The Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust, also known as the SAHMAT Collective has given Indian artists, writers, poets, musicians, and actors a platform to create and present works of art that promote artistic freedom and celebrate secular, egalitarian values.
Founded in the wake of the 1989 murder of activist, playwright and actor Safdar Hashmi, over the years, SAHMAT has consciously decided to act in, and for the defence of cultural space. With the firm conviction that all creative endeavour in India both traditionally and contemporaneously upholds the values of secularism and cultural pluralism, SAHMAT has undertaken activities – performances, exhibitions, publication of books, posters, production of audio-video cassettes —-to underline the concept of unity in diversity of the Indian nation and the people. Through these activities it has been possible to discover and display new dimensions of many social issues, to open up the possibility of reaching out to different sections in new ways, and allow the broadest unity to be forged among artists, intellectuals and cultural activists.