Introduction (Seasons Are Overlapping)

From the Artist:

Heat is rising temperatures; but it isn’t just that. It is also a metaphor for a simmering rage, born from generations of subjugation. Women, especially those of us deemed “untouchable” and outcast, have felt this heat intimately. Stories of Dalit and Adivasi women—two communities marginalized within and oppressed by the rigid caste system—intersect in their shared struggle against systemic violence and exclusion. Though these women are crucial to our food systems and ecological balance, they remain underrepresented in climate discourse and in almost every other phase of life in India.

I photograph to bear witness to their resilience—in protests, agricultural fields, and forests. These photographs are evidence of a lived reality that is too often overlooked, capturing the quiet power and fierce spirit of those at the forefront and intersection of caste, gender, and climate injustice. Each photograph becomes part of an archive—a testament to a reality that, no matter how systematically hidden, insists on being witnessed and respected.

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NYU Libraries, in collaboration with New York University co-sponsors, is honored to host a Photography Open House with Bhumika Saraswati, an award-winning, internationally published journalist, filmmaker, and photographer.  Unequal Heat: Climate, Gender, and Caste in South Asia is a pop-up show of artworks from Saraswati’s acclaimed project Unequal Heat (@heat.southasia), an examination of the unequal nature of the climate crisis that documents how rising temperatures disproportionately affect marginalized communities—particularly women—in South Asia. This one-night photo exhibition of women laborers in Delhi, India, brings an intersectional focus to the climate crisis and considers how the most deeply impacted communities work to protect land, water, air, and life.

The exhibition of Unequal Heat: Climate, Gender, and Caste in South Asia has been co-sponsored by New York University’s Office of Sustainability, Gallatin School of Individualized Study, Center for Collaborative Indigenous Research with Communities and Lands, and Asian/Pacific/American Institute. Related to this exhibition is an advanced-level seminar for NYU-community researchers, designed to discover connections across the Global South and focused on building knowledge and solidarities across Black, Dalit, and Indigenous experiences with climate crises, land dispossession, and more. Saraswati’s visit to NYU is part of a U.S. East Coast tour that includes Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Pennsylvania, and American University.

The following images and descriptions are Saraswati’s artwork from Unequal Heat: Climate, Gender, and Caste in South Asia.