Embodied aesthetics and populist appeal of communist portraits in contemporary Kerala

Abstract

In contrast to their career in the rest of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI (M)] continue to thrive as a highly successful electoral and cultural force in Kerala. Popularly known as the ‘Party’, an important aspect of CPI(M) has been its populist streak even though its official discourse is one that strongly adheres to rule-based reasoning by prioritizing ideological principles in its policies and decisions. The populist streak often manifests through myths and cultic adoration built around its leaders as well as through the occasional branding of Indian judiciary and democracy as bourgeois. It is further characterized by a strong ‘us vs. them’ rhetoric in which the ‘them’ is a powerful other, variously identified as CIA (Central Intelligence Agency of the US), or the media syndicate, or the government of the Indian Union, etc. Usually, the Communist Party is studied only with reference to its history and policies, and it has seldom been interrogated on the affective energies it generates in the everyday. This paper proposes to discuss communist iconography, such as portraits of yesteryear leaders circulated via social media and displayed in communist family homes, as sites where affective energies are generated and realised. Taking its cue from Christopher Pinney’s corpothetics, the paper intends to study this visual practice as an embodied aesthetic engagement, which by invoking filial sentiments, renders the Party felt for its supporters. By drawing on the concept of darshan, the ritualistic and devotional viewing of deities, the paper endeavours to place the affectivity of these portraits in a broader cultural milieu.

Introduction

The political character of South India shares a reliance on visual imagery (Prasad 2020). Scholars like Pandian (2015), Madhava Prasad (2014), and S.V Sreenivas (2018) reiterate this argument by emphasizing the role played by cinema in reinforcing this significant quality of South Indian politics. A similar reliance on the visual and its coercive capability could be observed in Kerala, a South Indian state where Communism continues to thrive both as a ubiquitous presence and as a powerful electoral force in contrast to their career in the rest of India. The prevalence of the Communist Party, especially the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)], as a formidable political power in Kerala, is apparent even in the recent legislative assembly elections of 2021. By securing ninety-seven seats out of one hundred and forty, the Communist Party-led Left Democratic Front retained power in the state through what was dubbed a historic win. Founded in 1940, what made the Communist Party significant to the history of Kerala was its entry into state governance in 1957 as the first democratically elected government in the state. This ascension to power was a consequence of the strong support they garnered among the people through proletariat movements such as the Malabar peasant movement (1938-39), which advocated the eradication of feudalism and transfer of land to the tillers (Fic, 1970:29).

Despite being instrumental in embedding the otherwise Eurocentric Marxist theory within the socio-political and cultural milieu of the state, the populist streak demonstrated by the Left in Kerala remains an understudied topic. Explicated as a form of political articulation rooted in identity politics, a feature common to all populist movements would be the centrality of the leader (Laclau 2005). Scholars have identified personalistic and paternalistic leadership as the core feature of populism (Moffit 2016). This particular attribute could be observed in the performative left populism of Kerala, which ensures that the communist leaders are exalted and followed with a reverence bordering on the paternalistic. They hover above the ordinary and the extraordinary by ‘being of the people as well as beyond the people’(Ibid). The cultic adulation through iconographic artefacts helps the communist leaders of Kerala to transcend the ordinary bounds of adoration without compromising their democratic aura in the process. This paper specifically looks at the perpetuation of the leader cult in Kerala through its use in portraiture in domestic spaces and the digital world, such as in commemorative posters in Malayalam, the predominant language of Kerala. Circulated alike in both domestic and digital spaces, these visual texts serve to ossify the partisan’s sense of collective identity while also invoking filial sentiments.

The portraits that form the subject of this research were mainly gathered from the Malabar region of Kerala specifically Kannur and Calicut. While some of them were collected as part of my digital ethnography conducted during the pandemic in 2020, others were gathered during the fieldwork conducted in these two northern districts of Kerala in April 2022. Through this paper, I will analyse these images by utilising the idea of corpothetics or corporeal aesthetics, which is concerned with the mobilisation of all senses for the appreciation of a text (Pinney 2003:19). The concept is utilised appositely to understand the filial mode of reverence effected by everyday embodied practices that enhance the Party’s affective potential and emotional capital. Such engagements, which are sensory/sentimental, play a key role in embedding the Party within the Kerala state as an affective presence rather than an abstract political program.

Before moving further into the chapter, it is necessary to discuss the political career of the Left in India so as to contextualise my paper better. It is common knowledge that communist ideas gained currency only in the Indian states of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, where the parliamentary left formed governments with a definite ideological mandate (Chakrabarty 2001, 14). However, over the years, the Left lost its populist appeal and could not sustain its rule in the states of Bengal and Tripura. There were several reasons for the downfall of the CPI(M) in Bengal, including the Party’s adoption of capitalist and neo-liberal policies¹, the rise of populist leaders such as Mamata Banerjee and the left government’s anti-people stance on various issues like the Nandigram violence². Similar manifestations of anti-incumbency sentiments were also observed in Tripura, where the communist government was ousted from power in 2018 after twenty-five years of uninterrupted rule (Sakia 2018). One of the main reasons cited for this decline was the Left government’s disregard for the unemployment crises, as well as the instability caused by the ethnic insurgency in the state, which hindered the growth of major development projects (Ibid). It is into this turbulent scene that the Bhartiya Janatha Party (BJP) made its entry by promising jobs to at least one member of the family, thus successfully displacing the stronghold that the Left had in the state for more than two decades (Ibid).

In the South, one finds that Communist rule persists in Kerala, though alternately, in contrast to Bengal and Tripura, where the left once governed without opposition. It is appropriate at this juncture to raise the inevitable query as to what facilitates the endurance of Left populism in the state. To start with, one could observe that the populist style displayed by the Left in Kerala is one that is invested in cultivating a massified base. In the beginning, this was achieved by cultivating a progressive public sphere, which consisted of utilising public spaces such as tea shops, libraries and junctions for the promulgation of Communist ideology and for discussing matters of national and international import (Harikrishnan 2022). Such occasions, which enabled the participation of people from all caste groups, led to the creation of a democratic public sphere (Ibid). These interventions were also supplemented with actions involving communist leaders, especially those belonging to upper castes, paying visits to lower caste houses in an attempt to obliterate the boundaries imposed by the hierarchical caste structure (Mannathukkaren 2022). Later, once the Party flourished, these associations transformed to become what Balu Sunilraj (2023) calls horizontal linkages, which, when explained, refers to partisan participation and camaraderie among equals³. Such associations, which are often based on friendships and neighbourly relations - though not aimed at electoral gains, interestingly enough, make significant contributions towards the grassroots-level reach of the Communist Party (Sunilraj 2023). Such actions are very much in tone with Mouffe’s observation that “to generate loyalty and move people to act it [populist politics] has to convey affects that resonate with their desires and personal experience” (Mouffe 2020).

Ironically enough, another factor that maintains the populist quality of the Left in Kerala is the presence of a strong opposition. Throughout the parliamentary history of Kerala, one could observe that the Left has been alternating in power along with the Indian National Congress (INC) led UDF (United Democratic Front). In order to stay relevant in such a competitive atmosphere, the Party also took to social media (which it had initially opposed), mainly to popularize welfare measures and to co-ordinate activities during natural disasters such as COVID-19 and Kerala floods. Social media is also utilised by the Party to commemorate former leaders - an aspect which will be discussed in this paper. It has to be clarified that these characteristics do not necessarily imply that the Party was successful in maintaining its populist appeal without crease since its inception. Of late, the Party has been receiving severe criticism for its elitist tendencies. This argument was validated by the State Secretary of CPI(M), M. V Govindan, while evaluating the reasons for the failure of the Party in the state during the recent Lok Sabha elections of 2024. According to Govindan, it was the presence of “self-defeating bourgeoise capitalist traits” within the second Pinarayi Vijayan government and the failure to disperse welfare and service pensions to workers that alienated ordinary people from the Party (Anand 2024).

With the aforementioned sections elaborating on the relevance of partisan participation in the functioning of Left populism in Kerala, it becomes pertinent to discuss how the Party constructed its massified base during its early days. The Communist movement in Kerala thoroughly utilized the cultural sphere for this purpose, whereby, it introduced revolutionary themes into literature and theatre with the hopes of rendering itself popular among the people. Malayalam literature from 1900–1950 underwent a revolutionary change causing the appearance of the underprivileged and impoverished as protagonists in hitherto upper-class dominated Malayalam literature (Menon 1994, 149). Works such as Thottiyude Makan (Scavenger’s Son) (Pillai, 1947) by Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, Odayilninn (From the Gutter) (Dev 1942) by P. Kesava Dev are testaments to this fact (Menon 1994, 149). Popular theatre was also used in a similar vein to cultivate class consciousness among the people. The contributions of playwrights such as K. Damodaran, Ponkunnam Varkey and Thoppil Bhasi in inculcating communist ideology and socialist consciousness among the masses need to be acknowledged here. Plays such as Pattabakki (Rent Arrears) (Damodaran 1937) by K. Damodaran, and Ninagalenne Communist Aakki (You Made Me a Communist) (Bhasi 1952) by Thoppil Bhasi were some of the path-breaking plays that popularised Communism.

An organisation that requires mention at this point is KPAC (Kerala People’s Arts Club), which was established in 1950 with the sole intention of utilizing theatre for the dissemination of revolutionary ideas within the socio-political spheres of Kerala. With playwrights like Thoppil Bhasi in the front along with other activists affiliated with the Communist Party, KPAC wielded art as a means to express one’s protest against exploitation (Mannathukkaren 2013). The plays, in themselves, had distinctive formal and stylistic attributes, such as the usage of vernacular diction, dialect, and folklore, which made the regional assimilation of an international movement like Communism less taxing (Mannathukkaren, 2022). KPAC songs like Ponnarivalambiliyil kanneriyunnole (she who eyes the sickle shaped moon…) specifically had a folk tune that distinctly characterizes it as vernacular (Ibid). These cultural articulations invited the engagement of lower and subaltern classes with the Party which made them feel included by creating a literature coloured by their dreams/reality.

Different strands of communist thought also found representation in mainstream Malayalam cinema over the decades. Some of the films where electoral communist parties feature prominently include Adimakal Udamakal (Slaves Owners) (Sasi 1987), Stalin Sivadas (Babu 1999), and the historical Ormakalundayirikkanam (Should Have Memories) (Chandran 1995). Adding to this list of films are political dramas such as Lal Salam (Red Salute) (Nagavally 1990), Janam (The People) (Thampi, 1993), Chief Minister K.R. Gowthami (Baburaj 1994), Rakthasakshikal Sindabad (Long Live the Martyrs) (Nagavally 1998) and Neythukaran (The Weaver)(Priyanandan 2002). Apart from such representations, there has been a spate of new-generation films in Malayalam, such as Comrade in America, a.k.a C.I. A (Neerad 2017), Sakhaavu (Comrade) (Siva 2017), and Oru Mexican Apaaratha (A Mexican Fantasy) (2017) in the 2000s. These youth-centric films offer chic narratives where Communism and communists are stylish entities who negotiate with the contemporary and popular while also being mindful of its history. Situated within the framework of commercial cinema, these films use Communism as a prop that enables the self-fashioning and ensuing machismo of the hero.

Aligning with this cinematic engagement of Communism is the broader exploration of its visual and symbolic representations observed in academic works that examine the aesthetic conventions of Communist visual cultures worldwide. Scholars such as Boris Groys (1992), Bonnel (1997), Francesca Dal Lago (2009), Nisar Kannangara and Devarapalli (2019), and Skrodzka et al. (2020) have made remarkable contributions to this field⁴. In Kerala, the iconographic expressions of the Party play a crucial role in making its presence felt among the people. These visual expressions encompass artefacts like posters, wall paintings, hoardings, and films, but also activities like flagpole marches, which display an aesthetic dimension but without being confined to aesthetics alone, as they are integral to a broader repertoire of discourse and embodied practices. Communist iconography, with regard to the symbols and various other visual representations, continues to thrive even today both inside and outside the realm of party politics. Mass-produced memorabilia and sartorial products bearing the image of Che Guevara are some of the new-age materials that contribute to this visual presence. These items are also deployed during Party events as accessories that amplify the enthusiastic participation of the partisans. Of these categories, I will be focusing on Communist portraiture as an iconographic form that celebrates leader cult by encouraging participatory politics and, by effect, populist appeal.

Portraits and embodied aesthetics

A discussion on portraits of communist leaders hung in Kerala houses is necessary to adequately situate the cultural context in which digital iconography is circulated and makes sense. The part of the house which opens to the front yard, which is generally an open space (called kolaya or sit-out) of many Kerala houses serves as the exhibition space for objects like family photographs, trophies, photos of Gods and ancestors, and other decor items, expecting public judgment/appreciation (See Fig. 1). The portraits of former communist leaders that form the subject of this paper are usually seen as displayed in the homes of Party workers, especially in the kolaya (patio). The kolaya thus acts as a private sphere communicating the family’s socio-cultural inclinations, ideologies, and aspirations. With their fixed frontal stance, these images can initiate an embodied interaction with the beholder, whose eye here functions not only as an organ of vision but also of touch. This notion could be illustrated further using examples from early Indian mythological films where the mutuality of vision and its ensuing tactility is deployed effectively. The devotee in such films is seen as imploring the deity to intervene, especially in moments of pain or distress. The dialogue between the two of them is cinematically represented through intermittent shots that show the eyes of the devotee and the deity. Sometimes, even a ray would pass from the deity’s eye to that of the devotee, thereby liberating her/him from their suffering. Thus, within the Indian context, the eye is more than an organ of vision; it also functions as an organ of touch (Pinney 2003: 193). The emotional resonance evoked by these portraits is to be contextualized in this corporeal visual.

Fig. 1: A portrait of the first chief minister of Kerala, E.M.S. Namboodiripad displayed at the kolaya.

A Ravi Varma painting could be observed at the adjacent right wall [A Facebook post by party member Biju (name changed)].

As mentioned earlier, the portraits discussed here were gathered as part of the fieldwork conducted in the Malabar region of Kerala, specifically the districts of Calicut and Kannur. Observed in both Dalit and upper caste households, these photographs which are positioned adjacent to pictures of ancestors, serve as stand-ins for what they signify. It must be clarified that similar visual practices also exist within the iconographic negotiations of other political parties of India, including the Indian National Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League. However, what makes this study relevant is the wilful involvement of the avowedly secular Communist Party in the worshipful (bordering on religious) display of photographs of its former leaders. While this visual practice resembles religious forms of reverence, its purpose and intent essentially deviate from that of religious devotion. For example, a religious photograph, especially that of a deity is typically adorned by a garland, prayed to and offered flowers. However, my informants, Biju, Sujith and Gopalan, firmly asserted that the portraits displayed in their homes are not subjected to such performances of devotion characteristic of religious photographs. The claim was confirmed by observing the plain, unadorned portraits displayed in their homes, which did not bear any trace of everyday religious worship. Such intentional choices made by the partisan ensure that the portraits are not perceived as religious relics but rather as affective commemorative symbols which render the performance of political enthusiasm easy. The displayed portraits that emanate a darshanic quality usually feature regional and international male leaders of the Communist movement, such as E.M.S Namboodiripad, A.K Gopalan, P. Krishna Pillai, and E.K Nayanar, along with various other local leaders and martyrs.

Elamkulam Manakal Sankaran Namboodiripad, popularly known by the moniker E.M.S, was Kerala’s first elected chief minister and one of the founding members of the Communist Party of India. The communist ministry (1957-59), under his leadership, gave shape to several democratic projects, including land reforms, administrative restructuring, strengthening of public health and public distribution systems, etc. (Isaac 1986: 75). Despite belonging to an orthodox Brahmin family, E.M.S was aware of the inequity imposed by the caste system, whereby he joined campaigns for inter-caste marriage, widow remarriage, and the eradication of untouchability (Joseph 2016). In most of his portraits examined here, E.M.S is seen as holding his gaze away from the viewer. He is seen as smiling broadly towards someone outside the photograph. However, the same cannot be said about A.K.G and P. Krishna Pillai, whose portraits (Fig. 2) are facing the viewer.

Fig. 2

(From the top) Portraits of Sree Narayana Guru, P. Krishna Pillai, and A.K. Gopalan.

Ayillyath Kuttiari Gopalan, commonly known as A.K.G, along with his fellow comrade P. Krishna Pillai, were prominent members of the Communist Socialist Party (a socialist Party founded by Congress members with socialist tendencies). Hailing from upper-caste families, both Pillai and Gopalan later became the crusaders of the downtrodden by helping peasant movements and labour strikes that emerged in North Malabar during the late 1930s and 1940s (Ullekh 2018: p.61). A.K Gopalan, who later became the first Opposition leader in the parliament after the elections, was also part of historical struggles like Guruvayoor Satyagraha, which demanded the entry of all castes into the temple that had, for centuries, practised restricted entry (Ullekh 2018: p.61). In their photographs hung at the homes of party sympathizers, these leaders appear to have a fixed frontal stance. Pillai’s portrait emanates a certain simplicity, a quality that owes much to his Khadi shirt, which also recalls his Gandhian socialist roots. The commonly circulated portrait of Krishna Pillai often shows the leader’s countenance as bearing a weak smile with an errant curl on his forehead. Like his compatriot, A.K.G. could also be seen as wearing a gentle smile while sporting a safari suit, which is commonly regarded as respectable attire for a public servant in India (Chakrabarthy 2001: p.4).

With most of these portraits being those of late Communist leaders, this particular visual practice is fundamentally commemorative in nature. This admiration for former leaders of Communism also extends to international figures such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Ernesto Che Guevera, and Joseph Stalin. Despite being geographically removed from the state and its socio-political structure, these international icons of Communism, with their “unmatched personal aura” (Yurchak 2015, p. 121), continue to reign within the private spheres of Kerala’s communist homes. Certain ideas discussed by Walter Benjamin (1968) in his work “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”(1968) concerning the aesthetic engagement of a beholder with a text could be utilised to comprehend this unique visual practice, which also involves the display of portraits of international figures of Communism. Benjamin (1968) describes progressive art as that which is appreciated not through contemplation but by the beholder’s tactile, distracted engagement with the text. According to Benjamin, the tactile appreciation of any work of art renders it ordinary since it moves away from the purely visual realm to one of bodily engagement. He brings in the paradigm of buildings and explains how they are appropriated in a two-fold manner, i.e., through use and perception. A person working in a famous building would be used to engaging with it in a tactile manner. His everyday habitual engagement with the work of art would condition him to assume the building as ordinary (Benjamin 1968: 18). However, a tourist’s experience of it would essentially be contemplative and distanced, an idea that is reminiscent of the traditional definition of aesthetics as the disinterested perception of a work of art (Levinson 2005: 9). Thus, the display of portraits of these leaders, both regional and international, enables the emergence of a distinctive brand of populism, which, while being reliant on the visual, has an organic quality. The adulation towards the leader, which forms a significant part of this populism, is not imposed or engendered by the leader or the movement but emerges from amongst the masses as a phenomenon that is ‘felt’ and often perceived through their day-to-day tactile, sensory engagement with the visual text, which functions as a stand-in for the leader.

The concept of corpothetics and the associated ideas of darshan and proximal empowerment could be utilized to explicate the rationale behind this visual practice. First proposed by the anthropologist and art historian Christopher Pinney in his work Photos of the Gods: Printed Image and Political Struggle in India (2004), corpothetics or corporeal aesthetics refers to the engagement of the beholder with a text in a corporeal sense (Pinney 2003: 194). With the elevation of efficacy as the central criterion of value, corpothetics aims to conjoin the image and beholder (Pinney 2003: 194). The viewer’s engagement with an image is thus not merely aesthetic but also sensory. Corpothetic engagement between the image and the beholder manifests in the form of embodied practices performed upon the photograph from the beholder’s end in an attempt to bring the deity closer to one’s everyday reality. These practices include garlanding the image, lighting lamps, customizing the image via an ornate frame, etc.

A counterpart or local articulation of corpothetics, darshan could be defined as a bodily performance that transforms both the image and the viewer. Derived from the Sanskrit word दृश् (Drs- ‘to see’), darshan conveys a wide array of meanings related to vision and the visual while also signifying certain ancient philosophical systems (darshana-s) (Eck 1981: 3; Prasad, 2021: 53). With its roots in Hindu religious practice, darshan, which was later developed into a concept, refers to the idea of seeing and being seen by the deity and upsets the unidirectional flow of power implied in the Western concept of voyeurism. Arvind Rajagopal, in his work Politics After Television: Hindu Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Public in India (2004), describes darshan, translated literally as sight, as what one participates in when one sees a deity or someone of exalted status. According to Rajagopal (2005), the word suggests a more physical sense of space than its English language equivalent; the deity gives darshan, and the devotee takes darshan; one is “touched” by darshan and seeks it as a form of contact with the deity (Rajagopal 2005: 93). He observes how gaze acquires a tactile quality through the idea of darshan. A concept that could be read in association is proximal empowerment, where individuals achieve empowerment by coming closer to divine power. In proximal empowerment, powerful objects such as photographs simulate a sense of proximity for the individual toward sacred beings or deities, a feeling essentially rooted in the photograph’s materiality and their bodily contact with the photographic object (Pinney 1997: 112; Walton 2020: 220). As people treat these photographs with respect and regard them with veneration, they, in turn, increase the value (the merit, the piety) of the people around them (Harris 2004: 142).

A common attribute of both corpothetics and darshan is that they are fundamentally affective in character. The repeated corpothetic interactions with the portraits in question in the form of embodied engagements ensure that the affective values of these images are heightened. What ensues is, as elaborated by Sarah Ahmed (2004), the quality of ‘stickiness’ or effect produced from histories of contact, which is also a consequence of association (Ahmed 2004: 130). Melissa Gregg and Gregory J. Seigworth (2010) also reiterate this argument as they note that to experience an object as being affective or sensational is to be directed not only toward an object but also to whatever is around that object, which includes what is “behind the object and the conditions of its arrival” (Gregg and Seigworth, 2010: 33). Hence, it could be argued that the memory of former communist leaders is commemorated through these photographs, which induce filial sentiments and reverence through their darshanic quality and affective accumulation.

A work that articulates and contextualizes the above-mentioned concepts of corpothetic and darshan within the domain of Kerala is “Family Photos: Visual Mediation of the Social” (2014) by Sujith Kumar Parayil. By focusing on the arena of family photographs, Parayil demonstrates how, apart from documenting the joint family, these photographs function as performances of the interpersonal and intimate relations between family members while also displaying their cultural capital (Parayil 2014:1). He also notes how these families tend to showcase the portraits of ancestors or deceased family members along with deities, thus enabling a corpothetic performance of commemoration (See Fig. 3). Such a seemingly ordinary visual practice acquires a corpothetic quality with the beholder’s everyday engagement with the photograph in the form of dusting, garlanding, lighting a lamp in front of the portrait and so on. For instance, in Fig. 1, the members of the communist family home are observed as seated in the kolaya to commemorate the ‘martyr’ Azhikodan Raghavan. A portrait of former chief minister E.M.S Namboodiripad could be seen in the background, as displayed in the kolaya. The choice of the family members to pose in the kolaya was not accidental and could be inferred as a conscious decision asserting the family’s affiliation as supporters of the Communist Party. Such transactions empower the images to exert a corrective moral eye with the visible presence of the ancestors coercing the family members to adhere to the norms and morals encoded within the family. Actions like placing the portrait at a crucial spot (veranda, living room, and dining room) along with portraits of family elders while ensuring adequate visibility guarantee the quotidian yet affective commemoration of the communist movement (Figs. 4 and 5).

Fig. 3

Portraits of International Communist leaders along with that of a family ancestor.

Fig. 4

(From the left) A printed reproduction of Ravi Varma’s Madri is placed adjacent to wall bearing he portrait of E.M.S Namboodiripad.

Fig. 5

E.M.S Namboodiripad’s portrait as illuminated by a spotlight.

The photographs chosen for my research were observed as displayed on the walls or cabinets of family homes of party sympathizers, along with portraits of their ancestors; the placement in itself making apparent the family’s reverence towards the icon. Through this study, I aim to closely decipher such corpothetic practices associated with the display of communist icons in family homes. Some of these photographs are even placed alongside mass-produced paintings of Raja Ravi Varma (Fig. 4), observed in most Kerala homes due to their aesthetic value and easy availability. These prints had once made the performance of Indianness accessible to the masses (Jain 2012:199). The people who engaged with these texts did not need to be wealthy, educated, male, or participate in a nationalist arena (Jain 2012:199). It is interesting to observe how an accessory of Indianness-a quality that contrasts with communist identity-shares the same democratic values as the iconographies of Communism, with which it coexists. The parallel existence of these photographs communicates the paradoxical tendencies and affections of Kerala with regard to its cultural and political preferences. It also conveys the traditional outlook that Kerala retains despite the aura of progressiveness it imbues by the sustained presence of Communism in the state. Projecting itself as the progressive front of Kerala, the Communist Party preserves certain discordance with traditional values, norms, and hierarchies, all of which are instrumental in facilitating the systemic oppression of the masses. Allying boldly with progressive yet controversial causes, the Communist Party in Kerala had always donned a cloak of liberal inclusivism, distinguishing them from right-wing organizations.

In addition to the placement of portraits, corpothetic actions, such as placing the portrait at a crucial spot that ensures the darshanic interaction with family members, guarantee that the remembrance of the communist movement is performed in the mode of filial reverence. When placed at such points (veranda, living room, and dining room), which ensure adequate visibility, these portraits command the attention of the viewer, thereby initiating a darshanic interaction. For instance, some of these images are illuminated with a spotlight (Fig. 5) in order to draw attention to them in a room filled with other objects and curios. This subtle yet poignant attribute of visual iconography makes it the preferred method for expressing populist inclinations by the Communist Parties of Kerala. Such practices also favour the present-day Communist Party of Kerala and provide a framework for assessing of contemporary events, including the Party’s own actions.

New trends

As mentioned in the previous section, in addition to the material procured from my digital ethnographic study, I collected some photographs during my fieldwork in April 2022 at Kunnamangalam, a census town in Calicut. Despite enquiring fervently, it was impossible⁵ to locate houses that displayed portraits of communist leaders in Kannur, where I had initially intended to conduct my ethnography. This absence of portraits was mainly due to the partisans’ reluctance to hang portraits on the unblemished walls of their new or renovated homes⁶. Hence, I had to extend my search to the neighbouring district of Calicut, which also had some left-dominated areas and pocket boroughs.

This relocation contributed to my research enormously, as I was able to discern an interesting shift regarding the acquisition of portraits. The photographs which were used in Party offices and communist family homes were earlier procured variously by Party supporters from street hawkers or by enlarging an already existing photograph of the leader. However, I was able to observe the emergence of a new trend in Kunnamangalam, where portraits are gifted to partisans by leaders of the local committee or area committee office during auspicious occasions such as weddings or housewarmings. A shared trait of these portraits is that they include the Party’s local committee branch name as a reminder of the partisan’s allegiance and ensuing responsibilities toward the Party. Despite originating from diverse sources, these photographs retain their affective quality through context-specific captions included with the portraits. These captions signify that the portrait was not willingly bought by the Party supporter, but rather bestowed on him/her as a form of top-down populist strategy by the leader. However, one has to acknowledge that this new trend, which considerably negates the organic quality of this populist visual practice, depends heavily on the participation and involvement of the partisan. In other words, the new visual practice that comes across as a top-down populist strategy partially retains its organic character through the partisan’s willingness to display it at a respectable location in his home. This tendency confirms Mouffe’s description of Left populist strategy as one that approaches politics as a partisan activity where affects play an important role (Mouffe 2020). Here, the participatory aspect of populism is deployed through a tangible material object, which, when refashioned as a gift, accrues affective capabilities as the partisans familiarise themselves with it through embodied interactions in their everyday environs. Such a process is evocative of Benjamin’s earlier argument, which focuses on art losing its aura when subjected to reproduction.

The portraits often gifted to party members during occasions like weddings and housewarmings are primarily those of Che Guevara, Bhagath Singh, E.M.S, and E.K Nayanar. Despite the Party members’ claim that they hold no bias for a particular leader, discernible preferences are evident in the portraits selected for specific occasions. For instance, it could be observed that the photographs of Che Guevara and Bhagath Singh are favoured as wedding gifts. One of the informants, Biju, attributes this tendency to display Che Guevara’s portrait to the popularity of the leader’s image among the youth in Kerala- “Che yuvakkalude haramanu” (Che is all the rage among the youth), he adds. However, this preference does not apply to housewarmings, where portraits of older, respected regional leaders such as E.M.S and E.K Nayanar are chosen. An example would be Sujith’s (name changed) home, where two portraits are displayed. One of them, of E.M.S (Fig. 6), showcased at the entrance, above the door, with the caption Abhivadyangalode (with salutations), was gifted to the family at the occasion of their housewarming. A modest middle-class home with two stories, Sujith’s family consists of his mother, wife and child. Sujith’s wife, Anitha, along with his mother, stays at home as he leaves for the grocery store every morning, returning for lunch and then in the evening. Hence, it is his family members who spend time tending to the photographs, thus engaging with it in an embodied sense. The photo displayed at the entrance which resembles a colour pencil sketch, is a computer-generated image of E.M.S. Apart from the addition of a communist flag in the background, this image is a reproduction of the leader’s commonly circulated photograph, which was discussed in the previous section (Fig. 1). However, there was another portrait of Che Guevara (Fig. 7) displayed in the living room, which again resembled a pencil sketch and had the same caption- only that it was gifted to Sujith as a wedding gift.

Fig. 6

A digital sketch of E.M.S Namboodiripad as displayed in the kolaya (veranda) of Sujith’s home.

Fig. 7

A digital sketch of Che Guvera displayed at Sujith’s home.

Similar portraits labelled with the name of the area committee or local committee were also found in adjacent houses. A pertinent example would be the wedding gift displayed in the dining hall of Biju’s (name changed) home Biju is a clerical staff at the Party funded Co-operative bank and a Local Committee (LC) member of the Party in Kunnamangalam. He has been a member of the Party since his student days, with various SFI (Student’s Federation of India- the student wing of the Party) plaques displayed in his home attesting to this fact. The image of leaders displayed at his home (Fig. 8) bears the caption Navadambadikale Ningalkk Viplavabhivadyangal (Revolutionary salutations to the newlyweds). The name of the organisation, along with that of the area committee (DYFI-Peringalam North), is written in the corner towards the right. Apart from the portrait and the adjacent cabinet filled with stuffed toys, the walls of the dining hall are entirely bare. Such a placement enables adequate visibility of the portrait and ensures the interaction and engagement of the family members with it.

Fig. 8

A metallic plaque bearing the portraits of Che Guevara and Bagath Singh along with best wishes for the newly-weds.

The portrait (Fig. 9) of E. K Nayanar, a former chief minister of Kerala, is also circulated as a gift during auspicious occasions in Kunnamangalam. The commonly reproduced portrait of Nayanar depicts the leader with his wide smile, which is directed at someone beyond the camera. The smile, evocative of the leader’s natural wit and rustic humour, makes him appear more accessible to the common man. This quality, apart from enhancing his populist appeal, contributed significantly to his popularity. A portrait of Nayanar, gifted by the DYFI branch of North Kurikathur, adorned the patio walls of Gopalan’s (name changed) home in Kunnamangalam. A lineman at KSEB (Kerala State Electricity Board) by profession, Gopalan, is an active party member and owns a modest two-storey house similar to that of Sujith. The front door of Gopalan’s house was flanked on either side by two pictures: one was a portrait of E.K Nayanar, whereas the other featured Jürgen Klinsmann, a German football player who played a pivotal role in securing the World Cup for Germany in 1990. Both were gifted to Gopalan on the occasion of his housewarming, which happened three years ago. This love for football was also observed inside the house, near the dining area, where an old calendar (for 2021) bearing the image of Diego Maradona (Fig. 10) is hung.

Fig. 9

A portrait of former chief minister E.K. Nayanar placed adjacent to that of Jürgen Klinsmann in the kolaya (patio) of Gopalan’s home.

Fig. 10

A calendar issued by Party run magazine Yuvadhara bearing the image of the legendary football player Deigo Maradona.

Provided by Yuvadhara (Youth Wave), a magazine issued by DYFI, the calendar bearing Maradona’s image was published to commemorate the death of the legendary Argentinian football player who passed away in late 2020. A staunch leftist, Maradona was also an ardent supporter of Castro who, while despising the US, cultivated friendships with other socialist Latin American leaders like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Bolivia’s Evo Morales (Marsh, 2020). This was reason enough for the Communist Party to celebrate him before and after his death. Circling back to the photograph, one could observe how the proximate placement of these materials invariably provokes one to ponder upon the inevitable/obvious connection that exists between Kerala’s communist leaders and football. CPI (Communist Party of India) leader Pannian Raveendran, who has been writing about football for the past 20 years, once said that football is a socialist sport (Cris 2018). M.B Rajesh, Minister of Local Self Governments and Departments of Excise of Kerala (2022-present), had expressed his fondness for Latin American football teams, particularly Brazil and Argentina. He believes this affinity is partially influenced by the revolutionary histories of these nations (Paul 2018). This also explains why CPI(M) hoardings occasionally feature football players like Messi, Ronaldo, and Neymar. Such negotiations render an affective quality to the Party as it appeals to the emotions and preferences of some partisans. Gopalan’s mother also showed me a calendar (Fig. 11) bearing the portrait of former area committee member and vice-president of Karshaka Sangham (Farmer’s Union), T.P Balakrishnan Nair. She elaborated that they decided to hang the calendar in one of the bedrooms rather than in the living room or the veranda as it was susceptible to wear and tear if placed in such common areas. The calendar having no protective frame, unlike the portrait of E.K Nayanar, is also a reason for this caution.

Fig. 11

A calendar issued by the Local Committee of the Party bearing the image of former area committee member and vice-president of Karshaka Sangham (Farmer’s Union), T.P Balakrishnan Nair.

Communist iconography in social media

The arc of contemporary Indian politics is heavily determined by the presence of social media. In fact, social media platforms played a crucial role in manifesting the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) victory during the 2014 elections (Kanungo 2015). A recent example regarding politics and its leveraging of social media was observed in Rahul Gandhi’s tactical choice to engage only with social media influencers and YouTubers instead of depending solely on conventional media houses during his “Bharat Jodo Yatra” (Unite India March) (2023). This pattern remains consistent even in Kerala, with the two major Communist Parties in the state the Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India (Marxist)[CPI(M)] having an active social media presence for the last seven years (2016). Following the precedent set by other political parties (Khanna 2016), the current left government (2021–2024) in Kerala has integrated social networking platforms such as Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram into the formal communication channels of government administrative institutions. Besides employing social media to coordinate government initiatives, ministers and leaders of the current LDF-led left government also utilise these platforms to diffuse populist sentiments. The incorporation of communist iconography in the digital format was the subsequent next step towards cultivating a digital populist style. These iconographic expressions include posters and reels or short videos, which are shared widely as posts, tweets, and stories. Such possibilities of social media are appropriately utilised by the Party to intensify the affective potential of left populism in Kerala while validating its democratic appeal among the people.

In this segment, I intend to discuss posters and other images disseminated by the Party via social media to commemorate its former leaders and martyrs. These materials serve as digital counterparts to the portraits reviewed in the earlier sections. Reminiscent of old wall posters of the Communist Party, these photographs are sometimes customised by adding superimposed montages and Party symbols before being shared through social media platforms. Such customisations could be interpreted as digital corpothetic deliberations, which until earlier were directed towards actual photographs. These performances are further amplified through commenting, sharing, liking, etc., which, as observed by Hokka and Nellimarkka (2019), “strengthen the shared affective and political meaning-making in the community” (Hokka and Nellimarkka 2019: p.3).

Benjamin’s concept of art losing its aura through tactile engagement and mechanical reproduction is also pertinent to these digital iconographies. Tactile distracted perception is what originally transpires with these images, which the beholder passively scrolls through. However, options like sharing, commenting, and tagging ensure that a corpothetic engagement that combines the image and the beholder is initiated. Sharing them through options such as Story on Instagram or Facebook and Status on WhatsApp suggests the idea of proximal empowerment. Actuated through individualised engagements, this virtual replication of proximal empowerment comes across as a performance of self within the digital world. It is this performance that Schechner calls a form of public dreaming (qtd. in Papacharissi, 2015: 98).

The digital posters of the Party, which form the subject of this paper, are replete with photographic montages and other embellishments such as captions, images of a red sickle and hammer, red festoons, the Party flag, etc. An example would be Fig. 12, which is a poster commemorating the Cheemeni massacre, where five CPM members were killed by Congress workers on March 23rd, 1987, at the Cheemeni Party Office of Kasaragod district in Kerala. An interesting aspect of this poster is how the Cheemeni Party Office, the site of the massacre, is foregrounded. While the portraits of martyrs (placed on the top of the poster) encourage a darshanic negotiation from the viewer’s end, the image of the dilapidated Party office superimposed with a blood splash triggers associated memories of the massacre. Such a representation effectively tweaks the affective value and ensuing ‘stickiness’ of these images.

Fig. 12: An Instagram post commemorating Cheemeni Massacre on 23^rd of March.

The Party Office of Cheemeni along with the portraits of martyrs (From left Kunjikannan,P. Kunjappan,C. Koran, Aalavalathil Ambu, M.Koran) could be seen at the top [Source- Instagram page of CPI(M), Kerala].

Portraits of leaders are also circulated in a similar fashion after including specific corpothetic extensions. An example would be an Instagram post (Fig. 13) featuring the image of E. Balanandan, a former MP (Member of the Parliament), Politburo member, and secretary of CITU (Centre of India Trade Unions). Commemorating the death anniversary of the veteran communist leader, the poster bears a portrait of Balanandan with a fixed frontal stance- a pose that enables a darshanic exchange with the leader. The poster also has other iconographic artefacts in the background, such as the communist flag and red festoons. When added along with the portrait, such embellishments customise the image in a corpothetic sense. Furthermore, the post is accompanied by a write-up that elaborates on the leader and his contributions to the Communist Party, thus amplifying the affective potential of the image.

Fig. 13

An Instagram post commemorating E Balanandan’s death anniversary on January 19^th [Source- Instagram of CPI(M), Kerala].

These novel forms of communist iconography, with their interactive features, invoke a new form of digital populism that demands the performative not only by the leader but also by the people. Such a format guarantees the habitation of the Communist Party within both private and public spheres as a democratic, quotidian element of the everyday. The participatory aspect of digital populism facilitates the engagement of the people with the communist movement without being restricted by the constraints of formal Party lingo ridden by rigid theoretical diction. Udupa et al. (2019) highlight the significance of colloquialism in such digital interactions. Communist Parties in Kerala employ region-specific and colloquial cultural references in social media. Such expressions of digital populism, which incorporate the rhetoric of the popular, facilitate the transcendence of the Party from the realm of the political to that of the affective.

Conclusion

A filmic presence of the visual practice involving the display of communist portraits in domestic spaces was observed in the Malayalam film Emmatty (2017). A character somewhat uninformed about Communism and the Party enquires about a picture of A.K Gopalan displayed alongside the image of the regional deity ‘Parasinikkadavu Muthappan’ at a communist family home. A family member who is also a friend of the character is seen as answering the query by collectively referring to both images as Gods of Kannur. Such imbrications of communist portraits with the regional markers, apart from locating and contextualizing Communism within the geographical bounds of Kerala, are also instrumental in localising the visual practice despite its incidence in other Indian states. If not through regional markers, this feature is often realized through the display of portraits of local leaders, as in the case of the calendar bearing the area committee member’s photograph displayed at Gopalan’s home. In this paper, I have attempted to read how such visual practices render Communism as an embodied presence in Kerala; an idea that finds its resonance in the Malayalam phrase commonly used by party workers and leaders whereby they describe the Party as a “vikaram” (an emotion, something that is felt). Such peculiar wording ascribes an affective dimension to the Party, which operates as an embodied presence in Kerala. Corresponding affective negotiations enable the Party to operate within the state without following the dichotomies of thought/body or private/public - an idea that partly explains the popularity of communist icons as affect rather than a political programme in the state.