Sita Reddy

Two hundred years since the first botanical paintings were sent by ship from India to Kew Gardens, this book will be their first return to the subcontinent as a printed archive. In this sense, this small but significant volume is a giant step in the right direction. More than seventy years after gaining independence from the British Crown, the Indian post-colony inherited a hybrid botanical art tradition whose artists were invisible, then and now. With recognition of their role, past and present, can begin the urgent task of creating a poetics and a politics for the decolonisation of Indian botanical art. This timely and beautiful book seeds a promising future and a garden of archival possibilities.