Contentious Territories of South Asia: In Conversation with Diwas Raja Kc

What is South Asia? Who does it include and what are the histories and stories about this region that we are foregrounding? These are some of the questions that come up when we consider the differences in political, cultural and social capital that define the unequal relationships between the region’s nations.

In the first part of this four-part conversation, Anisha Baid spoke to researcher, archivist and curator Diwas Raja Kc from the Nepal Picture Library about the project “Underground Biographies,” exhibited at the recently concluded Growing Like A Tree. In this conversation, Raja focuses on the contemporary communities working or concerned with lens-based practices in South Asia. He also discusses the geopolitical and institutional nodes where such practices converge. Reflecting on the diversity of colonial and postcolonial collective experiences within the region, Raja problematises the notion of a definitive regional identity.

The idea of “South Asia” is mobilised in multiple ways by cultural institutions in contemporary times. These often respond to a dominant Euro-American identity which has historically imposed its own concerns through and on powerful cultural institutions like museums and collections. Thus, it becomes even more important to consider networks and associations that extend beyond the geographical region of South Asia and provoke specific ideological and methodological points of contact and solidarity throughout the world.

^{(Featured Image: The Right-Side-Up Map of Southasia. Subhas Rai. Himal Southasian, 1998. Courtesy of Himal Southasian.)}

Interview with Anisha Baid, 18 February 2021

In case you missed the earlier conversations in this series, please click here, here and here.