In urban Gujarati towns, like the one where Bhatt’s family is from, the obscure tradition of sabras is continued, in which young adults spread salt on the morning after Diwali. Alluding to the metaphor of adding flavor, beginning the new year with a pinch of salt enhances the delight of the year to come.
Bhatt was born two days after Diwali, known as Bhai Bij according to the Gujarati calendar. His own personal celebration of Diwali has thus become about tying up loose ends and winding up the year that has passed. “It is about placing small lamps in the darkest corners of oneself and the path around in a moonless night,” he adds. As the state of India has been experiencing a continual uprising in fascist movements, particularly around Hindu dominancy, he reflects on his first memory of celebrating Diwali with his mother and grandmother, union organizers who celebrated the holiday in solidarity with women comrades reciting an interfaith prayer and singing the Gujarati translation of “Solidarity Forever.”
Despite authoritarian stances that attempt to hijack and flatten the celebration into one specific version (negating the multitude of ethnicities, religions, and cultures of India in the process), Bhatt speaks to the aesthetic quality of his work in response to his upbringing: “My drawings arise from constellations of disparate forms and unexpected nearness. For me, in contrast to a monolith, the truly mythic is a pathway to discomfort and engaging with the unknown in a beautiful way.”
Beyond one specific aesthetic tradition, Bhatt is interested in fettling the world we have instead of resuscitating a bygone one. The artist’s practice of the festival of light is truly a commemoration of newness, as he offers, “may the inner light help us fight the fascism within us and in the world around us.”
Shriya Samavai, designer and founder of Samavai
Will be celebrating Deepavali this year with: Their cousin and partner in Los Angeles.