Citizenship Ammendment Act (CAA) Protest Poster
I care deeply about India, the country that raised me. On 12 December 2019, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), was passed, along with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and was widely seen as unconstitutional and discriminatory against minorities particularly muslims. This led to nationwide political dissent and civil disobedience at a scale like nothing we have seen since India’s independence struggle.
In light of this, I asked myself how I, sitting all the way in New York could engage in protests and find creative ways to contribute and help amplify the social movements that were proliferating on the ground. In a simple act of voicing my resistance in the medium I know best, I illustrated posters with popular slogans, particularly one saying - ‘Azadi’ which translates to freedom. Its simplicity is what makes it popular since one only needs to suffix it to any “evil” that must be fought. So it could be “Jaatwad se — azadi” (From casteism — freedom!), and so on.
I shared them online as freely downloadable assets to take to protests and in the weeks that followed, I saw it channel a collective voice on the streets across India and protests abroad. Standing up for injustice is beyond one person. Art allows me to give other people tools to fight it effectively and collectively.
PRESS
The Hindu
The Times of India