From whitening creams to the Indian jewels obscenely displayed in British museums, the long-lasting impacts of colonialism are clear. Even the fact that this publication is written in English has our history bleeding through every word on your screen. Yet, as obvious as these signs seem, colonial power also manifests itself as an undercurrent in the innocuous, often celebrated, parts of our lives. 

Today, with over 8,000 visitors a day, Rani Baug is a top Mumbai tourist attraction. It’s an escape from busy Bombay life, commemorating biodiversity and heritage. We celebrate that it boasts over 160 years of life as India’s oldest public garden. But we often tend to forget that Rani Baug was not always a space for Indian enjoyment and natural appreciation. Initially named Victoria Gardens, Rani Baug was a British colonial project. It was a site of scientific exploration for the British and an archive of stolen goods and exploited labour for us and other sites across the Americas, Africa, and Asia. This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t enjoy Rani Baug for what it is today; rather, it’s an acknowledgement of the complexity that arises when our troubled past mingles with the present. 

Amba Sayal-Bennett’s latest exhibit at TARQ in Mumbai, ‘Dispersive Acts,’ explores this concept of colonial botany. In an interview with Serenade Magazine, Sayal-Bennett described Rani Baug as “both a colonial archive and a site of resistance.” You can experience this duality from the moment you step through the garden’s entrance, the iconic triumphal arch. Built in 1868, the arch is a relic of our colonial past, undoubtedly conceptualised by British minds and built on the backs of exploited Indian labourers. And yet, today, it’s a gateway to Rani Baug, not Victoria Gardens. The garden is now decidedly ours– to name, enjoy, and keep alive. 

One of Sayal-Bennett’s sculptures reimagines this arch in an Art Deco style, reflecting the architecture that emerged in Bombay post-independence. Her work then echoes the rebellion of Rani Baug’s renaming of its structure, making a stylistic choice outside of British colonial control. Sayal-Bennet’s art also considers the battle between stifling colonial architecture and the unruliness of plant life in its most honest form. Consider the way British gardens are symmetrical and systematic, built-in complete opposition to the untamed, free growth of plants in the wild. For the British, our flora existed to be classified, in a vacuum where they could be taken and used without consideration of their environment. Sayal-Bennett’s machine-produced sculptures showcase plants growing outside the realm of classification, playing with form and subject matter to capture our complex history of control and resistance. 

Rani Baug was once a tool of oppression, but today, our reclamation of such spaces is a sign of resilience. While archives of our past hold pain, we owe it to ourselves to celebrate our liberation rather than live in mourning. Dispersive Acts is a then reflection of our struggles, but also our triumphs. You can see this exhibition for yourself at TARQ from now until September 21. 

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