It’s our golden jubilee but fete is elsewhere

Not a day passes here without some India-related event. If it was Mallika Sarabhai dancing on the Mall last week, it’s a Shyam Benegal retrospective at the cinemas this week. Dining out over the weekend at the Delhi Dhaba, a Virginia eatery, financial analyst Raj Jayaraman mused: “Feels like Little India out here.”

Jayaraman’s calendar of social events for the month past and future could be the envy of jholawalas back home: watching Benegal’s The Making of the Mahatma, browsing through the paintings of Mughal India, seeing Mahesh Dattani’s Final Solutions and listening to a Vikram Chandra reading constitute the appetisers.

The entrees come later in the year: A Music Festival of India, a thumri bash, and much jaw-jawing and seminaring on the sub-continent.While think tanks like the Woodrow Wilson Institute host the policy wonks to thought-provoking parleys on the politics and diplomacy in the sub-continent (one took place last week), the hoary Smithsonian is treating both the glitterati and hoi polloi to a series of dazzling exhibitions and performances.

New Delhi may still be waiting for August 15 to kick off celebrations, but here the modest but well-planned fiesta has already begun. While the Indian media was still hibernating in the winter months, National Geographic came out first with a cover story on India at 50. Cronkite Word Productions is said to have readied a three-part documentary for screening on Discovery and PBS.

Contrary to the bleating of babus back home, there is very little extra financial costs involved in the gala, only a little extra planning. Many of the events were going to happen in any case. All they needed was a little souping up and the rubric of the Golden Jubilee. Says Milo Beach, South Asia expert and Director of Sackler and Freer galleries at the Smithsonian: “We worked on the Padamshahnama exhibition for nearly four years and were always shooting for the Golden Jubilee celebrations.”

The Padamshahnama and King of the World paintings are the biggest cards in a catalogue of fine events set up by the Smithsonian. Later in the year, the museum will host a thumri festival, a film festival and a photographic exhibition.

The Asia Society’s Vocal Music of India concerts later in the fall will feature folk singers and classical artistes. Not surprisingly, most of the events are happening with little or no help from the government of India.Even the normally reticent Non Resident Indians community is having its quota of bashes, although true to form they continue to make a hash of handling the events. The Indo-American Political Forum’s Congressional do last months saw an impressive number of lawmakers turn up at a poorly-organised function (the Pakistanis followed last week with a more modestly attended bash).

But the big ticket item will be the August 15 national banquet being organised by the National Federation of Indian Associations (NFIA) which, with more than a little help from the Indian embassy, is trying to get President Clinton to attend. The buzz is he will — if he is in town.Even US lawmakers are taking in by the spirit of things. Legislators are pushing through an act of Congress enjoining the District of Columbia government to install a Mahatma Gandhi statue in Washington, a city already replete with monuments. Efforts are also underway to inaugurate an India Centre in Washington (on the lines of the one in London) and some preliminary recce has taken place for renting a place (since there was not enough will and money — not to speak of foresight — to invest in buying a place).

(Tommorow: Britain celebrates India’s 50 years of independence)