In December 2008, I met with Savi Savarkar in his New Delhi studio. There were canvases on every wall space, canvases on easels, canvases rolled up, cans of paint in the corners, tables layered with drawings, albums on the desk filled with photographs and prints. So much work, so much art, so much inspiration, and yet it was clean and organized. Savi's presence, like his work, is calm and encouraging, his conversation thoughtful, creative, spiritually and politically provocative. I felt that I was in the company of a true Master, and in the four hours I spent with him I imagined being in the presence of Diego Rivera or Pablo Picasso in their studios, both strong influences on Savi's work.

See more photos of Savi's work. 

Savi did, in fact, study Diego Rivera's work for three years in Mexico City at The Academy of San Marcos. We share an interest in Diego Rivera, as one of Rivera's murals is on permanent display at City College of San Francisco, where I teach English. We also share an interest in Buddhism, the injustices of the caste system, and the  legacy of Dr. Ambedkar. These topics were the main focus of our conversation. As an artist from the Dalit community, those considered "Untouchable" in the Hindu caste system, Savi's experiences of caste are personal and immediate. He has faced discrimination directly as a Dalit artist working within the Brahmin-controlled Indian art community, and in many ways his art has received more attention internationally than nationally, within India. One of the first things he told me was that his work is part of a "sub-Brahminical" art movement. In India, he explained, there is Brahminical and non-Brahminical art, revolutionary and counter-revolutionary art. His own art is part of an Indian Buddhist heritage, inspired by the literature of Ashokagosha, inspired by the importance of aesthetics within Buddhism. He talked about "the aesthetics of life" within Buddhism, an aesthetic not confined to art, an aesthetic embodied in The Buddha's message to "see for yourself", which he sees as inspiring our own sense of aesthetics. The first teaching of The Buddha and also Dr. Ambedkar's writing, he said, are full of aesthetics. "To attain Nirvana is to be acquainted with beauty." 

Talking about his painting, Savi told me that he always starts from nature. Nature depends on cause and effect. Brahminism, in contrast, does not arise out of natural causes, natural effects. It is, therefore, not natural. It is a subject of great hypocrisy. Savi looks to nature for forms, such as the shape of the Bodhi leaf. He spoke of the openings, the doors and windows, at The Ajanta Caves as taking the form of the Bodhi leaf, and because of this perfect shape  there is a quality to the light which illuminates the Buddhist carvings within. We went on to speak about the animals in his paintings, and he spoke of birds. The crow, specifically, is considered an untouchable bird. The first food after death is offered to a crow. Crows eat the meat of dead cows, and historically dead cow meat was the only food available to the so-called Untouchable/Dalit community. The legacy of this is that there is an epidemic of sickle cell anemia within the Dalit community. He told me that his first oil painting was of a man with a dead cow, holding a lantern, the lantern symbolizing education, the illumination of knowledge. He spoke of how the Dalit faces are dark and royal, there is a regalness, a confidence, a militancy. The lantern also symbolizes Dr. Ambedkar. Bhim Rao Ambedkar is considered a Bodhisattva, it is because of Dr. Ambedkar that we are here. 

-more about Dr. Ambedkar-

Savi spoke of his source material coming directly from the community, and that the Dalit community is his own journey of aesthetics. His opinion is that untouchability is automatically a gender issue, that caste and gender cannot be separated. He told the history of devadasis, girls forced by the Brahminical system into temple prostitution. Historically these girls have been from the Untouchable community. Also, Savi said, Buddhist nuns were forced by Hindus to become devadasis. Additionally, many of the devadasis' brothers were forced to become temple eunuchs, so that they would  not avenge what had happened to their sisters, and 80% of these boys died when they were castrated. Today, because of education, there are fewer Dalits who are eunuchs. Savi told me that many devadasis have come to the "diksha bhumi" in Nagpur, the place where Dr. Ambedkar converted to Buddhism, and embraced Buddhism themselves. Savi also told me about other injustices historically imposed on the Untouchables, based on the concept of ritual "pollution" through contact between some one considered "high caste" and one who is considered sub-caste. In the Peshawar period, Untouchables were forced to carry a broom to erase their footprints on the ground, so as not to "pollute" the path. They were forced to carry a basket around their neck for spitting so that their saliva would not "pollute" the ground through contact. And they were forced to carry a pole with bells, to alert a so-called "higher caste" person of their arrival. Contact is not only transmitted through touch, but also through shadow,  so Untouchables were, in practice, considered "Unseeable" as well, and would have to jump into a ditch if a higher caste person was coming down the road. They  were not allowed to walk on the village streets during daylight hours, ans not allowed to even live within the village walls. Because of this history, Savi has incorporated the symbols of the basket, the broom and the pole with bells into his paintings. One painting is of three Untouchables under a black sun, symbolizing the shadow which pollutes.

-more about the caste system-

Savi's background is in printmaking, but now he works mostly in oil, which he feels is a more direct medium. We spoke of the time he spent in Mexico, studying under Master painter Lopez Carmona learning mural painting, and about the grant he received to travel in The U.S. In Mexico he was inspired by Rufino Tamayo, and by Frida Kahlo. In Kahlo's work he felt her pain and suffering and said, "her work gave me strength, not academic, but emotional." He enjoyed visiting Santa Fe and Albuquerque in New Mexico,  especially the artist Georgia O'Keefe's use of nature in her paintings. He liked the good art institutes which he visited in The U.S.; in Maryland and Chicago, at RISD, where he was offered a job, and in my city, San Francisco, where he was very impressed by the Gay Civil Rights movement, and where he visited The Art Institute. Travel, he told me, helped him go back to India and embrace his community.

As for the next generation of Dalit artists, Savi told me he does not feel very encouraged. He is working with one or two students personally, but they are not successful. It is difficult for them to sell work, there is market discrimination against Dalit artists.  There is no affirmative action in art! There is even propaganda against the art itself, marginalizing Dalit artists.

Savi told me "my aesthetical values are   Buddhist values" There has been a lot of violence against the Dalits, and the earth is the witness of all. References to Buddhism are embodied by physical gestures in his paintings, such as the earth-touching mudra, or the gaze, the drshti, of samadhi. Also, historically, he said, there have been killing of so many Buddhist monks. Every painting of his is rich with this history, it bears a weight of responsibility, it is a weapon for social reform. The load of caste is a notion, it is a form of psychological oppression, and only Buddhism can overcome this.   see photographs of Savi's paintings

-a gallery of Savi's work-