LEAD ESSAY
28 Lawrence Liang looks carefully at the complex circuitry between art, law, and censorship.
35 Contemporary Indian artists need to be more aware of the political trials they face, argues Ranjit Hoskote.
LEAD FEATURES
39 Right-wing fundamentalists tried to have Vijay Tendulkar’s Marathi play, Ghashiram Kotwal, banned on numerous occasions. Shanta Ghokale re-visits those troubled times.
42 Dilip Chitre takes a sweeping historical look at communal and caste politics in India and bemoans the continuous political maneouvring of the public sphere.
45 Ameya Balsekar assesses the tensions and dilemmas democracies face while protecting one person’s freedom of expression and another person’s right to avoid emotional harm.
49 Anirudh Chari examines the prejudices implicit in acts of censorship in West Bengal.
52 LEAD INTERVIEW
Taslima Nasrin, who has been hounded by fundamentalist Islamic groups, speaks to Anirudh Chari about resisting acts of censorship.
OPINIONS
54 Johny M. L. launches an attack on acts of hooliganism that masquerade as acts of public censorship.
55 Shilpa Phadke invokes Ismat Chughtai and discusses the value of obscenity in public life.
56 Four years after India’s first Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Vishwas Kulkarni looks back in anger.
57 LETTER FROM PAKISTAN
Even as Pakistan founders under Pervez Musharraf, Quddus Mirza remembers how artists resisted Zia-ul-Haq’s attempts at imposing rigid controls on free expression.
LEAD INTERVIEWS
61 S. Chandramohan speaks to Sandhya Bordewekar about his tribulations even as he discusses the role religion plays in his life with Shivaji K. Panikkar.
66 Sandhya Bordewekar speaks to Shivaji K. Panikkar, who was the Acting Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, M. S. University, Baroda, during the institution’s darkest hour.
69 Artist and educator, Gulammohammed Sheikh, speaks to Sandhya Bordewekarabout the past, present, and future of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda.
SPECIAL REPORTS
71 Sandhya Bordewekar asks several Baroda-based artists what they feel about the assault on the artist’s right to free expression.
77 In 1954, Akbar Padamsee won a landmark court case against the moral police; Vishwas Kulkarni speaks to the artist to find out more.
79 PANEL DISCUSSION
Abhay Sardesai and Zehra Jumabhoy engage in a charged debate with Rashid Rana, Shilpa Gupta, Rashmi Poddar, Rehan Ansari, and Shaina Anand, about art, politics, and morality.
104 INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
Niharika Dinkar finds a remarkable range of works by contemporary photographers and video artists at India: Public Places, Private Spaces, mounted at the Newark Museum, New Jersey.
107 INTERNATIONAL REPORT
Shanay Jhaveri visits ShContemporary 2007 and sums up his impressions of this “new matchpoint for the art scene in Asia”.
INTERNATIONAL REVIEWS
108 Divia Patel is impressed by the contemporary Indian photography displayed at Les Rencontres d’Arles in France.
110 Deirdre King is not convinced by the story of Indian art that a blockbuster exhibition, titled, New Narratives, tells in Chicago.
113 Nalini Malani’s solo at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin draws on folklore, fairytales, and fiction, to examine the myriad roles ascribed to women, says Ann Huber-Sigwart.
116 Jayashree Chakravarty’s solo, Where the Sand Meets the Sky, is definitely a place Anirudh Chari wants to be.
118 Karin Miller-Lewis finds much to praise in Seven Oceans and the Unnumbered Stars, N. N. Rimzon’s solo in New York.
120 Jorella Andrews visits the House of Mirrors in London.
REVIEWS
121 Girish Shahane congratulates Atul Dodiya for intelligently exploring the varied aspects of matrimony in Saptapadi.
123 Sandhya Bordewekar finds Sachin Karne’s latest paintings way better than his earlier works.
124 Gitanjali Dang ruminates over Gargi Raina’s explorations of loss and longing in her latest works.
125 Abhay Sardesai critically evaluates Sophie Ernst’s recent video installations.
126 Jehangir Jani’s solo, Great Expectations, is a let-down in parts, says Shiladitya Sarkar.
128 Shakuntala Kulkarni’s solo show in Mumbai might be called “and when she roared, the universe quaked”, but Pathik Srijan stands firm.
129 Gigi Scaria’s latest solo critiques the sanitised version of Delhi that the new Master Plan envisions. Meera Menezes is swayed by his argument.
130 REVIEW / CONVERSATION
Jerry Pinto finds Mehlli Gobhai dwelling on issues of mortality and eroticism in his latest abstracts.
REVIEWS
132 Surekha and M. Shanthamani have less in common than they think, declares Zehra Jumabhoy.
133 Sanjeev Khandekar’s latest show takes pot-shots at Capitalism, enthuses Zehra Jumabhoy.
134 Marta Jakimowicz is happy to play along with Susanta Mandal’s ‘bubbly’ installations.
136 Delhi comes under the scanner in a joint show of photographs by Sunil Gupta and Gauri Gill. Ella Datta likes what she sees.
138 Anirudh Chariheaps praise on Objects, Images, Spaces, Chhatrapati Dutta’s solo show in Kolkata.
139 BOOK REVIEW
Romain Maitra does not wholly fall under the spell of K. G. Subramanyan’s latest book, The Magic of Making.
142 SHOWCASE
Parthiv Shah captures M. F. Husain in poses that indicate his current state of mind.
144 LISTINGS