Vernacular aesthetics of dissent: rethinking political art through everyday acts of protest in India

Abstract

This paper theorises vernacular aesthetics as a situated and alternate epistemology that signifies political performances embedded in the textures of ordinary life, transcending institutional categories of art and politics. Using an interdisciplinary lens of political philosophy, performance studies, and art theory, the paper examines prominent cases like the Shaheen Bagh (2019–2020) and the Farmers’ Protests (2020–2021, 2024–2025) to demonstrate how mundane acts such as serving tea, maintaining langaars (community kitchens), or repurposing protest spaces into self-sustaining villages become potent political strategies through sustained repetition and care. Engaging with the shift from aesthetic autonomy and disinterested contemplation to participatory and performative paradigms of art, the paper argues for a reorientation of political aesthetics through the lens of the everyday. © 2026 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.