Works of art, large and vociferous, with their thick coatings of paint, big bold letters and curious props, are not easy to miss, placed as they are alongside the street outside the College of Fine Arts in Thiruvananthapuram, one of the busiest in the city. All of them, prepared by students in the college and clearly defiant towards those in power in India, are in solidarity with the recent chain of student protests in Delhi that sparked a movement across the country. One of these has led to a police case, on a complaint by members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s youth wing, Yuva Morcha.
The painting that led to the case is reportedly a depiction of the Dancing Girl of Mohenjodaro, a historic artifact from the Indus Valley Civilisation, placed on a lotus, the electoral symbol of the BJP. The statue had recently become the topic of a controversy after it was ‘covered up’ in school textbooks prepared by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), an autonomous body that comes under the Union government.
The Thiruvananthapuram Museum Police Station confirmed to TNM that a case has been registered based on the complaint of the Yuva Morcha.
Following the police case, the students of the College of Fine Arts removed a few more ‘troublesome’ paintings, including varied caricatures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, but replaced them with equally telling depictions, including striking captions, powerful quotations, and bold questions.
Placed right alongside the entrance is a painting in red, with the caption ‘Spot The Anti National’. Weapon-wielding forces of the government are rushing towards a single schoolgirl with a placard, their arms raised to attack, a clear reference to the student protests, led by the satirical movement Cockroach Janata Party. It could easily pass off as a picture straight out of the Jantar Mantar protests.
One of the art works is a quotation from ‘Apolitical Intellectuals’, a poem by Guatemalan revolutionary writer Otto Rene Castillo. “One day, the apolitical intellectuals of my country will be interrogated by the simplest of our people. They will be asked what they did when their nation died out slowly, like a sweet fire, small and alone.”
Another is a large painting of a throne, with a waste basket propped up against it. A third humungous canvas is colourful in its depiction of ‘A Lovely Display of Protest’.
Among the rest are condolences to democracy, pictures of spiked boots on unarmed men, police forces depicted as pigs, a reference to a 19th century British slang that became popular in the anti-war movement of ’60s America. One telling caption asks, “Will history remember the 2026 freedom fight as one for education?” (ref: image on top of this story).
The students did not wish to be quoted in this TNM story, given how their artworks speak for themselves. However, this is not the first time they have used their skills to speak up on what goes on in the country — students of the Thiruvananthapuram College of Fine Arts are known for coming out with such protests in the form of art, on issues that they wish to make a statement about.