MY MOTHERLAND ... 17
We have a national tendency to clap at every pleasant thing we hear during a lecture. Even during a classical musical performance we witness this frequent clapping. This is symptomatic of the frivolous nature of the average urban Indian mind and requires amendment if ever we are to deepen perception and arrive at a more serious appreciation of the content of a lecture or performance. This shallowness pervades the polity and, thereby, we miss out on the more contentious issues involved in a talk. Why we must be so full of levity is a question that demands greater attention than is usually afforded to it and this is precisely what I shall attempt in this essay.
India has for long been what V. S. Naipaul has dubbed 'a wounded civilisation' and is still recovering from its thousand year old capitulation at the hands of Muslim invaders and European colonists. Hence, she has not yet fully recovered from her crisis of civilisation. Consequently, her children react to situations in a manner which is indicative of their confused state of mind as to what is proper and what is improper in the exhibited social context.
When a vast number of people, as diverse as India's is, recovers from a long long oppression at the hands of imposing alien civilisations, this is what happens to it -- a mass of chaotic semi-assimilation and semi-rejection of the foreign darts which more poison the indigenous system than lend life and energy to it. Then the people are rendered sterile to a large extent and a large number of such, in the vortex of such cultural defilement, lose their moorings in their own culture and start adopting indiscriminately features foreign to them. This creates a war zone in their thought system and produces frivolous behaviour owing to loss of identity and, in consequence, the loss of self-confidence and the tendency to hover in the surface consciousness of material life. This is the breeding ground for all social levity, frivolousness, loss of seriousness and lack of a sense of purpose and direction in civic life beyond the calls of mere survival and engagement in transitory pleasure.
In 1912 Rabindranath Tagore was in London reading out passages from his translation of his 'Geetanjali' to a select group of British intellectuals and poets. At the end of the reading, the group solemnly dispersed without even passing a word of appreciation or criticism. Tagore was disturbed by this strange silence and thought that his translation must have been below par for the English to savour the essence of his original compositions in Bengali. Troubled thus about his failed literary execution, Tagore passed a tense week when to his delight started pouring in letters of ecstatic appreciation of his poetry from his audience. Their delight in discovery of a new genre of Oriental poetry knew no bounds as they lavished praise on Tagore's genius. Many of them added that they had been so spellbound by the beauty of his poems on their immediate recitation and so depth-driven by them that they could not come up with any immediate response by way of appreciation or comment whatsoever. Later, in the repose of their recollection, they could assimilate what had overwhelmed them on initial encounter and only then could they articulate their artistic appraisal of those singularly beautiful works of literary expression.
When Pandit Ravi Shankar went to USA to present Hindustani classical instrumental music, he used to be initially surprised by the total silence of the audience at the end of a performance. Apprehensive of a failure to have impressed his audience, he used to enquire later for some reaction on his performance from some of his listeners. When they would be ecstatic in their appreciation, he would ask them as to why they had maintained such a stoic silence at the end of his recital and had not exhibited their appreciation by any form of applause. The questioned members would answer to the effect that they were so enraptured by the music that they did not wish to disturb the prevailing harmonic equilibrium in the auditorium by an unseemly applause. They wished the music to linger in their memory and create a lasting impression whereby they could better savour it. Panditji understood and, thus, a new chapter in audience appreciation opened up in his mind. Later, Panditji has much regretted that such an atmosphere of attentive audience was not to be found in India where there was frequent frivolous clapping after some fast phrases or the celebrated 'sawal-jawab' (musical question-answer phrase) of the sitar and the tabla or during the jhala which is the concluding fast rendition of the gat (melody). And he has expressed his dissatisfaction over it. In his opinion such frequent clapping and other verbal expressions of appreciation like 'kya baat' (bravo) greatly disturbed the musician's concentration and adversely affected his performance and was not a welcome thing at all. That the audience needed to be more disciplined, attentive and inwardly appreciative rather than outwardly and vocally so.
Owing to the proliferation of knowledge and its easy dispersal through advancing technology like the internet, the vast mass of the population of the world, unschooled in the refinements of sophisticated culture, are taking to the appreciation of the classical art forms. Consequently, classic culture is receiving what is its due at the hands of the proletariat, its inevitable aberration in execution and appreciation. This is the seed of the lowering of the standard of culture worldwide and India, the seat of grand ancient and medieval civilisations with a common thread of the Sanatan Dharma running through it as its continuing historical link, is no exception to it. Culture is plummeting here as well as progressively superficial and shallow minds become the custodians of culture with its concomitant evils among which has been cited this frivolous tendency to cheapen appreciation of the art forms. This seems to an evolutionary lot that has befallen culture globally and, so, specifically speaking in this context, in our country as well and it does not seem that there is an easy way out of it save to wait on the people to go through this phase of degradation before regaining the heights of civilisation in the future.
Unfinished and expanding ...
Written by Sugata Bose
We have a national tendency to clap at every pleasant thing we hear during a lecture. Even during a classical musical performance we witness this frequent clapping. This is symptomatic of the frivolous nature of the average urban Indian mind and requires amendment if ever we are to deepen perception and arrive at a more serious appreciation of the content of a lecture or performance. This shallowness pervades the polity and, thereby, we miss out on the more contentious issues involved in a talk. Why we must be so full of levity is a question that demands greater attention than is usually afforded to it and this is precisely what I shall attempt in this essay.
India has for long been what V. S. Naipaul has dubbed 'a wounded civilisation' and is still recovering from its thousand year old capitulation at the hands of Muslim invaders and European colonists. Hence, she has not yet fully recovered from her crisis of civilisation. Consequently, her children react to situations in a manner which is indicative of their confused state of mind as to what is proper and what is improper in the exhibited social context.
When a vast number of people, as diverse as India's is, recovers from a long long oppression at the hands of imposing alien civilisations, this is what happens to it -- a mass of chaotic semi-assimilation and semi-rejection of the foreign darts which more poison the indigenous system than lend life and energy to it. Then the people are rendered sterile to a large extent and a large number of such, in the vortex of such cultural defilement, lose their moorings in their own culture and start adopting indiscriminately features foreign to them. This creates a war zone in their thought system and produces frivolous behaviour owing to loss of identity and, in consequence, the loss of self-confidence and the tendency to hover in the surface consciousness of material life. This is the breeding ground for all social levity, frivolousness, loss of seriousness and lack of a sense of purpose and direction in civic life beyond the calls of mere survival and engagement in transitory pleasure.
In 1912 Rabindranath Tagore was in London reading out passages from his translation of his 'Geetanjali' to a select group of British intellectuals and poets. At the end of the reading, the group solemnly dispersed without even passing a word of appreciation or criticism. Tagore was disturbed by this strange silence and thought that his translation must have been below par for the English to savour the essence of his original compositions in Bengali. Troubled thus about his failed literary execution, Tagore passed a tense week when to his delight started pouring in letters of ecstatic appreciation of his poetry from his audience. Their delight in discovery of a new genre of Oriental poetry knew no bounds as they lavished praise on Tagore's genius. Many of them added that they had been so spellbound by the beauty of his poems on their immediate recitation and so depth-driven by them that they could not come up with any immediate response by way of appreciation or comment whatsoever. Later, in the repose of their recollection, they could assimilate what had overwhelmed them on initial encounter and only then could they articulate their artistic appraisal of those singularly beautiful works of literary expression.
When Pandit Ravi Shankar went to USA to present Hindustani classical instrumental music, he used to be initially surprised by the total silence of the audience at the end of a performance. Apprehensive of a failure to have impressed his audience, he used to enquire later for some reaction on his performance from some of his listeners. When they would be ecstatic in their appreciation, he would ask them as to why they had maintained such a stoic silence at the end of his recital and had not exhibited their appreciation by any form of applause. The questioned members would answer to the effect that they were so enraptured by the music that they did not wish to disturb the prevailing harmonic equilibrium in the auditorium by an unseemly applause. They wished the music to linger in their memory and create a lasting impression whereby they could better savour it. Panditji understood and, thus, a new chapter in audience appreciation opened up in his mind. Later, Panditji has much regretted that such an atmosphere of attentive audience was not to be found in India where there was frequent frivolous clapping after some fast phrases or the celebrated 'sawal-jawab' (musical question-answer phrase) of the sitar and the tabla or during the jhala which is the concluding fast rendition of the gat (melody). And he has expressed his dissatisfaction over it. In his opinion such frequent clapping and other verbal expressions of appreciation like 'kya baat' (bravo) greatly disturbed the musician's concentration and adversely affected his performance and was not a welcome thing at all. That the audience needed to be more disciplined, attentive and inwardly appreciative rather than outwardly and vocally so.
Owing to the proliferation of knowledge and its easy dispersal through advancing technology like the internet, the vast mass of the population of the world, unschooled in the refinements of sophisticated culture, are taking to the appreciation of the classical art forms. Consequently, classic culture is receiving what is its due at the hands of the proletariat, its inevitable aberration in execution and appreciation. This is the seed of the lowering of the standard of culture worldwide and India, the seat of grand ancient and medieval civilisations with a common thread of the Sanatan Dharma running through it as its continuing historical link, is no exception to it. Culture is plummeting here as well as progressively superficial and shallow minds become the custodians of culture with its concomitant evils among which has been cited this frivolous tendency to cheapen appreciation of the art forms. This seems to an evolutionary lot that has befallen culture globally and, so, specifically speaking in this context, in our country as well and it does not seem that there is an easy way out of it save to wait on the people to go through this phase of degradation before regaining the heights of civilisation in the future.
Unfinished and expanding ...
Written by Sugata Bose
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