Asim Rafiqui, a US photographer currently based in Sweden, was recently awarded a grant by the Aftermath Project for his project, "The Idea of India: Religious and Cultural Pluralism as Resistance to Sectarian Conflict," an exploration of the aftermath of religious conflict in India through documenting pluralist landscapes, shared sacred sites, shared cultural traditions and efforts at reconciliation within divided communities.
He is now authoring The Idea of India, a fascinating and certainly topical blog documenting his journey through what he calls an alternative India, describing his experiences and thoughts of what he describes as "the complex, pluralist, shared heritage of India’s peoples" through his own brand of photography and intellect. There's no doubt that this is an impressive undertaking both in size and in scope...especially since Asim seeks to also include Pakistan and Bangladesh in his quest to expose the shared heritage of the countries of the sub-continent, as it is sometimes called.
On his blog, Asim writes that this project "...is an attempt to give complete expression to a way of working I have always coveted - a union of photographic and intellectual pursuits, each inspiring the other and each being executed without concern for rules, conventions, deadlines, politics and prejudices (other than my own, of course)."
I encourage you to read Asim's blog, reflect on his thoughtful analyzes, enjoy his photographs, bookmark it or subscribe to its RSS .
I anticipate many of us wish him well on this project. I know I do.
