Delhi, the city that fuses the richness of history, culture and politics, has redefined itself over and over again.
Such syncretism has led to the spurt of a new cultural vocabulary – graffiti.
Urban micro hamlets in Delhi like Hauz Khas Village, Shah Pur Jaat, and Khirki Village are replete with symbols of resistance in form of graffiti. Walls have been used as a public canvas to voice opinions – often subversive in nature.
Graffiti has become a social phenomenon that puts across uncensored messages of advocacy, protest, resistance and freedom. For decades, the walls have been defined by its many messages scribbled by graffiti artists who articulate the voice of the ‘aam aadmi’ in the most artistic manner possible. It has covered a range of social issues such as, price rise, sexual harassment, black money, bureaucracy and politics.
It raises several questions: Is it possible for graffiti to create any space for change in society and bring about awareness about pressing issues? Who participates in this? What equation does it share with the state and the public?
Let’s take a look at some of the most prominent pieces of graffiti spotted:
This art work was seen on a wall in Connaught Place, after the infamous Nirbhaya Gang rape in December 2012. It sent out a strong message against violence.
Messages like ‘stop rape’ and ‘stop staring’ became common.
The anti-rape graffiti post 2012 could broadly be classified under two categories – those that expressed disgust, and those that demanded the rapists be hanged. They also expressed volumes about the maker of the graffiti – and their perceived audience. A majority of these were written in English, a language understood by a choice few – which indicated that the graffiti targeted the middle and upper middle class.
A graffiti of a girl painted on the walls of Kamala Nehru College, asked thousands of passersby one disturbing question – “Am I safe here?”
This graffiti is of importance because of its location – a girl’s college in the heart of the city. Were women safe even here?
A prominent theme of graffiti in Delhi is corruption. Faceless wall warriors took to the streets to critique the government for corruption and scams done under the Congress led regime during the Commonwealth Games. Graffiti criticising the Games exposed the farce behind this spectacle; the tenure of the Commonwealth Games saw an upsurge of graffiti that read, ‘Stop Pretending, Stop Corruption, and Corporate Wealth Games (CWG)’.
Another piece of graffiti, etched on the walls of a government school in Malviya Nagar, depicted the Indian Parliament with a symbol denoting poison across it. If you looked below the symbol, you’d see images of a bunch of rats scurrying away from the Parliament. Created by Yantr – known for creating subversive wall art – this piece presumably depicts the citizens as rats running for their lives.
Graffiti has been emblazoned in alleys, on storefronts, lampposts and mailboxes.
If you look right above a garbage dump in Khirki Extension, you will find the face of the Buddha with deep insightful eyes staring benignly down at you. If you look really closely though, you’ll see something unusual – he’s wearing a pollution mask! Street artist Yantr had painted this one to spread awareness around ‘Operation Smiling Buddha’, India’s first successful nuclear bomb test that took place on 18 May 1974.
In another piece of graffiti, a bright red LPG cylinder can be seen in the shape of a rocket, highlighting a rather pervasive predicament – the problem of rising LPG prices.
Graffiti functions as a subculture – a culture that falls outside the dominant social norms. It provides strategies to experiment with identities, connect with like-minded people, and investigate “taboo” subjects and activities that are often rejected by the hegemonic institutions.
Graffiti artists are not seditionists but people who represent the agonies, frustration, demands and disappointments that people at large face from dominant institutions.
It’s really – to quote a cliche – much more than what meets the eye!
(Devika is a journalism graduate from Delhi University and a journalism post graduate from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. She is an engineering drop out and wears it like a badge of honour. She has previously written for Catch News, The Quint, The Citizen, Hardnews Media, Eye Art Collective and Newsgram. Although not a fan of discussing herself in third person, she can occasionally be convinced to do so. Tweet to her @deviksS13)
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