DIP: 18.02.034/20240902 
DOI: 10.25215/2455/0902034 
Abstract
The paper investigates the connection between art, social inequality, and the potential for social cohesion by bringing forth the artistic practices of three Indian artists – Sudhir Patwardhan, Bhupen Khakhar, and Nilima Sheikh. While preserving dignity, plurality, historical complexity, and dissent, it emphasizes the ability to acknowledge difference, and seeing social harmony as uniformity, agreement, or conflict avoidance. The study explores Patwardhan foregrounding labor migration, and urban disparity; khakhar highlighting daily life, queer identity, and marginalized social experience, and Sheikh addressing memory, gender, displacement, and diverse cultural histories by employing an interpretative analysis of their selected works. Representation in these varied practices serves as a way to bring marginalized lives, disputed identities, and fragmented histories for visibility and comprehension. The paper contends viewing art alone as a direct tool for fostering social unity or addressing systemic inequalities. Instead, within the same visual and cultural context, its significance lies in its ability to cultivate forms of ethical awareness, urging viewers to encounter differences, question preconceived notions, and hold various experiences. Contextually, social harmony emerges not as a resolved condition, rather as an ongoing practice to navigate differences and envision coexistence.
The author(s) appreciates all those who participated in the study and helped to facilitate the research process. 
The author(s) declared no conflict of interest. 
ISSN 2455-670X