The word ‘Lockdown’ echoed in Mahbubur Rahman’s mind right before the pandemic because of the political situation then prevailing in Kashmir. When COVID 19 engulfed the world and everything came to a standstill, people learned to inhabit imaginary microcosms. Rahman and his partner Lipi also marked out their own territories in the house.
It was a long wait for the Covid-19 vaccine. By then, so much had happened. Conspiracy theories were pouring in and breaking news was full of reports on deaths, unrest and protests. Campaigns such as ‘Black Lives Matter’ and the Farmers Movement made the headlines, as did the food crisis, violence, and political unrest that unfolded at breakneck speed. One could hear the voices of preachers, bigots, activists, and those facing imminent job cuts. Overnight migration became the norm. People could no longer afford to live in the big cities. They crossed from the city to the rural hinterland on whatever transportation was available, risking contamination. In the end, the only people taking care of one another were the members of one’s own family. In the long wait of two years, we wove our time, our love, tears, shouts and pain “Of the toxins of a whole history”.
Rahman started to work on a long drawing on handmade Lokta paper from Nepal. It was a bit difficult at first, because working on Lokta paper had to be mastered gradually. He laid five sheets side by side on the wall, each measuring 3 feet by 5 feet, and started drawing with a fine brush, pencil and pen. It took him a long time to complete the work as there were many details that required miniscule brush-work.
In the drawing, Kashmiri textile design and architectural lines from Kashmiri Gates both in Pakistan and India, are blended with the forms of soldiers, and texts from the past. The renowned poet Ghulam Ahmad Mahjoor (1885-1952) was one of the first to write in the native Kashmiri language. Rather than dwell on his own fascination with the beauty of the Kashmiri landscape, Mahjoor chose to write on the misfortunes of that befell the country. He commented on the state of the society, and the ignominy the Kashmiris were subjected to. He pointed his finger at corruption, communal disharmony and deceit. Inspired by the national upsurge in 1930, Mahjoor wrote his most famous poem Nav Kashmir (New Kashmir), in which he urged the people of Kashmir to fight for their freedom.
Rahman used the Dogra dynasty’s state logo of Kashmir and Jammu in the drawing. The Radcliffe line is drawn in gold leaf across the top. The work required deep involvement and concentration on the part of the artist. Each line had to be contemplated separately. For the artist, it was more like writing a story on paper, building a visual narrative of the history, which he tried to interpret through the framework of the Radcliffe line.
The drawing takes the viewer on a long journey, from Lahore to London via the last king of Punjab and his granddaughter. After the death of the last Sikh emperor Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1790-1839), his older son sat on the throne, but died at an early age. Duleep Singh, the younger son ascended the throne at the age of five. For all practical purposes, his mother Maharani Jind Kaur was the monarch for the next five years. Her power and influence was immense, and to counter this, the British imprisoned and exiled her. Meanwhile, Duleep Singh, the ‘Black Prince from Punjab’, then eighteen, was taken to England against his will, and made to convert to Christianity.