Colours for a cause: A look at how art is emerging out of the Save Aarey project

Save Aarey

Whose par-tree is this?

Not just Mumbai, artists from the rest of Maharashtra are also adding a fresh lick of paint to the Save Aarey movement by amplifying its cause. One of them is Shubham Jinde, a Pune-based caricature artist and cartoonist. Jinde's evocative artwork portrays two crying trees donning a sash of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) symbol. "Mumbai has only SGNP and Aarey to hold on to in terms of green spaces. If we don't protest now, then once some form of development project starts, there will be no stopping. I have noticed that whenever a critic of the government joins the ruling party, the cases against them disappear. If the trees join BJP, too, then will they finally be saved?" he asks us.

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Keep up the good fight

"The new Shinde-Fadnavis government made it their first order of business to reverse the Thackeray government's decision to stay the car shed. It led to WhatsApp forwards on how the car shed is important for Mumbai, but the fact is Aarey houses tribal people, along with flora and fauna," points out graphic artist Vaibhav Adurkar. His artwork is a call for Mumbaikars to fight the good fight again. It depicts a fleeing, axe-bearing Fadnavis and a bleeding tree holding up another axe, symbolising the people-led resistance. "In 2019, it took a while to gather support but now, people are protesting every Sunday. There's a lot of anger," he shares.

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Sketching for the art and soul of Aarey

With the revival of the Aarey protests, much of the anger among supporters of the cause is directed towards the BJP and Maharashtra deputy chief minister (CM)
Devendra Fadnavis, under whose regime the crisis has brewed. Take for instance, this black-and-white piece by artist and advertising professional Rohit Khedkar, which captures the politician hacking a tree with a lotus-shaped axe. "If something bothers me, then I try to use art to express it. The news of the car shed being redirected to Aarey was very disturbing. As artists, it's our job to make art that helps to create some change or impact, even if it is in one person's mind, since it's easy for people to ignore such issues," he points out.

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