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Raw Dadaism
By disrupting the distinguished Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali’s concert in Mumbai earlier this week, the
activists of the Shiv Sena have once again demonstrated their utter contempt for the norms of civilised
behaviour.The unsavoury in incident has already had a ripple effect, in that the Pakistani squash superstar,
Jansher Khan who scheduled to direct a coaching camp in Mumbai next month, has cancelled his visit.
While the disruption of the Ghulam Ali concert has been widely condemned by Mumbai’s citizens, it does
raise serious questions about the manner in which the sphere of culture has been increasingly subjected to
assault by political forces in recent times. No one would argue that the political relationship between India
and Pakistan is at its most cordial, given the escalating war of words in the subcontinent.
Yet, many would ask whether it serves any purpose to reflect the confrontation between New Delhi and
Islamabad in the realm of the sitar and the Shehnai The arts are languages that speak to the emotions
without reference to territorial boundaries, and music most emphatically so. Its appeal is not restricted to a
particular ethnic group or religious persuasion, and to treat it as an arena for political disagreements is to
violate its sanctity as a sanctuary where the human spirit may fulfil itself The musical and artistic traditions of
the subcontinent have a continuity that transcends Partition and what happened during Ghulam Ali’s
performance would amount to an attempt at partitioning our artistic heritage.
The act of hooliganism that the Shiv Sena activists have perpetrated has also called into question our claim
to being a liberal polity — a polity in which the space of civil society is respected and citizens have the right to
pursue their lives according to their personal choices rather than have their choices dictated to them by a
Fuehrer. The Shiv Sena chieftain, Mr Bal Thackeray has gone on record to say that he will not permit
Pakistani musicians to perform in Mumbai, or Pakistani cricketers to play on Mumbai’s pitches.
Must the west-coast metropolis fall meekly in line when Mr Thackeray cracks his whip? If fear is the criterion
by which citizens determine their lives, then Mumbai would seem to have suffered a regression into the
feudal Dark Ages. Having conclusively failed to deliver on the many promises that brought them to power as
the dominant partner in the BJP-Shiv Sena coalition three years ago in the areas of food security,
employment opportunities and infrastructure development — the Shiv Sena appears to have fallen back on
cultural bogey-mongering, the last option of the politically bankrupt in this country.
The Shiv Sena’s conduct only demonstrates how little it has matured as a political party, and how close its
cadres are to their origins in the nukkads, the street-corners of Mumbai where the word of the dada or local
roughneck is law. Unlike the Dadaism of 1920s Zurich, which released the creative energies of a generation
of artists, this dadaism of 1990s in Mumbai is an oppressive and negative phenomenon that a liberal
dispensation could do without.
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TN