Toward a Dalit: Structure of Archiving

The culmination of the first Party Office Archival Fellowship 2021 awarded to Samata Kala Manch

by Rukhmaji Tikaram Gaikwad, Samiksha Bamne, Ashok Bankar, Pranita Thorat, and Coral (Kshitija Chavan)
illustrations by Pooja Baban Kasbe
edited and translated by Coral
designed by Vidisha

As Pranita writes, “It’s important that a structure for a Dalit Archival is created which will reduce the struggles one has to go through while archiving and give space to people to archive in ways they are comfortable with. A structure of archiving where the English language is not dominant. We must create a comfortable space for everyone to speak and archive in the language they prefer. The pressure and barriers of forms should be eradicated and the liberty to create in forms that one wants to should be given. For example; we can create archives of art forms like songs, posters, paintings, street plays, and photography. Although we need to, together, rethink where we can store these archives so they are accessible to our community easily.”

Paperback | 6″ x 8.25″ | 118 pages | Printed Naveen Printers, New Delhi | 2023

Party Office is an anti-caste, anti-racist, trans*feminist art and social space in New Delhi, India, which also operates at satellite locations and conceptual architecture. Through publications, grants, radical archives, conversations of life lived, social gatherings, parties, and more, they are building translation dialogues on empathetic futures, care communities, and radical agency.