Southasian Voices: Art, Identity, and Bridging Divides

From Leeds to London: A comment on ‘South Asia: People, promise and potential – art, film and discussion,’ a half-day event organized by the Bloomsbury Institute London, beyond Instagram and other decontextualised media, in collaboration with SOAS and other organisations.

It was a typically cloudy early morning last Tuesday, June 10, as I embarked on a one-day trip to London with colleagues from the University of Leeds International Business department. My mind, usually occupied with academic discourse, was buzzing with anticipation for an inspiring event at the Bloomsbury Institute London, ‘South Asia: people, promise and potential – art, film and discussion,’ organized by Arif Zaman, senior lecturer at the Institute.

I was eager to explore perspectives rarely encountered at business schools. As we arrived, the sun pierced through the windows of the room we were ushered into, mirroring how our initial professional reserve melted away, making way for genuine engagement.

We walked over to SOAS a short distance from the Bloomsbury Institute, for co-curator Manmeet K. Walia’s insightful guided tour of the exhibition ‘(Un) Layering the future past of South Asia: Young artists’ voices,’ on at the SOAS Gallery until this Saturday, 21 June.

Ms. Walia’s interpretations were succinct and accessible, making the complex art resonate with a diverse audience. A particularly stimulating point was her deliberate choice not to initially identify the artists by their country of origin, aiming to keep the focus purely on their creations. Yet, as she continued, she did mention the artists’ birth countries as crucial context.

It quickly became clear to me that, for many, context often becomes inextricably linked with identity itself, and that celebrating this unique identity is vital even as we seek common ground.

Beyond the stunning and evocative art, the exhibition’s most profound revelation was the cross-national collaborations thriving despite geopolitical conflicts between the artists’ nations.

We are born with a few inherent identities, but we choose to inhabit many more. National identity, however, often carries such profound cognitive weight that it can overshadow the diverse roles individuals intentionally cultivate.

I found myself imagining these artists, potentially submerged beneath a broader national narrative, their personal, self-constructed identities going unseen unless they actively pushed through multiple layers to be recognised for who they truly are and feel free to share their unique story.

Our adventure continued with a screening of Beena Sarwar’s film ‘Democracy in Debt: Sri Lanka Beyond the Headlines.’ The documentary is so powerful. It juxtaposed urban life with rural life, and smoke clouds with the traditions of maintaining farms. It shows how cities have shaped, yet could not erode, the rural life identity. 

These powerful pictures are something one would rarely see if trying to search on Instagram and other decontextualised media. Of course social media facilitates communication. But this film was an example of social media’s shortcomings: Algorithms that decontextualise messages and keep at bay what deserves to be at the core of the message, such as agency in the preservation of local identity.

Identities tend to be perceived rather than listened to. In multinational settings, identity categories are observed before the person themselves. Among the first questions is “where are you from,” or “where is the art from.” This may show more about the person asking than the one who provides the answer. 

When communicating and building trust, we need to let merit and effort prevail over nationality. Artists show their effort in finding similarities, the spirit of humans, the universal need for love, respect, and dignity. Yet, while finding common ground, they also beautifully celebrate their differences, demonstrating democratic voices and liberated feelings to raise marginalized voices.

The event we attended was an effort to communicate, to build trust, and to construct a shared identity that embraces both our shared humanity and our unique local stories.

Alireza Kamali is a PhD candidate at the University of Leeds. His research focus is on trust-building in International strategic alliances in emerging markets from an institutional theory perspective. 

Lead Image:  ‘Fragile Balance’, a prayer rug made of lit and unlit matchsticks, by Hadi Tahnaward, 2023, at the SOAS Gallery London, June 2025. Photo by Beena Sarwar.  

This is a Sapan feature available for republication with due credit to http://www.southasiapeace.com.

Note on Southasia as one word: Like Himal Southasian, we use ‘Southasia’ as one word, “seeking to restore some of the historical unity of our common living space, without wishing any violence on the existing nation states”.

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