Four from Kerala traced Gandhi’s final months; their art expo triggers sense of loss

Kochi: Four men from Kerala traced the Mahatma’s final paths in an unusual act of remembering what they believe many want to forget. The group, comprising a poet, a photographer, an artist and a videographer, recorded what they came across – places, people and ideas that reasserted their conviction of what Gandhi meant to the idea of India.

In 2024, poet P N Gopikrishnan, photographer Sudeesh Yezhuvath, painter Murali Cheeroth and videographer Prasoon Suresh travelled to places including Noakhali (now in Bangladesh), Kolkata, Bihar and Delhi, where important events in the final 18 months of Gandhi’s life, including his assassination, took place.

Four months after they completed the unusual trip, the creative group lined up their expressions in a multimedia exhibition titled ‘You I Could Not Save, Walk with Me’. The show, which began at Durbar Hall Art Centre, Kochi at 5.17 pm on January 30 (the exact time and date of his assassination) will be on till February 18. Along with Cheeroth, human geographer Dr Jayaraj Sundaresan has curated the exhibition featuring travelogues, artworks, videos, and installations that commemorate Gandhi's martyrdom.

The artworks on display include recreations of Gandhi's blood-stained clothes, photographs of the places the artists visited and the people they met, poems, and short videos.

“It all started in February 2024 when Gopikrishnan delivered a lecture on Gandhi as part of the Panchajanyam Film Festival in Chittur, Palakkad. He stressed that there has not been much discourse on the final phase of Gandhi’s life. Then I suggested taking out a journey to the places where Gandhi spent his final months and taking photographs,” Sudeesh said. He had held an expo of photos he had taken from Auschwitz during a trip in 2018.

Noakhali, where Gandhi camped for four months in a mission to restore peace and communal harmony amid riots in 1946, was one of the major stops in their itinerary. “In Noakhali, we came across people who had actually seen Gandhi. That was unexpected when we began our journey,” Gopikrishnan said. He said the memories of Gandhi, passed through generations, were still alive in the Noakhali province. “That’s important, provided there were deliberate attempts to erase Gandhi’s memories there between 1947 and 71 when the region was part of East Pakistan,” he said.

On the political context of their show, Gopikrishnan, a staunch critic of the Sangh Parivar – an umbrella term covering the ideological allies of the ruling BJP, said “remembering history is an act of resistance in the present circumstances.”

Sudeesh said they are happy as creators because many who viewed the show said they felt a sense of loss.

Historian Sudhir Chandra, Delhi University Gandhian Studies Professor K P Sankaran, writer N S Madhavan, Minister M B Rajesh, writer S Gopalakrishnan, and cartoonist E P Unny, among others, delivered talks as part of the event. The exhibition is open from 11 am to 7 pm.