INDIA INTERNATIONAL CENTRE V O L U M E X X VII
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Price Re. 1/- INDIA INTERNATIONAL CENTRE v o l u m e X X VII. No. 1 January–February 2013 succinct exposure. A fuller resonation and a visual IIC Annual Day balance alongside was achieved on stage with the GOLDEN JUBILEE CONCERT: Sarod Recital inclusion of two pairs of tabla players, both of them accompanying the sarod in a close-knit compatibility by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan of theka, and ornamental tukras. An alternative take January 22 on the Rabindrasangeet Ekla chalo re, exhaustibly unleashed the immense possibilities that this musical score contained, transforming the familiar notation The Golden Jubilee Concert, held to mark the 50th in much the same way as a bandish is rendered by anniversary of the IIC, was commemorated with a musicians of different gharanas. scintillating sarod recital by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, who mapped out his layout with characteristic élan. A sense of history, too, was woven into the proceedings Instead of adopting the rigorous regimen of a of the evening as Ustadji regaled his listeners with classical recital, the maestro converted his rendition anecdotes of his training with his father who tutored into an inclusive him in the art of sarod evening, punctuating his playing by singing out playing with snippets the passages. For the of information. evening’s concert he Contiguous with this followed suit and sang mood was his choice out the entire gat bandish of ragas for the evening of the Kedara number, that forayed into the before elaborating it on more melodious forms his instrument. Also, his of Kedara, Zilla Kafi, tribute to Amir Khusrau Bahar and others, all of through a passage of the which were arranged late poet’s composition with an uncanny sense brought the evening of choreography. to a gracious close. In an ultimate gesture of The Ustad’s civic consciousness, characteristic staccato the entire evening’s play effects across the was offered as a tribute notes culminated in a to Braveheart (Bharat technical extravaganza Mata), balancing that produced delight the commemorative and wonder. The raga evening with expertise layout was presented and care. in a crisp pattern, where the essentials ■ SUBHRA of the raga were given MAZUMDAR talks jubilations. There are many leaders—national, regional Moral and Political Decline or local—who have been celebrated on their birth and DR. C.D. DESHMUKH MEMORIAL LECTURE: other significant events in their lives. Leaders apart, India’s Golden Jubilations there have been jubilations for great cultural icons too. Speaker: Gopalkrishna Gandhi However, is it the right time for this unending chain of jubilations, unmindful of what is happening to our Chair: Mr. Soli J. Sorabjee, January 14 people? We are not at war, nor are we in the throes of famine, but we are in a condition of deep and chronic Gopalkrishna Gandhi’s lecture was a profound sadness. The people of India are in vipada (distress). reflection upon India’s Golden and other jubilations In reality, we are anything but jubilant. Golden and what they say about us as a people. He pointed jubilations have become a private affair. There is a out four crucial factors for the unending chain of moral and political decline. People are becoming jubilations in India. First, the ever readiness of disenchanted with institutions of political Indians to go into celebration mode. Second, governance, and non-political institutions like the the ‘number-jubilant peoplehood’ of judiciary are gaining public trust. The long- India. Third, our intuitive affinity term survival and success of democracy is for the monarchical or royal contingent upon the moral leadership of mode. Fourth, a predilection for the political class. The great challenge a national guide. today is the restoration of credibility He questions whether we to the political class in India. as a nation are overdoing the ■ VIKAS TRIPATHI forms of giving—coming to its most important form Globalization and in contemporary India—election funding. This is fuelled in large measure through the Corruption overwhelming cash economy where the notion of TALK: Corruption, Democracy and the Media in ‘black money’ comes to symbolize a ‘moment’ when Contemporary India taxation comes to reconfigure money, changing its Speaker: Professor Arjun Appadurai biography from ‘white-legal’ to ‘black-illegal’. But Chair: Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan, January 23 this transition becomes important in the way in which scams, offshore stacking add to the environment of corruption in India. The illegal global flows of Arjun Appadurai’s lecture on ‘Corruption, Democracy money help in the way money travels across borders, and the Media in Contemporary India’ comes at a avoiding detection. time when India as a nation is facing public outrage over corruption and issues of governance. Appadurai commends media reportage of corruption cases, but notes that its sensationalization inadvertently In placing the work of corruption in India within adds ‘glamour’ to scams and corrupt practices. For frames of the ‘everyday’ and the extraordinary, he him, large-scale protests in India over corruption and argues that systemic mechanisms that have always the failure of processes of governance are a signal privileged a hierarchical form of giving to solicit of the ways in which a moment of ‘charismatic patronage have now taken a more egalitarian/ interruption’ has come to symbolize bureaucratic horizontal form in the neo-liberal economy. So the corruption of the everyday colliding with that routine ‘capillary’ corruption that was practiced of the extraordinary. in soliciting the favours of, to begin with, religious figures throughdaan or vratas, later turned into bigger ■ ANINDITA MAJUMDAR 2 films Mann Faqeeri, a film directed by well-known theatre Kashmiriyat actor M.K. Raina, showed the current status of EXHIBITION: Srinagar – Voices of Hope Kashmiri Sufiana music, its practitioners (including FILM: Mann Faqeeri women) and the musical instruments used. The PANEL DISCUSSION: Kashmir – Dimensions of film also delved into the current status, decline and possible revival of Kashmir’s traditional folk theatre Intangible Heritage ‘Bhand Pathar’ through interviews with artistes. Speakers: Professor Riyaz Punjabi, Saleem Beg, M.K. Raina’ s film on ‘Bhand Pather’, a successful and M.K. Raina adaptation of Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’, was a tribute Collaboration: INTACH, (Jammu and Kashmir to an experiment in adaptation and synthesis. chapter) and Adabi Markaz Kamraz (Kashmir) The Jammu and Kashmir government has passed January 30 – February 5 a law for the protection of tangible and intangible heritage, which was brought out by the symposium, The concept of ‘Kashmiriyat’ was highlighted in a ‘Dimensions of Intangible Heritage’, chaired by series of multimedia programmes in collaboration Professor Riyaz Punjabi, former Vice-Chancellor with INTACH and the State Government of Jammu of Jammu and Kashmir University, Salim Beg and Kashmir. (Jammu and Kashmir INTACH chapter) and M. K. Raina. Over 50,000 old songs and poems have been It commenced with the photo exhibition, ‘Srinagar— collected, through which the concepts of Kashmiri Voices of Hope’. Over thirty-five exhibits by young Saivite philosophy are being carried forward; old amateur photographers visually documented the legends such as Hemal and Nagraj in which elements beauty of the Valley and its environs expressed in its of Buddhism and Islam are interwoven remain architecture, street life, natural landscape and seasons. popular despite the current political problems in the Included was the photographic documentation of the Valley. All in all, these programmes were a reflection restoration of two heritage buildings in Srinagar by of the spirit of `Kashmiriyat’, or an all-inclusive INTACH and the State Government: the Aali Masjid culture, that is conserved, alive and well. (originally built in 1471), and the Lal Ded Memorial Cultural Centre, Srinagar. ■ SIDDHARTH KAK and forth from the historic to the current, from the Cinematic Journey cultural to the economic, from the city to the village, Highway to the Asian Century reflects the integration and interaction that our two February 19 regions await. Included are several crisply-edited interviews of key people in these countries which convey national Suhas Borker’s 52-minute documentary, Highway perspectives on the significance, need and urgency to the Asian Century, was screened by the IIC-Asia of the New Delhi-Hanoi connectivity. An earlier Project. It is a cinematic journey that begins at zero screening included a panel discussion around the point in Rajghat, the nation’s memorial to Mahatma film, chaired by Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan, with Foreign Gandhi in New Delhi, and takes us to the final Secretary Mr. Ranjan Mathai as the Chief Guest. resting place of Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi. It traces Others present on the panel were Ms Lise Grande, this route, from India to Bangladesh, back to India, the UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident to Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, Representative, and Ambassador K.P. Fabian. including a deviation to land-locked Laos. The seamless movement of Borker’s narrative, back ■ SURYAKANTHI TRIPATHI 3 exhibitions diary Decoding of Paintings Multi-coloured Bronzes EXHIBITION: Drawing as a Mental Exercise, EXHIBITION: Untitled II by Banasri Khan, by Gagandeep Singh, January 21–February 12 7–12 January True to its title, the exhibits were mental representations In her first solo exhibition in Delhi, self-taught of the artist’s perceptions of physical and social reality, sculptor Banasri Khan drew upon the mythology and but it was more of a cognitive challenge to locate the natural landscape of West Bengal as well as her own exhibits. Gagandeep’s work was autobiographical, as experiences as a woman. Although Khan often works well as an inspiration for artists to be able to go public on a large scale, the exhibition focused on miniature on a shoe-string budget. Sketches on note-size paper bronzes that displayed her technical finesse as well as were tucked away in the crevices of the lovely Pilkhan imagination.