Swachh Vision Mission (Swachh – Clean, Pure)

Eye clinic- Archival Installation.

Website link- https://smitarajmane.webs.com/swachh-vision-mission

This installation was a part of ongoing research about Bhima Koregaon violence and the Savarna gaze. It is a casteist and biased vision check mission of the spectator. It talks about the Bhima Koregaon violence and the Savarna gaze towards the incident.

On 1st January 2018, communal violence took place against majorly Dalits and other marginalized communities. The Elgar Parishad event, which was organized on 31st December 2017 at Shaniwarwada fort, irked the upper castes which in turn resulted in creating a situation of violence by them. This fort was the seat of power of Peshwas, the rulers of the Maratha Empire who belonged to the Chitpavan brahmin community.

“Swachh Vision Mission”,2018. Three-layered Optometry Machine Inside view; (Lightbox)

In the Battle of Bhima Koregaon, a regiment of Mahar Dalits serving in the British Army had defeated the Peshwa’s army. The Battle is celebrated as the first victory of Dalits against the injustice and anguish built over a thousand years. Organizing the Parishad at the Shaniwarwada Fort was thus seen as a symbol of Dalit assertion. It was obvious and very much known that the violence took place because of the ruling party’s support to the right-wing groups.

A 14-year-old girl who was an eye witness was murdered, more than 2000 Dalits were arrested and 3 got injured in the violence. And yet it failed to attract any attention from the mainstream media. The first instance of this event getting attention by the media was when 5 professors, activists, leftists got arrested, accused of being Urban Naxalites in the month of May of that year. Hence it only became a power game between left and right-wing. Media has the power to shape one’s conception of reality because they provide us with most of our understanding of what reality is like. However, the mainstream media in India has failed to provide reality to society by falling prey in the hands of the powerholders. It is only used as a tool for the glorification of the powerful but never as an advocate for the justice of the powerless. This archive installation traces the role of the media and its manipulation. This propels Smita to create the work ‘Swachh Vision Mission’. ‘Swachh Vision Mission’ is an eye clinic- an archival installation that includes photographs, videos, sound pieces, texts, posters, pamphlets from articles, news, viral/ found footage, documentary film, books, interviews, clay pots and public participatory performances.

“Swachh Vision Mission”, an eye clinic view, 2018. Installation view;

Photograph:Polina Schapova

Installation details: –

Different pieces of equipment have been arranged in this eye clinic. The clinic was divided into two sections. One section was a reception area where The battle of Bhima Koregaon, a documentary film made by Somnath Waghmare which talks about the untold history of the Bhima Koregaon war, was played on television. While sitting on the benches in the reception area visitors can read Check your vision/ gaze posters which contain warning signs of the gaze/ vision problem and solution to it. It contains problematic casteist statements (eye problems) made by prominent personalities. It also portrays the counter-arguments (solutions to the eye problems) by other eminent personalities to those publicly blurted out statements (a serious case of gaze problem).