Nepal Jainagar Janakpur Railway
Uma Shankar Shah, 2016
Etching
76 × 196 cm

© Uma Shankar Shah

One of my most famous works is the NJJR etching of the Nepal Jainagar Janakpur Railway. Janakpur, a city in Nepal, and Jainagar, a city in India, were the two main hubs of cultural exchange between the two countries. In colonial times, the British ushered in an era of industrialization to India. This required substantial resources, and the British introduced the railway line to transport timber and other agricultural goods from the forests of Nepal to India. The fiftyfive kilometer long railway line, NJJR, later transported passengers. When I was young I would go as often as possible to the railway station to watch the trains. This work shows the influence of trains in my life. The famous Janul Band portrayed in the painting plays music in the villages near Janakpur Railway, and plays on other special occasions such as at weddings. The painting depicts the Hindu God Rama taking Sita on a train to India and shows the Indian Bani-Thani (the Indian Mona Lisa) being brought to Nepal through marriage. The concerns among married Indian women at railway stations about the status of their citizenship is also shown in this painting. Similarly, modern innovations for that time, such as radio, steel boxes, Petromax lamps, and bicycles can be seen being brought via train to Nepal as dowries and for sale, while the large billboards I first saw on my visit by train to India make up the painting’s background.