SECTION

however has remained largely free from foreign invasions and empires, thanks largely due to the presence of our own powerful kingdoms and princely states. Over time thus, our differences were passed down from one generation to the next and only compounded. With the capital just happening to be located in the north, most power and resources from the centre manage to trickle down only to the neighbouring states, with the south being largely outside of this spread of wealth and resources. As a result, the image of India that sells abroad is one that is inadequately representative of the sheer diversity of our country, a ‘Hindi-washed’ media that has been successful at shrouding an entire other culture thanks to its sheer size, glamour and fanfare. India is portrayed as a Hindi-nation, with Hinduism being our way of life; Bollywood, Yoga and perhaps Mathematics being our catalyst to international stardom.

I’m a dravidian, and we don’t speak Hindi, we never wanted to. We speak Tamil, and we’re unimaginably proud of it. Being one of the oldest languages in the world, with a script that can be traced back to at least 1000 BCE, Tamil as a language has become more than just a mere tool of communication - it has become our identity. It has become our way of life, with our own set of festivals, deities, customs and beliefs. We have successfully warded off any attempts at neutralising our ‘Tamil-ness’ by way of grappling for resources, and vehemently standing against the imposition of universal Hindi across the country. Hindi is not our language, it is not our culture, and it is not our story.

While we may be more conservative on the artistic side of things, over the past few years we are now currently experiencing a rapidly growing body of contemporary artists exploring previously unexplored art forms. One such art form is Tamil Graffiti, a relatively unknown craft that has been for the most part unheard of. This could be for a variety of reasons, including the fact that there are only a handful of artists who work on Tamil Graffiti around the world. When I mention Tamil Graffiti, I simply mean Graffiti done using the Tamil script.

As an art form, Tamil Graffiti in my opinion has been alienated on three different fronts.

Firstly, there is a sort of international othering. As mentioned before the sheer size of Hindi-media and Bollywood overshadows the relatively small and independent Tamil industry, and thus the version of India that is consumed overseas is one that has been ‘Hindiwashed.’ Secondly, due to various factors including historical and cultural differences, Tamil culture and dravidian culture on the whole is seen as the other and a minority by the rest of the country. There is thus a national sense of othering that occurs as well. Finally, Tamilians themselves aren’t fully aware of the various contemporary artists and art forms that are slowly making their way into the spotlight. This could be as a result of our largely conservative approach to most things in life, let alone art, or even because of the relative newness of these artforms, with Tamil graffiti being one of the newest explorations. Still largely mired by third-world problems, we have only now started to see the merits of investing in art and design.

Through my project thus, I hope to shed some much needed light on Dravidian culture, and consequently Tamil culture. More importantly I shall try to employ and showcase Tamil Graffiti as a potential bridge for understanding between Dravidians, North India, and the rest of the world, in order to combat this three-pronged othering. With little to no coverage on the topic, I hope my project at the very least initiates a conversation around Tamil culture.