New Delhi: West Bengal-based researcher and painter Labani Jangi is this year’s recipient of the T.M. Krishna-PARI Award that seeks to recognise individuals who connect art and journalism.
The annual award, of which 34-year-old Labani is the maiden winner, puts a premium on storytelling that underscores the voices and struggles of marginalised peoples, a press release said.
It continued to say that Labani’s work “reflects the resilience and complexities of rural India, combining artistic expression with critical social commentary.”
Labani, who hails from West Bengal’s Nadia district, is working towards a PhD from the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences in Kolkata and is researching Bengali migrant labour.
PARI, or the People’s Archive of Rural India, cited her as saying that while she had a brush with painting as a child, she resumed it in 2016 upon being troubled by majoritarianism, mob lynching and the persecution of minorities.
“I used to love writing till that time, and had written and published a few articles in Bangla. But suddenly language felt completely inadequate. I wanted to run away from everything then. That is when I started painting,” Labani said.
She added: “To paint was my way of finding peace in an otherwise turbulent world.”
Describing her as a self-taught artist, the press release on the award said Labani “sees her art as inherently political” as well as “shaped by her identity as a Muslim woman and the daily struggles faced in a world where systemic violence and hatred are increasingly normalised”.
Speaking to PARI, she elaborated: “In a world where political discourse often aligns with destruction, my paintings speak a softer but equally potent language of protest and resilience.”
On how she felt Muslim women and their work are treated, Labani told PARI: “The world does not want to acknowledge us, our skills, our talents, our hard work … Our identity plays a huge part in this erasure.
“… One does not give it space or engage with it, not even to criticise. That is why I call it erasure.”
She described her work with PARI, where she was a fellow in 2020, as focusing on “capturing stories that bring attention to both the systemic challenges, and the enduring spirit, of rural life”.
“By integrating these narratives into my art, I aim to create visual expressions that resonate with the complexities of these experiences. My illustrations become a medium through which I contribute to preserving and sharing the cultural and social realities of rural India,” the press release further quoted her as saying.
