PARADE by rohith.krishnan11

PARADE /pəˈreɪd/

This dissertation is an academic project for National Institute of Design Title : Parade Photographs : P Mustafa Author : Rohith Krishnan Photography Design 2016 National Institude of Design Gandhinagar Gujarat - 382007 Guided by : Rishi Singhal Sathyanand Mohan © 2018, Rohith Krishnan All Rights Reserved

PARADE /pəˈreɪd/

Photographs

P Mustafa

Acknowledgement I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Rishi Singhal, Sathayanand Mohan and Amarnath Praful for guiding me with feedbacks & suggestions, and helping to bring together this document. I am grateful to P Musthafa for giving me access to his archives and providing all the necessary information to successfully complete this project. I would like to thank Madanan(Artist, Mathrubhumi) for introducing me to P Mustafa. In addition, a thank you to Sabih Ahmed for sensetising me with various aspects of working with archives/collections. I am also obliged to my Parents and friends for their endless support and confidence in me.

Preface P Mustafa(b.1953, Kozhikode) began his photojournalism career in 1983 with Kerala Kaumudi, a state daily newspaper. He worked in Malayala Manorama, Delhi edition from 1991 to 1997, which he considers as a turning point in his life. While the ’80s was an era of failed reforms, riots, mob violence, assassinations etc, the ’90s was perhaps the happening and vivid years for the Indians. It was a rollercoaster decade for Indian politics, with at least five Prime Ministers swearing-in to the office, the implementation of the controversial reports, the demolition of Babri-Masjid and so on. This was a time when a political event would not begin without a press photographer. In twenty eight years of office life, Mustafa has photographed a lot of eminent personalities in politics, sports and arts. The self-taught photographer’s visual language resembles that of the decisive moment photography. The selection of images from Mustafa’s collection in this dissertation attempts a satirical recap of the political episode. Unlike in photojournalistic reporting, Mustafa was keen to capture spontaneous gestures of the people and uniquely fleeting perspectives of the events he witnessed.

PARADE At seventy, India has come a long way from the country that the British exited in 1947 and which they believed could not survive if ruled by its own people. While our Constitution was influenced by modern and progressive ideals of several other constitutions then operative in the world - the federal scheme from the USA, parliamentary government, rule of law, cabinet system and single citizenship from British, the Directive Principles of State Policy from the Irish, the ideals of justice from the Soviet, to name a few - as a nation, we were left with a shattered economy, acute food shortage, widespread illiteracy and shocking poverty. Further, the post-partition communal violence, assassination of Gandhi and the challenge posed by the princely states had us in dire straits. Politics of post-independence India is therefore, replete with turbulence as well as accomplishments. From holding its first ever general elections in 1952 to fighting bloody wars with China and Pakistan, to its first successful nuclear bomb test in 1974 and the dark days of Emergency, India has indeed come a long way.

Late 1960s-early 70s Indian politics was dominated by the overwhelming presence of Indira Gandhi. She served for three consecutive terms, from 1966 to 1977, and again from January 1980 till her assassination. India’s first (and so far, only) lady and second-longest serving Prime Minister dwarfed her opposition with her soft-spoken personality which masked her iron will and somewhat autocratic ambitions. The Bangladesh war (1971) raised her stature at home to that of a goddess. India is said to have become a socialist republic under her regime - evident in her policies of welfare state, nationalization of banks and curtailment of freedom of press. However, the declaration of National Emergency and ‘Operation Blue Star’ will always be blemishes on her political career, the latter leading to her assassination by her own body-guards. The consequent anti-Sikh riots were accompanied by Indira’s elder son, Rajiv, taking the political reins in his hands. As India’s youngest Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi sowed the seeds of economic reforms through introduction of high-technology and open market operations with an aim to uplift India’s weak economy. Thus, the decade of 1980 fundamentally altered India’s political landscape and also planted the seeds of an economic and technological revolution.

Until 1989 the political scene was seen as almost a singleparty system, with a brief spell of a coalition, non-Congress Janata Dal government in 1977-1980 that did not complete its full term. In 1989 Congress’ political oppositions - Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP), Left Front and National Front - converged their interests under the leadership of V.P. Singh, but the loose coalition lasted roughly a year. This was the first of many coalitions to come (until 1999) that did not complete its full tenure. The decade marked the emergence of BJP as a strong opposition to the gradually weakening Congress party and the birth of several political parties at the national and regional levels. Meanwhile, the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi acted as a lightning bolt in the already turbulent political weather.

The experiment of minority governments based on weak coalitions did not last long, evident in the fact that from 1991 to 1999 India saw a change in power at the Centre five times - under the leadership of Chandra Shekhar(1990-1991), P.V. Narasimha Rao(June 1991-May 1996), Deve Gowda(1996-1997), I.K.Gujral (1997-1998) and Atal Bihari Vajpayee(1998-1999 and for thirteen days, again in 1999). The decade saw major economic reforms on one hand and growth in Kashmir militancy and the horrific riots following the Babri Masjid demolition on the other, which certainly tested the tenacity of its leaders. A significant contribution of this decade was of laying out the apparent truth of the then political scenario in the country i.e. Indian politics was based more on promoting personalities rather than any particular ideology. No wonder then that none stayed for long.

The coalition system saw its first success in 1999 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) formed the government at the centre and stayed in power for its full tenure. Barring the Kargil conflict, the Vajpayee government reached several milestones. The country’s GDP improved, telecom industry grew rapidly, Vajpayee’s education policy was a huge success and India conducted five nuclear tests in one week. Moreover, the completion of tenure of NDA government indicated that the coalition politics in India was not a transitional phase; it was here to stay. The trend was reflected again in the 2004 and 2009 general elections when the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led by Congress assumed power at the centre for two consecutive terms. It thus, was clear that in the struggle for political power the big parties were willing to shed their hard-core ideologies and agenda, and accommodate the smaller parties within their governments.

While UPA-I government was praised for its successful socioeconomic policies leading to high economic growth, the UPAII government was blamed for its policy paralysis and hand in several corruption scams. The resulting debacle literally secured success for the BJP in the 2014 general elections, also known as the ‘Modi Wave’. Narendra Modi’s image as a pro-market leader garnered voters support from varied sections, including the scheduled tribes and scheduled castes. Further, the disgraceful performance of UPA-II government helped BJP to transcend its geographical and social barriers and secure an outright majority. The 2014 elections also brought an end to the coalition phase for the time-being.

The evolution in India’s political consciousness and socioeconomic needs and aspirations has been reflected in the evolution of the country’s political fabric itself. In the early independence years the all-embracing character of the Congress was reflected in its pan-India voter base, representing varied shades of the society. As India grew, so did its socio-economic profile, which led to emergence of new groups that fought for their space in the political platform. Their growing popularity made coalition an inevitable development, until a charismatic leader emerged to blow the conch in his favour. What may follow is, for now, a hypothesis which will be tested in due course of time.

P Mustafa Peediackal Mustafa was born in 1953 in Mooriyad, Kozhikode District, Kerala. After completing secondary education, he joined a studio in Kozhikode to practice photography. He has been practicing photography - journalism, occassional event and wedding - for more than four and a half decade now and is also a part time photography teacher at various institues in Kerala. He is noted for photographing Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha aka P.T Usha, the celebrated track and field athelete from Kerala for the past 30 years. His work on the traumatic event of the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992 was much appreciated.

References Gupta, Soham. “PHOTOJOURNALISM IN INDIA TODAY.” Musings. Web. 25 July 2016 “Prime Ministers of India“ Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 28 Dec 2018 “Demolition of the Babri Masjid.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia R Jagannathan. “How the dark clouds of eighties paved way for sunny nineties.” The times of India. Web. 12 Aug 2017 Joshua Sarinana. “The Decisive Moment and the Brain.” The times of India. Web. 12 Aug 2017

Index

Nelson Mandela, 1993, New Delhi

Indira Gandhi, 1983, New Delhi

Rajiv Gandhi, 1990, New Delhi

Indira Gandhi, 1983, New Delhi

10 -11

1991, Punjab

Sikh militants demonstrates their protest against legislative elections in troubled Punjab

Rajiv Gandhi, 1990, New Delhi

Rajiv Gandhi with his wife Sonia, 1990, New Delhi

V P Singh, 1993, New Delhi

21,22

Chandrashekar, 1993, New Delhi

Sonia at Rajiv Gandhi’s funeral, 1991, New Delhi

Rahul, Priyanka and Sonia Gandhi, 1993, New Delhi

1991, Ayodhya

Hindu Kar Sevaks , demolition of Babri Mosque

30 - 31 33

Pope John Paul II, 1986, New Delhi P V Narasimha Rao, 1992, New Delhi

P V Narasimha Rao, 1992, New Delhi

Atal Bihari Vajpayee, 1994, New Delhi

Miss World Aishwarya Rai with P V Narasimha Rao 1990, New Delhi

Nelson Mandela, 1993, New Delhi

Kofi Annan and K Vekataraman 1990, New Delhi

Vekataraman, Yasar Arafat and Rao 1992, New Delhi

K R Narayanan, 1997, New Delhi

46 - 47

K R Narayan sworn in as the President of India by Chief Justice J. S. Verma, 1997, New Delhi

Shimon Peres, 1993, New Delhi

K Vekataraman, 1997, New Delhi

Phoolan Devi, 1992, New Delhi

Rao, 1995, New Delhi

EMS Namboodiripad, 1992, Kerala

Jyothi Basu, EMS and E K Nayanar, 1986, Kerala

A K Antony, 1992, Kerala

E K Nayanar, 1992, New Delhi

K Karunakaran, 1994, New Delhi

Rahul Gandhi, 1990, New Delhi

Rao and Vajpayee, 1994, New Delhi

Kofi Annan and H D Deve Gowda, 1990, New Delhi

H D Deve Gowda, 1993, New Delhi

Atal Bihari Vajpayee, 1994, New Delhi

Muralimanohar Joshi and Narendra Modi, 1992, New Delhi

Vajpayee, 1994, New Delhi

Manmohan Singh, 1997, New Delhi

Rahul Gandhi, 1992, New Delhi

Narendra Modi, 1995, New Delhi

P Mustafa, 1998, Kerala