A painting bringing together Mahatma Gandhi, pioneering Sri Lankan architect Minnette de Silva and a little-known episode from Gandhi’s 1927 visit to Ceylon was gifted to the High Commission of Sri Lanka in New Delhi on Friday, 7 August 2026, by Sri Lankan artist Raja Segar and Founder-Director of Tapobhumi – Oko Centre for the Arts, Bengaluru, Namita Swamy.

Titled Gandhi and Minnette de Silva (2023), the 40 x 30-inch oil-on-canvas work reimagined an episode from Gandhi’s visit to Ceylon. According to accounts by historian, feminist scholar and author Kumari Jayawardena, a nine-year-old Minnette de Silva was tasked with finding goat’s milk for Gandhi.

Segar interpreted the episode through his distinctive “Refractive” style, bringing Gandhi, the young Minnette and the goat together within a vibrant landscape of geometric forms and vivid reds, greens, ochres and blues. The figures were woven into the architectural and natural landscape of Sri Lanka, giving the painting a sense of memory and movement.

The goat, an incidental element of the original story, assumed a symbolic presence in the work, connecting Gandhi’s philosophy of simplicity with the rural landscape of Sri Lanka.

The painting also had a personal resonance for the artist, as Raja Segar lived in a house designed by Minnette de Silva, giving him a direct connection with the architectural legacy of the woman portrayed in the painting.

The High Commissioner expressed appreciation to Sri Lankan artist Raja Segar and Founder-Director of Tapobhumi – Oko Centre for the Arts, Bengaluru, Namita Swamy, for their generous gift and for choosing to place the work with the High Commission of Sri Lanka in New Delhi.

The painting will become part of the High Commission’s collection, contributing to its celebration of the rich cultural, historical and people-to-people connections between Sri Lanka and India.

About the Painting

Gandhi and Minnette de Silva (2023)

Artist: Raja Segar
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 40 x 30 inches
Gifted by: Sri Lankan artist Raja Segar and Founder-Director of Tapobhumi – Oko Centre for the Arts, Bengaluru, Namita Swamy

High Commission of Sri Lanka in New Delhi

12 August 2026