More Than 2,000 People Have Signed a Petition to Free Two Indian Artists After Protesting for Workers Rights
Two Indian artists, Srishti Gupta and Akriti Choudhary, were arrested in April after protesting alongside factory workers in Greater Noida near New Delhi, according to a report referenced from the Art Newspaper. A Change.org petition started by Shaleen Wadhwana four weeks before the article was published calls for the release of the two artists and six workers arrested on April 11, and had 2,345 signatures at the time of reporting. The article says thousands of workers protested for fair wages and improved conditions, with roads blocked and more than 300 arrests, and that Gupta live-streamed her arrest at a metro station on the Instagram account of Mazdoor Bigul, a workers’ rights newspaper launched in 2004. Gupta’s lawyer argued the arrest was illicit because no women police officers were present, and multiple artists—including Shuddhabrata Sengupta (posting on May 22), Parismita Singh, and Maksud Ali Mondal—publicly expressed solidarity on social media.
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This story was covered in Museum Meltdowns and Art’s Arresting Protests