The pandemic has created an artistic legacy on Indian streets

A year of the Covid-19 pandemic in India has already created a lasting legacy.

Street art, whether in the form of homages to Covid-19 healthcare and frontline workers or public service announcements, have sprung up across Indian cities.

There’s also room for classic Banksy-style wry humour in cities like Bengaluru.

While social distancing markers on pavements and streets correct behaviour, the murals add a cultural dimension to a pandemic that seems to be seeing a second wave in India.

There’s a self-reflective playfulness also to be found in Bengaluru’s artists.

India’s Western Railway, which runs some of Mumbai’s suburban trains, also added a splash of colour to its local railway station.

Some artists chose to reinterpret classic Renaissance and modern painters in the context of Covid-19.

But it isn’t just India’s large metropolitan cities that see this creative energy. In Patna, the capital of the eastern state of Bihar, a large mural pays tribute to those on the frontlines.