The Agrarian Revolution and Tina Modotti: In Conversation with Dr Savitri Sawhney

In this continuing conversation with Dr Savitri Sawhney, who has authored a memoir of her father’s life titled I Shall Never Ask for Pardon, we dwell on Pandurang Khankhoje’s work as an agrarian—responsible for the establishment of more than thirty free agricultural schools in Mexico. Emphasising his determination to work for the poor, she says that Khankhoje had studied agriculture and genetics as material means of alleviating the hardships caused by widespread famines.

Pandurang Khankhoje became good friends with the muralist Diego Rivera, as well as the photographer and social activist Tina Modotti, during his time at the Free Schools of Agriculture in Mexico. Sawhney describes an uncanny synergy emerging between the trio, guided by common beliefs and ideals. In Rivera’s iconic mural Our Bread painted at the Ministry of Education in Mexico City in 1928, we see Khankhoje, the central figure in the painting, distributing bread to the representatives of various peoples of the world. Pointing out the figures of the farmer and the soldier on either side of the painting, Sawhney draws a connection with the popular slogan of “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan” in India.

Tina Modotti’s images, made while she was the official photographer of the Free Schools of Agriculture, have been exhibited and written about at length. They have become a medium through which this international web of revolutionary spirit has come to life. In these photographs, one can see a young socio-political movement.

_{Interview with Anisha Baid, 16 December 2020.}

In case you missed the first episode, please search for “A Transnational Revolutionary: Dr Savitri Sawhney on her father Pandurang Khankhoje.”