SOUMENART: MANCOW

MANCOW, pen and ink on paper, by Soumen Bhowmick 2015

A series of drawings on paper, to support and raise voice against the recent incidents of intolerance and communal killings in India. My art to support all those intellectuals and writers who got killed and threatened for their righteous thoughts. Terrorising free thinking citizens and even killing them is a dangerous fascist development in our society. with every passing day the is getting squeezed down by intolerance. Religious belief, food, dressing and even language intolerable to the narrow minded zealots in this world. Our way of living is questioned, ridiculed and even attacked by a few handful of murderers and so-called upholders of faith. Individual's ideas and speech is getting crushed under the nefarious regimes.

This series of drawings, are there to support freedom of expression in the world and specially in India. The recent (2016) Dadri brutal lynching of a 52-year-old blacksmith Mohammad Akhlaq on suspicion that he had killed and eaten a calf, is also the prime source of this drawings. What an individual eats or wears or believe in is not to be politicised. Let alone to be a cause of death. Why a man should be killed or a rationalist to be murdered for his food and thoughts. Freedom to life and speech is an individuals' right in any democratic setup. Are we turning into a barbaric state of dumb headed morons. Murderers are respected and elected to rule us. Where are we heading?

Kill any body who is different, who stands on his or her own ground of beliefs and freedom. Kill the very idea of democracy, kill every bit of sanity around you. Kill the soul and the free thinking mind. The terror is spreading deep in our society. The entire nation is living in fear. Isolation of beliefs and fear of ban is running high. Religion and caste still divide us in India. They are used as tools of divisive politics by the political masters. The deteriorating political environment in India drives me to create these drawings as a social visual commentary.

An "essay in lines" to awaken the ignorant.