About the Project - The Ambedkar Age Digital Bookmobile

Project Description:

The Ambedkar Digital Bookmobile is a project conceived by public intervention artist, performer and educator Smita Rajmane and documentary filmmaker Somnath Waghmare. It aims to collect Maharashtra’s long history of social reform, accessing 400-500 year-old traditions of song-writing, performances and poetry against caste-based exploitation and untouchability. It is a history that speaks with multiple voices ranging from Saint Tukaram, Saint Chokhamela and Vamandada Karadk to contemporary, popular singers like Adarsh Shinde. The project seeks to document singers and artists who mostly hail from the rural interiors and are not very well known around the urban spaces of Maharashtra. The singers have been singing anti-caste songs for many decades. Every year they perform at different gatherings such as the one held at Chaityabhumi Dadar on the occasion of Ambedkar’s death anniversary observed as Mahaparinirvan Din on the 6th of December, Deekshabhoomi Nagpur on the 14th of October, Bhima Koregaon on the 1st of January, Mahad on the 20th of March etc.

Through documentation of these embodied histories of anti-caste resistance, the project seeks to raise awareness around contemporary Dalit popular and political song-performances within the community. With the aim of encouraging discussion and dialogue, the bookmobile will travel to a variety of public spaces including educational institutions, community halls, gardens and libraries in both urban and rural areas. Imagining the ‘digital bookmobile’ as a portable multi-media archive with the potential to navigate distances and cultures of resistance with economical means, Smita and Somnath hope to catalyse new avenues of understanding and meaning around the documentation of ephemeral elements of performance, songs and poetry. This project has received FICA public art grant in 2019.

Founding members :

Smita Urmila Rajmane

Smita Urmila Rajmane is a public intervention artist and performer. She completed her diploma in painting from Bharati Kala Mahavidyalaya, Pune in 2011 and MFA from Shiv Nadar University, Dadri in 2016. The major themes of Smita’s work deal with societal norms that arise from class/caste and gender discrimination, communal violence, the projections of hate and differences that pervade today’s world. Her work deals with researching, unravelling and highlighting these issues through archival installations and public performances.

She was a part of ‘Contemporary visual art projects- Mid & Western Jutland, Denmark (2019), Pune Biennale curated by Zasha Colah and Luca Cerizza (2016), New Weight Biennale (2016) – The University of California, Los Angeles. She has done a performance at Kochi Student Biennale (2016), 2020 -75 Artists ‘A Future Under Construction’ (2018) at Horniman Circle, Bombay, Savdhan: THE REGIMES OF TRUTH curated by Shaunak Mahbubani( 2018). She has worked with a forum called Artists Unite, 2019. She was invited for seminars at ‘October School- International seminar’ at Shiv Nadar University 2017, Experience and Infrastructure ‘A Seminar on the Arts at CAMP’ Mumbai 2017, BEING CONTEMPORARY a bi-lingual (Marathi- English) Seminar, examining issues of Regional Centers and the Contemporary Art, NGMA, Mumbai (2015). She has curated a show for school children ‘Mokita’ – Dalit Panthers movement and archive (2019). ‘ The Wall of Voices – Celebration of the Constitution’ – One week interactive participatory show for school children on the occasion of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar birth anniversary (2019- 22). She has worked as a Scenographer for the play ‘Mahish’ by Third Space Collective, Delhi.

She has curated a show for school children ‘Mokita’ – Dalit Panthers movement and archive (2019). ‘The wall of Voices – Celebration of the Constitution’ – One week interactive participatory show for school children on the occasion of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar birth anniversary (2019- 22). She has worked as a Scenographer for a play ‘Mahish’ Third Space Collective, Delhi.

Somnath Waghmare

Somnath Waghamare, a PhD scholar and documentary filmmaker born in rural Dalit- Buddhist family at Malewadi, a small village in western Maharashtra, a state in western India. He has made two documentary films ‘I am not a Witch’ (2015) and ‘The Battle of Bhima Koregaon:An Unending Journey (2017) was a timely documentation of the gathering of lakhs of Dalits near Pune city in Maharashtra. Both documentaries have been screened in different cities of India and abroad have gained appreciation.

He continues to explore and document the histories of Dalit people in India. His current film project, ‘Chaityabhumi’ is about a location in Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra, where once again lakhs of people come to pay their respects twice a year to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the founding father of India’s Constitution and a significant human rights leader whose writings and work against India’s discriminatory caste system resonates and inspires even today. Another ongoing project is ‘Gail and Bharat’, a documentary biopic of Dr. Gail Omvedt and Dr. Bharat Patankar, a noted activist and academic couple in Maharashtra.

The core of Somnath’s work is in the documentation of political , cultural and social assertion by Indian historical marginal community. In both his research and films, he is interested in the caste and cultural politics of state. Somnath has been interviewed by the BBC Marathi and BBC Hindi, Vice, The Indian Express and Times of India, Mumbai Mirror, Deccan Herald, The News Minute, Mint Lounge, SilverscreenIndia about his work. He has also given several talks on caste in cinema, including at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Kolkata, as well as webinars organised by human rights organisations, community initiatives and universities. Somnath and Smita Rajmane received a grant Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art for their Dalit singers song documentation project ‘The Ambedkar Age Digital Bookmobile.

He is currently pursuing a Ph.D in Social Sciences from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, which is Asias’ oldest institute that teaches social work. Somnath stayed in the caste ghetto of his village for 22 years. He did his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology at a small town near his village. His Master of Arts degree was in Media and Communication Studies from Pune University. He worked for two years as a contract employee at the Film and Television Institute of India and as an apprentice with Amnesty International India.