An Untouchable Cries Out: The Dalit Art of Savi Savarkar

Gary Tartakov, ISU art historian, discusses the work of Savi Savarkar. In India, Dalits or "untouchables" make up 17 per cent of the population and occupy a social and economic place at the bottom of the India's notorious caste system, comparable to the situation of African Americans in the United States. Savi Savarkar is the rare case of a gallery artist with a national and international reputation built upon a critique of the caste system. Viewing his art, even in the United States brings up difficult and even painful questions of intercultural and international communication and understanding.
An exhibition of Savi Savarkar works will run from April 14-22 in181 Design College Gallery .