Th e first painting of the Assam Toil series by Raj Kumar
Mazinder was an acrylic on canvas of the same title, which was
done in 2004. I saw this painting much later. Th e fi rst work
that had come to my notice in this series was the 2005 linocut
titled Selling Assam Toil, which was exhibited at the Gauhati
Artists’ Guild gallery. Th e same impression was repeated on it
– three images above and three below. Each of the impressions
was rectangular, but together they formed a square – as if the
work sought to create an illusion of symmetry by transcending
the diff erence between length and breadth. But the entire work
brimmed with irony. Th ere was also little diff erence among the
printed images. A major diff erence, though, lay in the social
implications carried by the work through the repetition of
images.
What did the image, repeated six times close to one another
on the same plane, contain? Only the artist would be able to
properly explain as to what was on his mind when he did it.
But behind the reason why this work attracted me or evoked a
reaction in my mind was the social signifi cance that it carried.
I would not comment upon the ‘painterliness’ that the work
contained. I would only say a few words about the thoughts that
it triggered in me by mocking a certain stage of Assam’s sociopolitical
situation. From now on, I would simply call it a painting
rather than a printed image.
In the fi rst painting that Rajkumar created, which I saw later,
the commercial logo of the Assam Oil company has been put up
with sarcasm, in the rectangle of each of the six repeated images.
In the upper part lies the main object of the logo, a rhino. But
below it is written ‘Assam Toil’ in place of Assam Oil. Against
the bright colour of the rhino, the words Assam Toil have certain
dullness in them. If the artist had written the original word Oil
in place of Toil, an image would still have emerged. But then
frozenness would have prevailed in the painting, as there would
have been no change. But with the word Toil, instead of merely
appealing to the senses of the viewers, Rajkumar has tried to
create a wave of thoughts by infusing a social implication in it.
Th e thinking viewer, assuming that he/she has no knowledge of
the socio-political situation of the Eighties in Assam, would be
compelled to think – why Toil, a word that means working hard
as well as moving with diffi culty, has been inserted in place of
Oil, a substance that keeps nuts and bolts effi cient and is also a
form of energy? It is possible that the viewer would be drawn
to think, as if Oil has lost its vitality and turned into Toil. Th e
past glory of the Assam Oil is almost in a moribund state; as if
the pride of Assam, country’s fi rst ever company to discover an
oilfi eld, is now only a retrogressive icon – such a connotation
would come into it as well. Assam Oil is an asset that triggers
patriotic feelings in the people of Assam, and that ability to
bear a sense of pride ceases to exist now. In order to protect it
we have toil, laborious eff ort, but the success of that toil is more
likely to be metaphorical in the historic backdrop of the icon.
In patriotic minds, the Assam Oil still touches an emotional
chord. Th erefore, whenever the identity of oil/toil tends to peter
out within the Indian Oil Corporation, it evokes a nationalistic
response.
But the social signifi cance in Raj Kumar Mazinder’s Selling
Assam Toil has gone beyond this. ‘Selling’ is a commercial word and
the Assam Oil Company is a business establishment. But here, the
title has brought ‘Assam’ into the area of commerce and replaced
‘oil’ with ‘toil’. Th at is, the State has taken the place of the business
organization and assumed a commercial connotation in the title.