Jalsaghar Cambridge.Pdf

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Zamindars, 2 businessmen, and bhadralok as curators of 3 theIndiannationinSatyajitRay’s 4 Jalsaghar ∗ 5 (The Music Room) Q1 6 GAUTAM GHOSH 7 The University of Otago, New Zealand 8 Email: [email protected] 9 Abstract 10 The Bengali bhadralok have had an important impact on Indian nationalism in 11 Bengal and in India more broadly. Their commitment to narratives of national 12 progress has been noted. However, little attention has been given to how ‘earthly 13 paradise’, ‘garden of delights’, and related ideas of refinement and nobility also 14 informed their nationalism. This article excavates the idea of earthly paradise 15 as it is portrayed in Satyajit Ray’s 1958 Bengali film Jalsaghar, usually translated 16 as ‘The Music Room’. Jalsaghar is typically taken to depict, broadly, the decadence 17 and decline of aristocratic ‘feudal’ landowners (zamindars), who represent the 18 languid past of the nobility, and the ascendance of a restless business-oriented 19 class that represents an emerging present and possible future. The zamindars 20 are shown as pursuing aesthetic and spiritual delight, ecstasy, and edification ∗ Parts of this article were presented by invitation at the Asian Studies Centre, Oxford University, the South Asian Studies Centre, Heidelberg University, and the Borders, Citizenship & Mobility Workshop at Kings College London. Portions were also presented for the panel ‘Righteous futures: morality, temporality, and prefiguration’ organized by Craig Jeffrey and Assa Doron for the 2016 Australian Anthropological Society Meetings. I appreciate the comments and questions I received on these occasions. Thanks to Daud Ali, Joya Chatterj, Faisal Devji, Nicholas DeGenova, Gita Dharmal-Frick, Ralph Nicholas, Polly O’Hanlon, Norbert Peabody, William ‘Bo’ Sax, Paola Voci, and, in particular, Ronald Inden, Cecilia Novero, and Aditinath Sarkar. I am grateful to Aurora Films and Sandip Ray for copyright permission to use the Jalsaghar materials. All errors, including in translation from Bengali, are my own. 1 2 GAUTAM GHOSH 21 through soirées. These soirées are produced for those among the nobility who 22 are sufficiently cultivated and refined to appreciate the finer things in life, such 23 as the classical music and dance showcased in this film. The businessmen, too, 24 aspire to host such exceptional events, but are too crass to do so properly and, 25 moreover, they are motivated by a desire to accrue prestige, such as using soirées 26 as a means to an end, rather than to experience aesthetic and spiritual elevation 27 as an end in itself. I argue that the film calls on the bhadralok to value aesthetic 28 cultivation and to actively counter its evanescence. The film thus beckons and 29 authorizes the bhadralok to sustain the value of the timeless past, including 30 nobility and refinement. Yet the bhadralok are also expected to embody and 31 expand a new, progressive, and utilitarian spirit that would modernize India. 32 With the aristocrats gone, and the entrepreneurs eager to assume authority, 33 the film charges the bhadralok to construct a nationalism in which the immortal, 34 character-building values of classical art, for example, can yet be sutured to 35 utilitarian progressivism. I argue that the film conveys this even though it does 36 not explicitly portray or even mention the bhadralok, or feature uniquely Bengali 37 music and art. Accordingly, this article does not focus on the actual aesthetic 38 and political practices of bhadralok nationalism. The aim is to shed light on one 39 genealogy through which the bhadralok sanctioned themselves as India’s stewards 40 along these lines. 41 All improvement in the political sphere must proceed from the ennobling of 42 character. But . how can character be ennobled? . [We need] for this end 43 an instrument . [devoid] of political corruption. This instrument is the art of 44 the beautiful; these sources are open to us in its immortal models.1 45 Bad art . is the true radix malorum.2 46 Good travels at a snail’s pace. Those who want to do good . are not in a hurry.3 47 In 2015, Sagarika Ghose, a prominent journalist writing for a 48 prominent Indian newspaper, decried the decline and death of India. 49 Actually, it is more accurate to say she lamented the decline and death 50 of Bengal. However, for Ghose, as with many of the Bengali bhadralok 51 class of which she is a member, it is not unfair to say that as Bengal 52 goes, so too does India. What is more, the bhadralok and Bengal are 53 taken to be almost synonymous, such that the status of the bhadralok 54 is an index of Bengal, and Bengal of India.4 1 J. C. F. Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of Man, Letter IX, 1794, http://www.blackmask.com [accessed 10 January 2016], p. 12. The specific ‘immortal model’ Schiller has in mind is classical (Athenian) Greece. 2 R. G. Collingwood, The Principles of Art, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1938,p.285. 3 A. J. Parel (ed.), Mahatma Gandhi, Hind Swaraj and Other Writings, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997, pp. 47–8. 4 S. Ghose, ‘Decline of Bengal, death of the Bhadralok’, Hindustani Times, 3 January 2015. It must be noted that her article was catalysed by a debate surrounding a sexual assault. NOBILITY OR UTILITY? 3 55 In this article, I argue that Satyajit Ray’s film Jalsaghar provides 56 a unique perspective on an over-looked aspect of bhadralok culture 57 and, in particular, what could be called bhadra nationalism. Bhadra 58 nationalism may be translated as ‘gentlemanly nationalism’ or ‘refined 59 nationalism’ or ‘educated nationalism’.5 I seek to demonstrate that Q2 60 the film points to a mission of sorts—one animated at least in part by 61 notions of earthly paradise: notions the bhadralok interpolate into their 62 nationalism. The aim here is to describe and analyse this challenge 63 itselfasitisemergesinJalsaghar, not to show how the bhadralok 64 actually do, in practice, take up the challenge and weave it into their 65 nationalism and broader self-fashioning.6 66 I begin with some background about the bhadralok and Satyajit Ray’s 67 Jalsaghar, respectively. This is followed by a synopsis of the film and 68 then an analysis of it.

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