ABSTRACT
Saddled with the cultural production of a newly postcolonial nation, Indian artists sought during the 1960s to redirect the linear narrative of movements of art and literature by depicting the multiplicity of Indian visual culture. Vrishchik, an artists’ periodical published in Baroda from 1969 to 1973, provided a platform for the same. Vrishchik served as a channel of communication between artists from disparate backgrounds across a multilingual country. Vrishchik featured writings in English, Hindi and Gujarati alongside texts ranging from folk songs to European short stories. Translation appeared as an overarching narrative and the very act of making visible the art from communities on the margins could be considered an act of dissent. This chapter develops a case study of regional Indian literatures published in Vrishchik to discuss the implications of English translations when disseminated in the context of a postcolonial society. I view cultural and linguistic multiplicities as a form of resistance to a totalising national culture developing in the face of the void created by decolonisation. This chapter examines the formation of dissent across linguistic, disciplinary and regional boundaries, discussing how acts of social reform can be translated to aesthetic and cultural production.
