A new visual project at CSMVS revisits Mumbai’s role in India's freedom struggle

On April 13 1930 the lanes outside the Bombay Stock Exchange suddenly became trading grounds for a dangerous contraband mdash salt The recentlyopened exhibition Disobedient Subjects at the Mumbai Gallery of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya CSMVS highlights the acts of citizens that defined civil disobedience in 193031ldquoWe associate the movement quintessentially with Gandhi but the album and exhibition appears to be making a different argument that the people of Bombay made the movement that in turn made Gandhi globally famousrdquo shares curator Sumathi Ramaswamy also coeditor of the title Photographing Civil Disobedience Bombay 19301931 Mapin Publishers that is part of the exhibitionWomen pickets arrested outside the Town Hall when the picketing of Toddy shop license was held c 1930ndash1931Curated by Ramaswamy alongside historian Avrati Bhatnagar the project is presented by CSMVS and the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts AFA The crux of the project stems from the KL Nursey Collection in the Alkazi Collection of Photography capturing the period between the Mahatmarsquos breaking of the Salt Law at Dandi on April 5 1930 and his departure for the Second Round Table Conference from Ballard Pier on August 29 1931The project took shape when Rahaab Allana curator and publisher at AFA reached out to Ramaswamy after hearing her give a lecture on the imagery of Gandhi in France The project mdash two exhibitions and a book mdash was born as the result of the research that followed over the next five yearsIndia beyond GandhiMahatma Gandhi mdash one of the most photographed Indians mdash remains a quiet protagonist throughout Ramaswamy shares ldquoThe album piqued my interest because although it includes photographs of Gandhi the bulk of the 245 images do not show much of his presencerdquoA march of women through Bombayrsquos streets to protest against the imprisonment of Mrs Lukmani during the ongoing demonstrations which called for the boycott of British goods on 29 July 1930Bhatnagar observes ldquoThe camera pivots to the actions of the everyday citizen visually reminding us that Gandhirsquos name might well be associated with the Civil Disobedience Movement but it was the people on the ground who helped him pull it offrdquoThe mystery of NurseyAs for the producer of the collection itself it remains a mystery Allana shares that the album came to the Foundation recommended by Phillips Antiques in Mumbai back in the early 1990s ldquoWe have not been able to identify who this gentleman is a Congress party worker photojournalist or a compiler of someone elsersquos photographs or as personal memorabiliardquoCongress women receiving instructions as to preparing salt 1930Bhatnagar adds ldquoWe are almost certain that the photographer was a local male and was familiar with the city but was he the Nursey who appears on the spine of the album We are not surerdquo Quoting photography theorist Ariella Azoulay the curators suggest it is the photographs that are the more important piece of the puzzleBombay at the heartThe 1930s saw Bombay rise as the foremost urban centre in the British Empire From its trade political film and business networks it was key to any movementrsquos success or failure Ramaswamy notes that they reveal how the city played a role in lsquoscaling up what was essentially a rural act enacted by Gandhirsquo ldquoOne of the most revealing facets of the album is the number of people especially women frequently with children by their side who stop and directly look at the camera even as they are caught in the act of doing something against the law mdash there is a fearlessness about this gesture which only a photograph can revealrdquo the curators shareRepublished in The Illustrated Weekly of India 27 April 1930 with caption lsquoTaking Home a Pinch of Saltrsquo A few of the thousands of salt law breakers who took home vessels full of sea water from Chowpatty to be converted into saltFor Bhatnagar it is the women some famous and most unknown that add to the story Among these is the visual documentation of the active presence of the Desh Sevika Sangh DSS a forgotten femaleled organisation formed as a response to Gandhirsquos clarion callEssays on visionThe book was the first proposed form of the project in the postCOVID phase reveals Allana It brings together nine essays by authors offering different viewpoints For instance Preeti Chopra dwells on the lsquostreet furniturersquo like fountains statues and trams across the city used as props by the protestors Debashree Mukherjee offers insight into the crowds that visibly hide the colonial edifices that dominate the Bombay street scene Abigail McGowan meanwhile focuses on the culture of shopping in the European department stores across the citySumathi Ramaswamy and Avrati BhatnagarThrough it all it echoes a present concern mdash an urban society speaking up ldquoAlthough it was not the primary intent behind this project as we continued to engage with these photos over the past five years the resonances with the contemporary moment were not lost to usrdquo the curators share Perhaps todayrsquos Mumbaikars could take a leaf out of their history The state of our city if not the country certainly demands itTILL March 31 2026 1015 am to 6 pmAT Mumbai Gallery CSMVS FortENTRY Museum ticket charges applyLog on to Mapinpubcom for copies of the bookCOST Rs 1950