competing emphases on power

30.05.2026

S: As a generalisation, I think you can say that the oppressor’s society does not affirm or emphasise its power. You see, its power is unholy. It is unjust. Moreover, this power is accepted by the degraded culture of the oppressor. However, those in the minority camp, they must affirm their power so that none consider them powerless. Indeed, even the oppressor affirms the power of the minority. You hear them saying that the minorities are accruing too much power. Their power is always a threat. Of course, the real threat is the power of the oppressors.

A: I suppose another reason that the oppressors choose not to affirm their power is because it is more effective when it is undisclosed, for the reasons that you have suggested. Because it is shameful.

S: Do you know why they are so afraid of the minorities taking power for themselves? Because they know that the minorities are just. It is the oppressor that has no law, despite claiming that they are ruled and ruling through law and order. All the oppressor has is coercion, wickedness, lies and deceit.

A: You as a minority do affirm your power.

S: Precisely. And thus, I am hated. Although I am the most powerful. As I have said before, I am like Frankenstein. I am powerful because I am fearless. And they? They are full of fear. And therefore, they are powerless.

A: They could savage you badly. Rob everything of you.

S: It does not make them any less of a coward. Sheep are hunting in a flock. The Tiger, he stands alone. He is the last surviving man and he never accepts defeat. Death before dishonour. Extinction before cowardice.

A: You that have to affirm power then, is that not then the mark of powerlessness?

S: See if anyone can compete with me fairly on any level. They cannot.

A: In popularity they compete with you and beat you.

S: That is because I have brown skin. There is no other reason. And is that a fair reason? When we talk about merit, I am the most powerful. Because I am the best. I affirm power because I am power. I am energetic because I am energy. I am the sun. There is no doubt of it. I am god upon earth.

those it does not work out with

28.05.2026

S: The question is, when it does not work out with someone, was it supposed to have happened or was it supposed to have not happened?

A: What do you mean by supposed to?

S: Does not fate control our lives?

A: There are many that do not believe in fate. But explain. Why would a relationship be supposed to have happened?

S: Love is either necessary or it is redundant, don’t you think? Surely matches are made by fate. One does not choose who one loves. It happens. It cannot be forced.

A: But then, surely it would have worked out if the other loved you?

S: Is not love more complicated than that? Sometimes, they love. But they will not do anything about it?

A: Why?

S: They are scared about what others think. They are scared about a difference in age. They are scared by a difference in culture. They are scared by status, appearances, race, everything that should not matter.

A: You say this confidently. How do you know? How do you know that they were scared by those things? How do you know that they never loved you?

S: No one knows anything. And yet, surely the person that was in the interaction knows more than others, those that were outside of the interaction?

A: The point of what you are saying is that you had hoped for something. And now you are wondering what would have been. You are regretting.

S: Not at all. One thinks about those in the past. One does not forget about those that one cared about. However, the question is, was it meant to be? Was that what destiny had chosen for me? If it had worked out with those ones, I would be saying to myself that it was the culmination of destiny’s efforts. But then, if it didn’t work out, if misunderstandings crept in, the situation caused failure of connection, was that a disorder in destiny and the path that was chosen? Or was that destiny unfolding?

A: As I have said, destiny is an unwarranted assumption.

S: You can say that because you were not born with a destiny. You were not born to be The Tiger, the hope of the Mother, the hope of The Oppressed. Warrior destiny is the war. And love is also war. Therefore there is the destiny of love.

the significance of genius

26.05.2026

A: You are always boasting that you are a genius. You are also always saying that others are not on your intellectual level. Do you believe that you are better than other people because you are a genius?

S: Yes. Because I worked hard to become a genius. I am on my fifth degree. I spent my PhD years all by myself all day for several years. Why shouldn’t I boast about being the best? Why shouldn’t I think I am better than others? I sincerely believe that a mind like mine only comes around once every few hundred years.

A: And what is this genius in? Criticism. All you do is criticise.

S: And I am the genius at it. And besides the criticism, there is the explanation, the secret truths that make up the self in a world of imperialism, hate and oppression. What would happen if I didn’t say that I was a genius? They would think themselves better than me because they did not come from the working class. They would think themselves better than me because I am Indian. They would think themselves better than me because I come from the Untouchables, the Dalits. Therefore, I say that I am better than them. Because they judge me on how I was born. But I judge people on what they have achieved. And I have achieved the most. What have they achieved in comparison to me? I know the secrets of this world that only I can see and understand.

A: What about humility?

S: Why should a genius have humility? I am exceptional, special, whatever you want to say about it. I know my own importance in thought and in history.

A: People hate that you think you are better than them.

S: They should know how they inspire hate from us, from the fact that they think they are better than us.

A: Why can you not say that you are equal to them?

S: Because I believe in the rule of reason and of the intellect. I believe that society is best run by those that think the best, that are the most intelligent. I believe that because I am the genius, it is I that should rule. And them? They think that the ones that should rule are the rich and the powerful. That is what stupidity gets you. That’s why I am better than them in every way.

the courage to persuade the pistol

25.05.2026

S: In ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, courage is defined as the fight against racism. They say that courage is knowing that you are licked before you even begin to fight racism and still fight nonetheless.

A: You believe that you have this courage?

S: I fight racism with my words. I fight racism with my deeds. With my heart. With my love and my friendship. I have never denied anyone anything because of the colour of their skin or their religion or culture. I have never denied anyone love because of what is wrong.

A: What is your idea of courage? It is something that you write about a lot, this concept of courage and bravery.

S: Do you know what the courage of a Punjabi is? The guru said:

‘Chirion se main baaz turaun,

Tabe Gobind Singh naam kahaun’

It is when I make sparrows fight hawks that I am called Gobind Singh.

‘Gidderon se main sher banaun,

Tabe Gobind Singh naam kahaun’

It is when make I lions out of wolves that I am called Gobind Singh

‘Nichon se main ucch banaun,

Tabe Gobind Singh naam kahaun’

It is when I make the lowly rise that I am called Gobind Singh

‘Sawa lakh se ek laraun,

Tabe Gobind Singh naam kahaun’

It is when I make one fight a hundred thousand that I am called Gobind Singh

Courage is when you have no power and you still fight. Courage is when you are the one and you fight the hundred thousand. When you stand against all as The Tiger. It is a concept shared by both Atticus Finch in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and the Guru. Attitus is one of the powerful. He says it despite the fact that he has power in a white supremacist society as a white man. The Guru? He said it when he was one of the lowly. What the Guru said is the truth, it is the sincere conviction of the true warrior.

A: You believe that you are the lowly?

S: I am an Untouchable. I am The Oppressed, the Dalit. I am the working class. I am an ethnic minority man. We are they who they want to keep low. And yet, I fight. With everything. To the last breath. With my love. With my freedom. With my voice. With my body. I am the one that the Guru called to fight. Because they want us to be lowly but we will rise. It is us that are truly powerful. With all of their might, we are the ones that strike fear into their hearts. Because it is us that are the warriors. And them? They are the cowards. They are the hundred thousand that fight the one. Me. And it is them that lose.

Platform 1 at the Bloomsbury Theatre – Saturday the 23rd of May at 6.30pm

SPOILER ALERT!

Mia Debenham and Marie Saint-Yves: Neptune-Ball AEGAGROPILE & Co v The ANTHROPOCENE WORLDWIDE CORPORATION performed by Arthur Wickham

A lecture from a lawyer about microplastics and how we end up becoming our rubbish by eating it. It could be seen as a combined demonstration of the persuasive arts of our time: medicine, law, environmentalism and science. All executed under the rubric of rhetoric. It is left up to the audience to decide their fate once the legal argument has been completed.

Molly Lau: Eon City

A video installation which showcased an imaginary city that was powered by bioluminescence. An investigation of architecture through light, evoking a European tradition and architectural imaginary of light which dates back to at least Saint Denis and Abbot Suger.

Gabriella Day: The ladder is an A

A video of the performer reading out a script which begins in darkness with a headlight focused on the page and ends with the same vision. First light and then reading. The body emerges out of darkness into the light and the text and then disappears into darkness from the light and the text. Is this an investigation of the before and the after of reading, its construction, origin and ending, its enabling by light and the body?

Beth Simcock

A read piece accompanied by a video of the art of the artist. The drawings drew an expression of admiration from my friend

Arthur Wickham: Bian Lian

A performance in which the artist peels off several masks off his face, does a handstand, dances and wears a building on his face too. There was a mention of the grotesque in art and how it relates to the culture of the spectacle, which perhaps explains the form of the masks. The dynamic appeared to be unveiling and its frustration as each time the mask was removed, there was another mask underneath. Eventually however, we see the face of the artist with the suggestion that under the art, the artist stands exposed, the striptease of the face appropriated to challenge gendered conventions of performance?

Da In Park: Entangled Steps, A Salt Prayer for the Haunted Garden: Reconciling Colonial Legacy and War Memories behind the Beauty of Cherry Blossoms. (For more, Saltprayer.com)

A mesmerising silent protest against Japanese colonialism and the implication of UCL within this with its Japanese garden through Korean ritual. The salt prayer is a ritual to cleanse ‘colonial rot’. The silence of the moment reflects the silencing of the colonised and invites reflection and healing for oppression.

Margot Wilson: Sacrificial Package. With Eva Titherington and Juliet Dodson

Two ladies in red overalls wind shrink wrap around the artist to the sound of some cassette players. Is this about the packaging of the female body and its commodification, the packaging of the artist? Is it about how plastic is reimaging the body in the era of the anthropocene? The two cassette players compete with each other and we see the slow circling of the female body by the two women. Because the artist has told me that she is a sculptor that works with shrink wrap and we see sculpture in the round, maybe this is a reflection on the process of creating sculpture for the round and on its viewing. Also perhaps a reflection on how this is the era of transparency, with plastic and glass, a reflection on its restriction for the human body as the artist tries to walk with the shrink wrap around her and her movement is severely impeded.

Juliet Dodson: Stage Fright

Persuading a large red curtained box to get into the spotlight when it does not want to. And therefore an exploration of visibility and disappearance on the public stage, the coercions of visibility and the association of invisibility with what? Freedom or insignificance and obscurity? The artist’s dilemma.

Rosalind Wilson: Stack

Building things with sticks which keep on falling down. A metaphor for something? The futility of human endeavour? A feminist comment about women in art? The life of the artist? An exploration of construction and destruction? The ephemerality of art?

Lily Hosotani: How old is this ___? With Molly Lau

An oversized tape measure which the performers measure tools with. I get the feeling that there is a sexual innuendo that informs this – the measuring of ‘tools’ by women. At the end of the performance, the performers measure themselves. An element of disruption is perhaps intended. In constructing something, it is usually space that is measured, not the tools that will be used to work on the space. And then why would measuring be extended to the self if there was some work of construction? Of course, the Ancient Greeks might be being invoked in a feminist revision – ‘(wo)man is the measure of all things’?

Eva Titherington: Running for the Hills

A group of figures huddled together with a painting of a red hill attached to them so that they are faceless. They all keep on repeating ‘she is running for the hills’. Seems to be a literal meditation on the repetition compulsion behind language and idoms. These idioms and language itself is created through endless repetition so the performers do it ad nauseum to build up the image of the red hills and insist upon it, highlighting how metaphor and visual imagery is also crucial to the act of repetition itself. So an investigation of the dynamics of language and their intersection with the visual, how we create shared images in our minds and thoughts.

Munaye Lichtenstein: The End is Knot in Sight

We see the performer pulling at the rope and then as the rope takes centre stage, eventually we see what she was pulling – herself. A comment about how we have to pull ourselves along through life, the struggle to get through things, a comment about the burden of the self in the journey through life.

Hannah Stanley: Billy & CO

A composer with an orchestral band that aims to control them but produces the worst music in the entire world. About control and consequence.

the philosophy of the revolutionary

23.05.2026

S: When it comes down to it, the revolutionary only has one philosophy.

A: Which is?

S: Why should they be right and no one else is right? That question is what decides the thinking and the behaviour of the Revolution.

A: How so?

S: The Revolutionary has to go against the politics and the law of the oppressors. And they pretend that their laws are objective and universal, that their politics of the majority are for all, that they are inclusive and fair. The Revolutionary calls bullshit. The Revolutionary says that I will have my own law and my own politics. That the rules and the law that they have are unfair and injustice. The Revolutionary ultimately insists that he is right, not them. Again, the Revolutionary questions why they are always right despite all of the injustice in the world, proving that they are not right but wrong.

A: And I suppose that you are the Revolutionary.

S: The Revolutionary is a critic, a philosopher and a man of action.

A: And you are all of those things?

S: Without a doubt. I am the greatest of the critics because I am the most intelligent. I am the greatest of the philosophers because I have the best intuition. And I am the most energetic of the men of action because I have so much talent and energy which the Mother Queen has bestowed upon me.

A: No one follows you on the path of Revolution.

S: Do I need anyone? I myself am a god. Does god need anyone?

A: You want someone.

S: Just by expressing the thoughts of the Revolution I will find those that come. Just by being myself I have become the counter culture, the answer.

the conviction of legacy

21.05.2026

S: Does an artist fear death?

A: Why do you ask?

S: It is always a question with a question for you. There is a reason to think so. The artist attempts to capture that which is fleeting, a flicker in the wind. He will paint an animal or a woman. He will paint a baby or a feeling. He attempts to rescue the moment from death. He attempts to write eternity.

A: But does the artist think this when he works?

S: Surely yes. Surely those portrait painters of the past thought that they were preserving a likeness for all time. Surely their patrons thought that they were preserving a monument to all time. Read the poem ‘Ozymandius’.

A: Ozymandius is about the folly of power.

S: It is also about the corruption of time. The tragedy of time.

A: Only you are the one that I can discuss literature with. But do you worry about your legacy?

S: No. I have produced enough already. I can produce more, much more. What you do not know is how easy everything is for me.

A: You have found everything easy in your studies?

S: Yes. There is nothing complicated in anything that I have studied, law, literature or art history. Or psychology, criminology, anthropology, philosophy, history, any of the subjects I have studied at university level.

A: But you are not read. Your published work, your art, your photography. You are not famous.

S: Yet. I know that I have produced good work. Therefore, I do not worry. You cannot make the ignorant listen to sense. I am the truth. I have produced the truth.

A: Stop these scribbles and these sketches. Do something more substantial.

S: Why? Why do things that you get nothing from? I know that I am a genius. I have nothing to prove to anyone.

A: Remember that your name is the name of the Untouchables. The Oppressed. They need your shine. Don’t forget that. Don’t become selfish. Remember what other geniuses have said. Genius is a gift. You have to give and give and give. It is your duty. For the community.

S: I am listening. I have perhaps forty more years in me. And I will work, don’t you worry. I will work on substantial things.

A: Now, while you have the energy. Do not let this life defeat you.

the drying out of hunger

21.05.2026

S: I am feeling the hunger drying in me.

A: You have just finished four years of study. You are entitled to rest.

S: The biggest challenge to the warrior is not the enemy. The enemy is weak and ignoble, a coward. They are non-men. The big challenge is to keep the hunger for revenge.

A: It has been many years that you have been fighting in this war. You are getting old. How long can anger last?

S: This rage must last for an eternity.

A: Work yourself up. Remember what they have done to you, the Oppressed, and The Mother. It is the duty of the warrior to fight even after the head has been lost.

S: This lonesome war. This spiritual war that will never end. Where the fight comes only from one side, my side. Where there are no worthy companions. This spiritual war in which the warrior has to hold onto his humiliation.

A: This is the reality of war. It takes all. It takes much. And you must take it.

S: In the film Ghayal (Wounded), the hero of revenge watches all of his companions fall about him until he is the last man standing.

A: Even he had a companion at last. You have no one. You are alone. Dharma is to follow the duty of the situation that you are in. There is no one but you. Therefore you are the war and The Revolution. You entirely. That brain of yours has marked you for solitude. You are exceptional. Therefore you are the leader of this movement. You are the Independence. It is for you to do everything and anything. It is for you to create the voice and the vision of The Revolution. Just through your existence you are the fight.

S: You are the one that believes in me.

A: Only they who have felt the wound can believe. You have felt the wound too, intensely. We are one. But it is you that has the talent.

S: This talent is a burden.

A: Life itself is a burden. And still we bear it.

S: Tomorrow, once more, The Tiger will rage.

A: It is the prayer of the people to see this anger vanquish all. It is the time of the demon and the liar. Sin has outweighed goodness in the world. The Mother, they have stripped her naked and they come to rob her of her honour. She has cried out for her son, for the anger of The Tiger. You will not defend your Mother? You are not a man?

S: You are right. For all that they do there will be a reckoning. We count the insults and when the time comes we will devour them. This drying of hunger, it is a sickness that they try to instill in us. Our strength is our anger. Because it is the anger of justice. We have sworn to protect what we hold dearest. The Mother expects and we must meet that expectation. Otherwise, she who is most precious will be lost to those that learn and teach hate and oppression. Warrior duty is the war. Love asks for revenge. The coward cannot be the victor.

who has the right over this body

19.05.2026

S: Have you ever wondered who owned this body?

A: Surely you own your own body? But, then, is it not a false question? Can you sell your body?

S: Many do sell their bodies. But the question then becomes, does the buyer own your body?

A: These are sophistries.

S: With practical results. But to return to the question. Who owns this body?

A: I persist in saying that I own my own body.

S: Untrue. There are many claimants. First, there is the mother, who gives birth to the body. She invests much into our bodies. Therefore, she has a claim.

A: So, as usual, we are talking about the implicit rather than the explicit. We are talking about unspoken claims rather than the spoken.

S: Yes, why not? There are many that look only at the partial truth. Why not talk to one that talks about the total truth for a change?

A: Go on then.

S: Not only the mother, but also the baby. The baby also owns the body of his mother. It is where he gets food and comfort, delight and language, dance and music. It is where he is connected.

A: Any more? Perhaps everyone owns the body.

S: So now you see where I am going with this. Yes, the lover also has a claim to the body. A not undisputed claim, but a partial claim nonetheless. Because the body is the aim of the lover, if this lover has red blood within him. There are more. I come from the warrior culture. Therefore, Punjab owns this body. This body is for Punjab and the earth of Punjab. When they ask for war, they ask for the gift of the body.

A: I have told you many times that you are not a warrior.

S: And I have proved through action and thought that I am. I have fought tirelessly for the honour of The Mother. I know that I am a hero.

A: To add to the list?

S: The community owns the body. The mother owns the body. The child owns the body. The family owns the body. The lover owns the body. Also, as you said yourself, the self owns the body.

A: Theories contrary to the feminists, the Marxists and the whole tribe of scholars.

S: What do they know? Do they even have bodies? They think of themselves as minds – and they are corrupt minds. Selfish. Thinking in terms of selfishness and discrete categories in an interrelated world.

A: And you are not selfish?

S: I am the king. And the king lives for others. Not for himself. That is the difference in the philosophical orientation. This body is not just for the self, it is for others. And that is why death is impossible and there is the duty to live and to prosper. For others. Not just the body is given as a gift, but also the mind. A gift given to justice.

the weariness of performing

18.05.2026

S: Life asks that we perform. Always, therefore, we are performing. There is no end to this performance.

A: You are weary of performing?

S: There is a performer that shines with light. All he thinks about is his performance. He is the best. He is the cynosure of all eyes. The audience ask for him night after night. When will he find rest and peace here?

A: Is it his duty to perform, night after night.

S: Not only night after night. But also night and day.

A: What about the authentic self? Where is he able to find that which is true? That which is not the peformance?

S: The trial of this hero is that he has to perform himself every time. Only himself and nothing else. He performs authenticity. This is why he is the one that draws the attention. The others? They are fake. They are not even true to themselves, least of all to themselves. They are puppets. And he? He is a real boy.

A: How can it be that he performs himself?

S: He reads his culture. He interprets his culture. He watches. He listens. He lets himself be instructed. What is in the culture, that is how he models his life. What is false to the culture, he abandons. He has been raised on the stories of the Punjabi hero, the heroism of The Mother Goddess. That is the core of his culture. The warrior culture.

A: He performs the fight?

S: The fight is a performance. It is a display of skill. And he has all the skills. He is the one that they look up to, that they want to be like. His name is The Tiger.

A: To be oneself, to perform oneself, is it not as bad as performing another?

S: You are asking what is the lure of authenticity?

A: Yes, if you will.

S: To be the authentic self, to be true to what it is that you are, that is the teaching of dharma. Do not look at the false law of the state. Do not look at the false rules of others and their lies as to what is the truth. Be true to your own truth, to your position, your situation in life. Look at me. I come from the working class, from the ethnic minority, from the Untouchables and the Dalits, The Oppressed. I have never forgotten where I come from. I have studied at one of the most prestigious universities in the world, taught at the most prestigious universities in the world too. I have had the cream of this world, dined in the finest restaurants, holidayed in the finest resorts, been to the most beautiful places in the whole world. I have accomplished things that others dream of, a doctorate, a published book and research, taught hundreds if not thousands of the underprivileged. And still, I never forget who I am, where I come from and who there is to fight for. Why I was born. For the community. For The Oppressed. I have never forgotten that what I am is duty, yearning for justice and fairness, for equality, respect and the dharma. And this authentic self of mine? It is everything. Artist, poet, writer, scholar, athlete, warrior, photographer, curator, teacher, journalist, the greatest of the game players, psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, anthropologist, actor, singer, philosopher, historian, manager, leader. There is more and more. I am all. I play all the roles. That is true authenticity. Everything. And with an Indian stamp. With Punjabi style. And with a British accent.