Josh P. S. : Artist with an Eye
for Markers of Time and History

DR. Nuzhat Kazmi

In todays India we must respect Historical tenacity and validity as never before. Scientific temper and deep rooted reverence for the knowledge area called History itself is under intimidation, with respected world renowned historians like Romila Thapar and Irfan Habib are unceremoniously, and unscrupulously dumped by Indian Centre for Historical Research meant to promote and expand scientific temper in historical research. With this reference, I would like to bring in a young artist, who studied in what was then, Trivandrum and now Thiruvananthapuram. Later to do his masters in fine arts, he travelled to Delhi and studied at the Department of Fine Arts, Jamia Millia Islamia. As an introvert, grappling with both Hindi and English in northern India, he was always sharp and alert, always having a new perspective to old problems of History, Art and Sociology.

I remember his participation and his passionately refined contributions in a community project around the theme of archaeology, initiated and sustained by Vivan Sundaram, who was a visiting professor in the department. I remember Gigi Scaria and myself, along with others, also actively participating in this hugely popular, students and teachers generated and shared project. Josh had installed series of ignited diyas, indigenous lamps, on the verandah, the entrance point of the university department. Josh did succeed in getting his diyas lit, in open, some attached to the walls, others arranged on the front railing and the staircase. But keeping all the diyas burning at all time was of course impossible. And all this was in full daylight. However, this act to defy the nature of its principal quality was what Josh had explored and he had indeed anticipated the dialogue that followed from the beginning.