Tag: displacement

Events in Goa

Human Stories Behind Borders: ‘Displacement’ at Serendipity Arts Festival Explores Migration and Exile

Tanisha Cardozo

Written by Tanisha Cardozo || Team Allycaral

Migration and displacement, often discussed through numbers and geopolitical debates, take on deeply human dimensions at the Serendipity Arts Festival 2025 through the exhibition Displacement, curated by art historian Rahaab Allana. Open to viewing at The Old PWD Complex in Panaji, the exhibition brings together artists from South Asia and the Gulf region whose works reflect lived experiences of exile, asylum and rupture.

Allana situates the exhibition within the context of recent global migration trends, noting that 2024 witnessed record levels of displacement worldwide. From conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan to internal displacement within South Asia, the curator connects global crises with local and regional realities. These transitions, shaped by racism, border anxieties and minority-majority debates, form the conceptual backbone of Displacement.

The exhibition foregrounds image-based practices that confront today’s volatile socio-political landscape. While wars, territorial conflicts and ideologies dominate headlines, Allana stresses that it is ultimately human lives that bear the consequences. The works on display insist on a humanist approach, using art as a provocation for dialogue and empathy at a time of increasing polarisation.

Many of the artists featured are themselves living in exile or seeking asylum far from their homelands. Their works speak of both internal and external displacement, addressing themes of severance, surveillance, memory and loss, while also revealing how art becomes a means of survival and community-building. Through creative expression, these artists forge connections and shared spaces even while navigating life in exile.

Among the notable works is that of Afghan artist Hadi Ranaward, whose piece maps Kabul with delicate origami planes and helicopters hovering above the city. The shadows they cast evoke constant scrutiny and surveillance, capturing the psychological reality of living under watch and within contested spaces. Such works invite viewers to reflect not only on territory and power, but on the everyday lives shaped by them.

Trained in art history and photography, Allana’s curatorial practice has long focused on decolonising visual narratives, a sensibility that is evident throughout the exhibition. Rather than closing conversations, Displacement opens them up, encouraging viewers to ask questions and engage with perspectives that are often marginalised.

At its core, Displacement resists simplification. It does not seek easy resolutions but instead insists on complexity, compassion and attentiveness. Within the broader framework of the Serendipity Arts Festival, the exhibition stands as a reminder that behind every migration story is a human life — carrying memory, trauma, hope and the enduring need to belong.

Events in Goa

Rural Journalists Spotlight Displacement and Development in Maharashtra at MOG Sunday Talk

Tanisha Cardozo

Panaji, August 2025 — The intersection of development and displacement took centre stage at the Museum of Goa’s recent MOG Sunday session titled PARI: Stories from the Margins. Journalists from the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) presented gripping firsthand accounts of how large-scale projects in Maharashtra are uprooting rural and tribal communities, threatening their livelihoods, homes, and futures.

Among the highlighted stories was the impact of the Samruddhi Mahamarg, India’s ambitious Mumbai-Nagpur expressway, which stretches 701 kilometres through Maharashtra. Families dependent on river fishing were forcibly evicted without compensation, losing both their homes and their means of survival. Similarly, hydropower projects in the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats have displaced entire villages, leaving residents with little recourse despite holding proof of property ownership.

Jyoti YL, a journalist who reported from Maharashtra’s tribal and rural districts, shared poignant narratives of despair and invisibility faced by those affected. “For people on the ground, it often means displacement, despair and invisibility,” she said during her virtual talk. She recounted stories like that of Tulshi Bhagat, who travels over 40 km daily from Shahapur to Mumbai to sell palash leaves at the flower market, enduring police harassment and poverty.

The session also touched on the plight of children, whose education suffers due to school closures or mergers. Sons and daughters of migrant sugarcane workers and brick kiln laborers often have access only to makeshift classes run by community groups, with government support rarely materializing.

Video journalist Shreya Katyayini highlighted the importance of trust-building in rural journalism. “When I walk into a house, I don’t pull out my camera first. You have to almost become invisible so the story continues to be about them and not about you,” she said, emphasizing the empathetic and patient approach necessary to bring these stories to light authentically.

The MOG Sunday event reinforced the critical role of grassroots journalism in documenting development’s complex and often painful consequences on India’s rural heartlands. It serves as a powerful reminder that progress must be measured not only by infrastructure but by the dignity and rights of the people it impacts.