INDIA INTERNATIONAL CENTRE V O L U M E X X V
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Price Re. 1/- INDIA INTERNATIONAL CENTRE v o l u m e X X V. No. 5 September–October 2011 promising new artist award and the V.S.K. Girija Devi Rare Talent Puruskar early on in her career. PERFORMANCE: Hindustani Classical Sanjukta’s performance at this concert was a tour-de- Vocal Recital by Sanjukta Biswas force—showcasing her seemingly effortless skills. She Collaboration: Sanskriti Pratishthan began with a melodious bada khayal in Kedar ‘Mora man September 6 manat nahin ali re…’, followed by a drut bandish each in teental ‘Kanganwa mora atahi amolak…’and ektal ‘Tum chatur It is indeed rare to come across an artist so young and sughar…’, with a magical display of taan and alaap. yet so accomplished. Listening to Sanjukta Biswas at She then performed a sensuous madhyalaya bandish the IIC was sheer delight. Sanjukta is a recipient of in raag Jog ‘Baat banavat…’, finishing with a stunning the Sanskriti-Madhobi Chatterjee Fellowship Award drut bandish in teental—which gave her ample scope for 2011 and the concert was organized in memory to showcase her Agra layakari. This was followed by of Smt. Madhobi Chatterjee. a traditional quick tempo bandish in raag Chhayanat ‘Jhanan Jhanan Jhan nan nan…’ which left the audience Hailing from the Agra Gharana style of gayaki—with gasping at her virtuosity. She wrapped up her its emphasis on taal (taal pradhan)—Sanjukta has performance with a soulful thumri in raag Mishra Pilu, studied under masters like Amalendu Pal and Kalyan followed by two flawlessdadras . Guha Thakurta, before honing her skills under the leading Agra Gharana vocalist, Shubhra Guha, at the Sanjukta was accompanied by Prasun Chatterji I.T.C. Sangeet Research Academy. Young Sanjukta is on the tabla and the virtuoso, Vinay Mishra, on no stranger to awards and felicitations either, having the harmonium. bagged the I.T.C. Sangeet Research Academy’s NEETA GUPTA crafts memorable song, Hridaye Mandrilo damaru guru, guru, Earth Festival followed by Mahatma Gandhi’s favourite song, Ekla FESTIVAL: Bhoomi – Learning from Nature, chalo re. In her opening statement, Dr. Vandana Shiva Remembering Tagore called Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi Collaboration: Navdanya and Ministry of Culture the first ecologists of the modern era, and said that Government of India, October 1 what Tagore had to offer as a vision of India is more relevant today. Navdanya celebrated Bhoomi, or Earth Festival. The As every species has its place in the forest, so also day-long conference-cum-festival was divided into five does the unifying principle of the democratic system sessions—Tagore’s Vision of Nature and Reverence arise from the diversity of the forest. Importance for the Earth; Robbery of the Soil; Education as Poetry in Motion; The Champa and Cherry Blossom; was given to children as they are the future in and Strengthening the Green Movement. It featured building earth democracy, strengthening the green music, dance, puppetry, theatre, film, discussions and movement, and continuing the legacy of the spirit speeches; paid tribute to Bhoomi or Mother Earth, and of Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram—which reminds us recalled Rabindranath Tagore’s recognition of Nature of our bond with the world. The celebrations also as the best teacher in every aspect of one’s life . included Signing of the Declaration of the Rights The festival began with an invocation to Mother of Mother Earth and the lighting of the diya. Earth, with schoolchildren singing Tagore’s MANDIRA GHOSH The Making of Ajrakh DISCUSSION: Cloth and Community – Fashioning Identity in Western India, by Eiluned Edwards Chair: Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan Collaboration: Craft Revival Trust; Mapin Publishing; and the British Council Division September 7 Ajrakh printing was brought out of the precincts of examples of block printing available from the ninth Kutch Gujarat from 1973 onwards, mainly with the century onwards in various museums around the intervention of the Government of India, for the world. Ajrakh was among the cloth exported to Egypt promotion of vegetable dyeing and block printing, in the thirteenth century. Ms. Edwards centred her and with the efforts of Khatri Mohammad Siddiki talk around the Ajrakh fabric, its makers, promoters Ismail. The resurgence of vegetable dyeing and a and wearers. new range of fabric forms, including furnishing, Traditionally, Ajrakh fabric was men’s wear, worn as accessories and yardage, opened vast market avenues malliah (lungi), the lower wear. The fabric was block for Ajrakh printing. The traditional Ajrakh, done on printed on cotton with geometric and figurative cotton and silk, is now a fashion statement and a patterns, with vegetable dyes and minerals. Ajrakh brand of handprints available for the global market. printing is a tedious process involving up to ten Symbolism and identity are the important reflections stages of printing, drying, dyeing, washing etc. If the of group cohesiveness. These are clearly marked in printing is on both sides, known as minakari, it may colour, design and the wearing styles of traditional go up to sixteen stages. costumes of various communities in India. There are CHARU SMITA GUPTA 2 focus and non-state actors) in Assam and Nagaland. This Bringing the Pain of was in addition to the Maulee Senapati-directed and Sanjoy Hazarika-produced and scripted fifty-minute North-east Women to documentary, A Measure of Impunity. the National Capital The three-day event, which concluded with an PROGRAMME: Bearing Witness: Impact of informative panel discussion, was inaugurated by Conflict on Women in Nagaland and Assam— former Union Home Secretary Gopal Pillai, who also Report, Exhibition, Film and Discussion released the report ‘Bearing Witness: The Impact of Collaboration: Centre for North–east Studies Conflict on Women in Nagaland and Assam’, co- and Policy Research and Heinrich Boll Foundation authored and edited by Sanjoy Hazarika and Preeti September 7–9 Gill. The report succinctly documents the suffering of women in conflict situations in the chosen regions. It The latest in the series of events on the North-east seeks to analyze the issues involved in the larger context at the IIC was called ‘Bearing Witness’, held from of the challenges of nation-building, human rights and their violations, regional growth, and the failure September 7–9. How powerful visual documentation of stakeholders and non-state groups to address these can be to record the trauma of a society was evident concerns. from the still photographs by Kausiki Sarma of women victims of violence (perpetrated by both state UTPAL BORPUJARI order to do justice to this legacy, Danino argued. Avoiding over-simplifications, he pointed out Indological Studies the uncanny accuracy of some of the numerical TALK: Cultural Specificities in the History of calculations found in ancient Indian texts, such as Indian Science those that calculate one day and night in Brahma’s Speaker: Michel Danino, September 12 life as 8.64 billion years, which is comparable to what modern science says about the age of the universe. The world of Indological Studies lost one of its Albeit undertaken for ritual purposes rather than for finest scholars with the passing of Professor Govind ‘practical’ ends, these excite curiosity and wonder Chandra Pande earlier this year. In the First Memorial as to the sources of knowledge these ancients Lecture, Danino focused on the interface between must have employed to understand matter, space science and culture, while the Chair for the evening, and time in the absence of modern technologies Dr. R.K. Dube, Professor, Material Sciences, IIT- of measurement and observation. Danino’s own Kanpur, and scholar of ancient Indian texts and research in Dhaulavira, the Harappan city in Gujarat, embedded scientific concepts, shared the depth and shows that the sacrificial altars, built to remarkable range of Professor Pande’s devotion to learning. consistency of proportion, are meant to mirror the The talk highlighted some unsolved puzzles in ancient universe in a microcosm. India’s traditional knowledge systems in the fields of He ended his deeply philosophical talk with a reference mathematics, astronomy, architecture and medicine. Knowledge in ancient India, though organized, was to the Shandilya Upanishad, which dwells on the tension not compartmentalized in the way we have come to between human desire to acquire knowledge and the think of it in modern times, and we have to reorient impossibility of ever achieving it. our disciplinary and epistemological foundations in MAYA JOSHI 3 arts diary The filmmaker travels to different parts of the country Film Festival and visits tribal/indigenous communities––from the FESTIVAL: PSBT Open Frame 2011 – A Festival Mundas in Jharkhand, to the Worli community in of Films, September 9–13 Maharashtra and the Ramnamis, a Dalit community in Northern India. In essence, the film highlights the Open Frame 2011 showcased a wide range of history of the marginalized and their attempt to enter documentary films in keeping with the PSBT tradition the collective mainstream mindset. of excellent, thought-provoking cinema. From short The film was followed by a panel discussion on films to longer formats, the festival covered various ‘Articulating Subaltern Narratives’ by eminent themes, ideas and controversies. filmmakers—Mahmood Farooqui, Shriprakash, S. The section on ‘Women and Madness’ was kicked- Gautam—and moderated by Uma Chakravarti. The off by an erudite lecture by Shohini Ghosh on the discussion brought out the way documentary cinema portrayal of madness in places the idea of looking cinema. Hollywood has at the alternative and captured psychological the mainstream, and the stress through the prism of process of representation the social recognition and through cinema, art and identification of madness. history. In such a portrayal, often Roots of Love (Harjant women seem to have been Gill, 2010) is an ode to the the primary subjects. This spirit of community and was an apt introduction the individual within it.