December 25, 2025, marked the 98th anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s second conference in the small town of Mahad, Maharashtra, more popularly known as the Mahad satyagraha. This is the day that Ambedkar and his supporters burned pages from the Manusmriti in a mock funeral rite, in protest against the ancient law book’s codification of vicious caste and gender hierarchies. This was a follow-up to an earlier conference in Mahad, on March 20, 1927, when Ambedkar and his followers famously drank from the water tank Chavdar Tale, in defiance of caste restrictions. Ambedkar, in a speech on December 25, compared the Mahad satyagraha’s importance to the French Revolution; in Ambedkarite circles, the small town of Mahad, Maharashtra is thus often referred to as kranti bhoomi, or the land of revolution. To mark this anniversary, the observatory – an artistic-academic platform with members based in Vienna, Goa and Mahad – organised the recently-concluded international art exhibition, kranti smaran, or revolutionary remembrance. The exhibition, which took place in Mahad itself, brought together artists from different parts of India and other countries to reflect on revolutionary moments from their own contexts.An international art exhibition by the observatory in Mahad, Maharashtra. Photo: Frida RoblesCurated by Frida Robles and Ujjwal Kanishka Utkarsh, it featured artists including Aban Raza, Anshu Singh, Birender Yadav, CAMP, Colectivo Los Ingrávidos, Doplegenger, Gurpreet Kaler, Kush Badhwar, Mustafa Emin Büyükcoşkun, Nepal Picture Library, Rajyashri Goody, Ujjwal Kanishka Utkarsh and Vikrant Bhise. This is the first in a series of exhibitions leading up to the hundred-year anniversary of the Mahad satyagraha.According to the exhibition organisers: “Through this exhibition series, we aim to broaden our perspective and see intersections of how artists have remembered other revolutionary moments. Anchored in the specificity of Mahad and the radical actions led by Dr. Ambedkar, we seek to reflect upon the very idea of revolution. “What emerges when we observe, side by side, for instance, a mothers’ protest in Taksim Square in Istanbul; and the protests demanding accountability for 43 students forcibly disappeared in Mexico; a candlelight vigil in New Delhi, with the farmer’s protest in Punjab; or the ongoing histories of exploitative international mining in the former Yugoslavia? How do protest songs from Orissa which resist corporatisation resonate within Mahad? When juxtaposed with each other – especially in a city marked by historical radical actions – might these varied ways of looking, reflection and thinking offer a different understanding of radicality or of revolution itself?”The exhibition took place at the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar National Memorial (Rashtriya Smarak) in Mahad. The basement parking lot was transformed into a space to display experimental films, paintings, photographs, archival materials, installations, etchings and cyanotype prints. An international art exhibition by the observatory in Mahad, Maharashtra. Photo: Frida RoblesAccompanying the exhibition was a series of public programs, including film screenings, a lecture by civil rights activist Anand Teltumbde, a lecture-performance by Rajyashri Goody, a pre-launch of a book on the Mahad satyagraha by Nagesh Jadhav, a performance by the musical collective Yalgaar Sanskrutik Manch, and a short play by Katrap branch’s of the women’s wing of the Bhartiya Baudh Mahasabha.Every year on March 20 and December 25, Ambedkarite groups come to Mahad to commemorate the revolutionary actions of the Mahad satyagraha. In recent years, however, attendance at the December 25 events has been dwindling, in part because political parties and the state are wary of promoting events linked to the burning of the Manusmriti. In contrast, the March 20 events receive robust state backing, as well as support from parties across the political spectrum. Still, this December, large groups, especially of women and students, visited Mahad. Many of them attended the exhibition, lingering in the space and discussing works with the artists themselves – several of whom came to Mahad – and the program organisers. The intention of the exhibition was to take contemporary art out of the white box spaces they are typically shown in. And take it to the people, especially those who associate themselves with revolutionary histories. The art pieces themselves thus became a means for having discussions about various movements and moments from across India and the world. The observatory was able to arrange guided tours for groups of women coming to Mahad from across Maharashtra, as well as groups of students visiting Mahad for school trips. In trying to further the accessibility of the exhibition, all the descriptions were available in English and Marathi, and all the video works also were subtitled in both languages.Reflecting on the process of organising the exhibition, the exhibition organisers ask: “Can such juxtapositions open a conversation among social movements from different geographies and contexts, each engaging with the commemoration of social movements in their own way? Will this help us trigger reflections on politics of remembrance? On how can we create a space of continuous remembrance, a remembrance that opposes an objectified, commodified and digestible past, but one that allows for the complexities, the intersections, the incoherencies, the nonlinearity, the uneventfulness, the persistent, the unspectacular? In looking at the past and remembering from the here and now, can we together imagine a revolution?”