Lucknow : The Mayawati Factor
16 images Created 7 Mar 2014
Lucknow : The Mayawati Factor
These photographs, capture the last stages of the making of the grandest political architecture India has seen since independence in 1947. The monuments have been commissioned by the government
of Kumari Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh.
Mayawati is one of India's former untouchables,
the Dalits, and the gigantic ten odd monuments pay homage to Dalit
leaders and icons, including herself and the late founder of the party she heads, the Bahujan Samaj Party. The controversial projects are currently on hold by orders of the Supreme Court of India.
These monuments represent for her and her voters a long overdue process of asserting the civil rights gained by them with India's freedom, and of giving due recognition to figures they say have been ignored by nationalist historians.
For her detractors, they represent a colossal waste of taxpayers' money in one of India's poorest parts
These photographs, capture the last stages of the making of the grandest political architecture India has seen since independence in 1947. The monuments have been commissioned by the government
of Kumari Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh.
Mayawati is one of India's former untouchables,
the Dalits, and the gigantic ten odd monuments pay homage to Dalit
leaders and icons, including herself and the late founder of the party she heads, the Bahujan Samaj Party. The controversial projects are currently on hold by orders of the Supreme Court of India.
These monuments represent for her and her voters a long overdue process of asserting the civil rights gained by them with India's freedom, and of giving due recognition to figures they say have been ignored by nationalist historians.
For her detractors, they represent a colossal waste of taxpayers' money in one of India's poorest parts
