Cultural ‘renaissance’ in Bhopal

Searchlights were beamed on others who may entertain concepts of culture at variance from the Department of Culture in Bhopal. It turned out that the famous theatre personality Habib Tanvir was in possession of accommodation in the city’s Arera colony where his troop of actors practice on the terrace. Suddenly, Tanvir was asked to pay market rent.

Just when Bhopal was in the grip of this cultural renaissance, Culture Minister Arup Mishra invited the media at the local BJP office to discuss cultural matters. The minister expressed displeasure that there should be an Alauddin Khan Akademi in Bhopal when the maestro was not an Indian but a Bangladeshi. The Akademi, he said, should be named after Tansen.

The Culture Minister is clearly confused. Yes, Alauddin Khan was born in the territory which is now in Bangladesh but that was in the late 19th century when there was no Bangladesh. Anup Mishra would do well to visit Maihar, in the very state of which he is culture minister, to see the house where Ustad Alauddin Khan spent his last years in the service of the local Raja, a great devotee of music.

The Maihar band became famous because it was assembled by the great Ustad who played several instruments. Maihar has a famous Sharada or Saraswati temple on a hill with a commanding view of the city. The steep walk was Alauddin Khan’s daily routine. It was from Saraswati, the goddess of learning and the arts, that Alauddin Khan derived his inspiration. The room where his son, the great sarod player, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, daughter Annapurna, disciple Pandit Ravi Shankar, practiced should be a pilgrimage for musicians, not a potential target for an uninformed minister.

When I visited Maihar some years ago Ustad Ali Akbar Khan was on one of his visits to his father’s house. All rooms, except for the one in which Alauddin Khan said his prayers, were decorated with images of Saraswati. ‘‘There is only one sin I guard against: a false note’’, Ali Akbar remarked.

It is common knowledge that sitar maestro Ravi Shankar married Annapoorna, who, after her separation from Ravi Shankar, became something of a recluse in Bombay. Like her father, she built up a reputation as a gifted teacher.

This, then, is the man the Culture Minister of Madhya Pradesh would have us banish from the land.

He would have Alauddin Khan replaced by Tansen. Does the minister know that Tansen’s samadhi is treated as a dargah where Hindus and Muslims perform puja and urs alternately? As for the culture ministry’s attack on Habib Tanvir, the less said the better. Tanvir’s masterpiece is Agra Bazaar based on the works of Nazir Akbarabadi whose verses on Lord Krishna, Holi, Diwali, Guru Nanak have never been excelled.

It is conceivable that names like Tansen, Alauddin Khan, Nazir Akbarabadi will recede from popular memory as a new mass culture rides the crest of new technologies. But mass cultures do not necessarily uproot classical cultures. The West End in London or the Broadway in New York leave considerable space for the classics.

This is true of India as well. South Indian friends from across the globe congregate in Chennai for the Season, with the music academy in Mylapore as the focal point of a month long musical celebration. An inability to engage in a discussion on Tyagaraja, Dixitar and Syama Sastri is, even now, an indication of philistinism. In fact, classical and mass cultures exist in a fine balance throughout the southern belt, Maharashtra, Bengal. Are we witnessing greater cultural insensitivity in the Hindi belt, Tansen festivals and SPICMACAY performances notwithstanding?

In any event, it is surprising that Pandit Ravi Shankar has not yet protested to the prime minister about his guru being so denigrated. Nor have other musicians of any note.

If the internal cultural picture will be allowed to be so smudged by the likes of Anup Mishra, how will the prime minister’s vision of a harmonised South Asia acquire greater credibility as we proceed on this path?