‘Criminalisation of dissent’: Indian artist remains behind bars after workers’ protest

Srishti Gupta, a 28-year-old Indian visual artist, has remained in jail since being detained on 11 April after attending a large factory workers’ protest in Noida near Delhi calling for fair wages and improved working conditions. Gupta livestreamed her detention from the Instagram account of Mazdoor Bigul, a small labour union organisation, and her lawyer Ali Zia Kabir Choudhary said the arrest was illegal because police allegedly lacked an arrest memo or warrant and did not have women officers present, which he said is mandatory when arresting women. Artist Shuddhabrata Sengupta publicly criticised Gupta’s incarceration on 22 May, arguing it reflects a broader “criminalisation of dissent” since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014. Gupta has degrees from Delhi University’s College of Art and Visva-Bharati University’s Kala Bhavan, received the Takshila Fine Arts Scholarship in 2024, and has exhibited in Delhi, including a group show at Stir gallery connected to India Art Fair programming.

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