Jacquard Fabrics, Wooden Blocks, Kitchen Weave, Handmade Tiger Stuffed Toy, Threads
A game for our children | A lesson in history, understanding the implications through play.
(politicising) WAGH AUR BAKRI | a native Indian game ‘Wagh aur Bakri’ (loosely translated as ‘tiger and goat’) is played by children all over the country. The main aim of the game is for the players who embody the tigers to kill the goats, and the players who are the goats to capture the tigers.
Focused on the animalistic instincts of the game, my recreation of the game is a politicised version which is set in 1947, during the partition of India, called DIVIDE AND RULE. The arbitrarily drawn line of control separates the once unified nation: Hindustan into two new countries: India and Pakistan. The motive of the game is for the players on one side of the border to get to the other side of the border (regardless of their religion and allegiance) without being killed first by the tiger: the personification of all the individuals who were fanatics, mere pawns of the British Rule in India .
