INDIA NEWS
July 16-31, 2021 - Vol 1, Issue 26
Tracing India-Australia ties through critical lenses of art and paintings
Australia’s travel restrictions on India: status and impact
Dhruv Jha
A
rt and paintings are integral to human society, as they reflect and mirror the broad composition of its cultural practices and history. It is the most ancient form of human experience and existence. Art and painting forms and techniques have witnessed years of history and embody the sacred practices and beliefs. In addition to their aesthetics, technique, and expression, art works are also imbued with various facets of social relationships and historical progression of society and culture. Arts also has a transnational connection and one can trace the Indian and Australian connections through paintings. There is an ongoing debate on whether there is a contemporary connection between these two indigenous art forms. Anthropological research suggests that a particular genetic group of Indians had reached Australia from India, thereby underpinning the art-based connection. For instance, Madhubani painting or Mithila painting is a style of Indian painting created by women of various communities in the Mithila region of India, situated in the state of Bihar in northern India, bordering Nepal. Research suggests that the origin of Mithila's painting dates back to at least the 14th century. Hindu mythologies is generally the key theme in this art form and painting is done on cow dung treated paper or paste of powdered rice. These paintings use natural substance as it is done with fingers, twigs, nibpens, brushes, and matchstick using natural dyes and pigments. Women of these regions traditionally have painted colorful religious images on the interior of mud dwellings, including kitchenand floors. Most images consist of Hindu deities and icons creating and ambience of divinity presence and auspicious family rituals and weddings. Traditionally it was done on walls, but now it has shifted to paper and cloth bases. Natural elements such as the sun, moon and sacred plants like tulsi have also been widely portrayed in the paintings. One important feature is that paintings have no empty spaces and gaps are filled with flowers, animals, and birds. On the other hand, Australian
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Aboriginal art by Australian Aborigines includes paintings on leaves, sand and ceremonial clothing, alongside carvings on timber and rocks, and various sculptures. These expressions are linked to religious ceremonies as well as rituals. Aboriginal art is one of the oldest continuous cultural traditions based on ‘totems and dreaming’. The earliest artworks have been rock carving and ground designs which date back to more than 30,000 years ago. Many kinds of symbols are used in this art form while the meaning is often shared, and interestingly they can change the meaning within the same piece. So Aboriginal art can be regarded asa “language” comprising beautiful patterns expressing their culture, beliefs, history and social practices. Australian dot paintings have been recognized internationally as unique and integral to Australian Aboriginal art, derived from sand art. They have become very popular due to their beautiful patterns and colours like yellow (representing the sun), brown colour the soil, red colour representing the desert sand and white representing the cloud and sky. There are many replica paintings made by non-Aborigines, so it is good to have a certificate of authenticity and information on the artist. Both, Madhubani paintings as well as the Australian Aboriginal art are done with natural pigments. ‘Chui mitti’, and the local sand helps in creating yellow hues, and ‘gheru mitti’ for creating the brown colour. Black colour is obtained from charcoal, and plant leaves add the green shade and hibiscus is used for getting the bright red shades. Both art forms depict rituals and religious ceremonies as well as rituals. Both also apply dots in the paintings. These similarities portray a shared history and geography and reinforcing the signify migration theory. The technique of both Mithila paintings and Australian aboriginal paintings are unique for depicting stories, sources of power and social messages. These connections have been discussed in the Book “Myrrhma~Samanvaya: Socio-Economic Impacts of Indian Migration to Australia”, funded by the Indian Consulate General, Sydney. The book is the first of its kind of research which presents a comprehensive statistical picture detailing key demographic characteristics of India-born people living in Australia. The book shows that there is an archaeological evidence of significant interaction between the two ancient people and cultures. So it can be argued that there lies a significant interconnection between these two art forms, which is also reinforced by the migratory theory in various research works.
EDITORIAL
stay in Australia have had to face unnecessary expenditure in this crucial time of economic constraints that people are facing. These restrictions are likely to dissuade future students from pursuing higher education in Australia. Akshay Chaturvedi, the founder of a foreign study facilitation agency says that the impact of such restrictions has caused a drop from 20% to less than 5% amongst Indian aspirants applying for Australian universities at present. However, Barry O'Farrell, the Australia’s High Commissioner to India has stated that such restrictions were
inevitable in the interest of health and safety of Australians, but Australia will restore the faith of the Indian students in Australia as a preferred destination for education. The launch of the pilot programme to allow international students into the country in small numbers, totalling 800 per month has proven to be a positive step in that direction. While certain exceptions are being made to the travel restrictions, there still lies a long and complex road ahead in accommodating return requests of many other students who must rightly be back in Australia.
Shri Khyati Reddy
T
he pandemic has impacted the world majorly and countries are constantly trying to adapt and work to revive the crashing economies. They are also implementing necessary restrictions to prevent further spread of the COVID-19 virus. However, one industry that has taken a massive hit is the travel industry and the process of reviving the sector is turning out to be very challenging. As new variants and strains of COVID emerge, further travel restrictions have become the new norm. With the rapid spread of the Delta variant in India, several countries have imposed a travel ban on temporary residents and visitors from India which has left employees, students and families stranded in host and foreign countries. India and Australia have for long been bolstering their diplomatic,strategic and trade ties, and education and tourism are a significant component of it. Australia imposed a travel ban on India in April 2021, reducing its flights from India by 30 per cent. Such a ban has brought with it major consequences for students and family members, especially. Many Indian employees who undertook a short travel were forced to separate from their family members with no option of going back to India or arranging for their families to come to Australia. These restrictions led to the separation of parents from their children for months. However, repeated requests on “compassionate and compelling circumstances” grounds the Australian government issued travel exemptions, in limited numbers to facilitate travel of Indians to Australia. Students who returned to India over break, and newly admitted students in Australian universities are having to attend 4 a.m. online classes impacting on the quality of learning. Additionally, several students who have rented rooms and vehicles for their
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