Remembering Gandhi, through visual archives

Remembering Gandhi, Questioning India, a three-day event organised by Goethe Zentrum Hyderabad will explore the relevance of Gandhi, 75 years after his assassination. The centrepiece of the event will be the photo exhibition Visual Archives of Kulwant Roy, from the Aditya Arya Archive, curated by photographer Aquin Mathews. 

The exhibition will feature photographs taken by one of India’s earliest and well-known photojournalists, Kulwant Roy, who documented some of the most significant moments in Gandhi’s life.

Born in 1914 in Bagli Kalan, Ludhiana, Kulwant Roy had no formal training in photojournalism. According to biographic archival data, he learnt on the job at Gopal Chitter Kuteer, the studio in Lahore where he worked. In the late 1930s, as a young photographer, Roy began recording the activities of the Indian National Congress. He photographed Jawaharlal Nehru as a Seva Dal volunteer in Kanpur and was always there to receive Mahatma Gandhi at Delhi’s Nizamuddin Railway Station.

The exhibition, featuring select photographs taken by Kulwant Roy, will open on October 13, 6.45 p.m., in the presence of Georg Enzweiler, Deputy Head of Mission, German Embassy and photographer Aditya Arya.

The other programmes lined up as part of the three-day event are: 

Panel discussion: Gandhi and modern environmentalism. The panelists are Nishikant Kolge (Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi), Vijaya Ramadas Mandala (University of Hyderabad), Lavanya Suresh (BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad) and Shiv Visvanathan (OP Jindal Global University, Sonepat). The session will be moderated by Usha Raman (University of Hyderabad). Date: October 14; 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Panel discussion: Gandhi and democratic disagreement. The panelists are Bhangya Bhukya (University of Hyderabad), Mridula Mukherjee (JNU, New Delhi) and author Gita Ramaswamy. The session will be moderated by Mohan Guruswamy. October 14; 6.45 p.m. to 8 p.m. 

Film screenings will mark the closing day, October 15, from 11am. to 6pm. The films that will be screened are Shyam Benegal’s The Making of Mahatma, Bharatbala’s The Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, Ramesh Sharma’s Ahimsa Gandhi and Mahatma, Life of Gandhi by Gandhiserve.

All the events will be held at Goethe Zentrum Hyderabad, Banjara Hills.