Anushka Satpathy
“Whenever someone assumes I don’t speak Hindi, I just go along with it. After they’ve spilt all their judgments, I casually reply, “Haan bhai, sahi kaha,” and walk off,” my friend Adrita confessed to me four years ago, her expression hovering between laughter and frustration. “I was tired of reminding everyone that I am just as Indian as them,” she continued, her voice softer this time. Adrita is from Manipur, and when I learned about Lengkhawm, an ongoing art show in Delhi’s at the India International Centre, she was the first person I texted.
Nestled in the verdant embrace of valleys once shrouded by dense forests, Lamka—formally known as Churachandpur—is the second-largest town in Manipur and the proud homeland of the Kuki-Zo people. Although established less than a century ago, Lamka is rich with an artistic and sartorial heritage that, regrettably, remains largely undocumented.
When portraying India’s northeast, mainstream Indian media frequently resorts to stereotypical portrayals that are either disrespectful, tokenistic or both. Refusing to lose Lamka’s heritage to time and political strife, over a hundred visionary artists from the town assembled to form This is Lamka, an artistic collective that aims to document and preserve the history of their home. Armed with stories, photographs and artworks spanning generations, This is Lamka’s agenda is twofold: to sensitively piece together the lives of natives through art and to do so with dignity through the eyes of its inhabitants.