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ARTS: JANGARH SINGH SHYAM
The Death Visit
The tribal artist's death underlines the vulnerability
of the Adivasis in social transition
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DUAL SYMBOLISM: Jangarh's colourful works often played with dark
metaphors
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At 37, Jangarh Singh
Shyam still looked boyish. Despite his success as an artist, this Gond
Adivasi from Mandal, Madhya Pradesh, was shy and timid in his dealings
with the "civilised" world. Art had taken him far beyond his
native realm-to Kolkata, Tokyo and Paris. Like a child, he enveloped the
art market in a disarmingly non-discriminatory embrace. Be it the suburban
melas across India or the smart big museums of the West, his fantasy images
of animals, birds and trees blazed an amazing trajectory of form and colour.
Suddenly, on July 2 came the shocking news that Jangarh's body had been
found hanging in his room at a relatively unknown museum in a remote village
in Japan. Tokio Hasegawa, director of the Mithila Museum in Niigata (a
five-hour ride from Tokyo), informed his family the next day that Jangarh
had committed suicide.
 In
anguish and anger, leading artists, folk art experts and sociologists
including M.F. Husain, Manjit Bawa, Suresh Sharma and Jyotindra Jain urged
the governments of India and Japan to inquire into the "mysterious
circumstances in which an outstanding Indian artist has been driven to
the alleged suicide". Even then it took a week for the body to be
brought back to India because Hasegawa declared that he had not "budgeted"
for that contingency. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh-to
his credit-released Rs 5.70 lakh to meet the cost of transportation.
 Why
had the young man taken his own life so abruptly? It is said Jangarh had
been persuaded to go to the Mithila Museum for a low monthly fee. Given
the Japanese penchant for productivity, he was probably pushed to produce
far more than he felt comfortable doing. According to his wife, he had
wanted to return to India. But Hasegawa had taken possession of his ticket
and passport and got his visa extended by another three months. That convinced
Jangarh that he would have to stay for a much longer time than he had
bargained for. This probably caused the bout of depression which led to
suicide. Although there are some who have suggested deeper conspiracies
like murder, the Japanese have ruled out foul play.
 More
importantly, Jangarh's death underlines the vulnerability of the Indian
Adivasi in his quest for self-realisation and self-expression in a modern
world. Jangarh was just 17 when the late painter J. Swaminathan discovered
him decorating the huts in Verrier Elwin's adopted village of Patangarh
in 1981. Impressed by the boy's flair for colour and form, Swaminathan
took him to Bhopal to create murals in the Charles Correa-designed arts
complex, Bharat Bhavan. There this talented son of the forests flowered
into a prolific and popular artist, participating in art shows and festivals
from the Surajkund Crafts Mela to Paris' Centre Pompidou. The Madhya Pradesh
government bestowed on him the highest state award, the Shikhar Samman,
in 1986.
But despite his quick success, the Adivasi in
Jangarh had not learnt to deal either emotionally or practically with
the devious complexities of the global marketplace. Art helped him escape
the dire poverty and backwardness of tribal India but it also exposed
him to the exploitative grasp of forces beyond his ken. It took the indigenous
peoples of America and Australia a hundred years and thousands of lives
to be able to interface on their own terms with the "civilised".
Perhaps Jangarh's self-sacrifice is a part of that process.
—S. Kalidas
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