Street protest fuels street art. While speakers address Jamia from a make-shift dais to attentive Jamia students, concerned citizens and Muslim women of all age-groups at the Baba-e Maulana Kalam Azad Gate of the Jamia Milia Islamia University, a dedicated band of artists young artists are colouring the walls with witty Graffiti. While visiting Jamia, these cartoons mocking the government of the day are unmissable on the streets and on the University walls and the dividing space between roads. WSN presents this unique canvas of protest for those who cannot make it to Jamia and Shaheen Bagh.

LIFE-SIZE INDIA PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI and his Home Minister Amit Shah in various hues and shades beckon you while you walk up to Gate no. 7 to express solidarity with the protestors at Jamia Milia University in Delhi.

Young girls and boys on precarious wooden staircases with a bagful of colours are painting the town red. Their cartoons make you think. The large canvass of art on the streets bespeaks of the anger brewing in young minds.  All the time that they would be spending in whiling away in the canteen sipping tea and coffee to beat the biting cold is now spent in learning the ropes of politics through opposition to the divisive policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party government. They are learning the nuances of Indian politics through art. They are portraying the genesis of the problem through an easily understandable art form.

When art imitates life and life takes to art to express thoughts, ideas and divergent views, the revolution begins to take shape.  Acrimony and anger are dissolved in the colours which bring out the contours of the protest and what the young think the future should be.

As the crowds swell, so does the graffiti. The painters are untiring and space seems to be a constraint now. Hope you get the thousands of words that each of these cartoons expresses.

Britain’s guerilla street artist Bansky in his autobiographic art-exhibit book -Wall and Piece, says, “Bus stops are far more interesting and useful places to have art than in museums. Graffiti has more chance of meaning something or changing stuff than anything indoors. Graffiti has been used to start revolutions, stop wars, and generally is the voice of people who aren’t listened to. Graffiti is one of those few tools you have if you have almost nothing.”

The Jamia Graffiti is calling you: Stand up against oppression. Stand up for Justice. Stand up for dissent. Stand up for your rights. Stand up against divisive forces. Stand up to fascism. Stand up for real democracy.  Stand up for rights of students. Stand up for Jamia.