photography before and after independence. The second examines the reinvocation of Gandhi in a range of contemporary artworks that critically re-examine Gandhian values in a time of globalism. From the singularity of his image as the father of the nation, the contemporary Gandhi assumes many afterlives. His abundant discourses on heavy engineering, mechanization, women, religion, and caste return like footnotes to India's conflicted modernity for critique, caricature, and occasional convergence.
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