Perhaps it's time to form a united cultural front to safeguard freedoms.
There is a crowding of responses to the recent terror attacks, and it is normal there would be when a tragedy of this proportion strikes the country. Apart from responding as a citizen of this country and as a member of civil society, I wonder if the artists have a responsibility to respond through their work.
It is said that artists provide an alternate vision which is often coloured by ideology, but nonetheless has to do with deeper human experience. Away from the noisy, screechy media exposés, should not the arts process information and visuals differently and look at the deeper impact that this event has had on the lives of not just the victims but also those who have witnessed it?
Can a singer or dancer, with heartfelt anguish, give a performance that would sensitise people to the scale of pain and anger that this event evokes, and maybe prepare them for action against divisive politics? Can a painter respond to this carnage and touch a chord in the hearts of viewers, as probably M F Husain has done through his latest painting? Can theatre artists create work that will not only highlight the human tragedy but also analyse the mindset of the perpetrators so that we are better prepared to deal with them in future?
There was a time in the 1940s when the artistic community of the entire country had come together and given a clarion call for freedom and against fascism, social evils and the hoarders who were responsible for that terrible man-made famine in Bengal.
This movement was called IPTA, the India Peoples Theatre Association, formed by the CPI as its cultural front, where painters, photographers, musicians, writers, dancers, actors and directors from around the country joined hands to create awareness of the divisive and destructive policies of the British, of the backwardness and resultant suffering of our people. Plays and songs were quickly written on topical issues and performed for the people. These performances attracted spectators in the thousands.
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It seems that once again there is a need for such a united front.
But, today, the battle lines are not so well defined, the enemy not clearly identified and the issues not so black-and-white. There is a complex web of cause and effect in the actions of the state, and of powerful global players, which needs to be understood before any such creative exercise can be undertaken.
Speaking of theatre, it clearly needs introspection, and therefore distance from an event, to be able to sift the essential questions and deep-rooted causes and effects, and then create something worthwhile. Writing or performing something as immediate and traumatic is fraught with the danger of being swept away by emotion and being limited to reacting — it does not allow for analysis or show subtle change. It also does not allow much space for imagination.
Having staged and seen several plays based on actual events, I know that distance helps in making an imaginative leap, in taking artistic licence to make a larger statement, in having the freedom to explore beyond the obvious. And it is fresh exploration by the performer, who works through his body and has to search deep within and make connections with his own memories, both physical and emotional, that makes the theatre both intensely personal and universal.
This is not to say that works created as immediate response have no value. They do, but of a more immediate nature. At the moment that might be of great value. For a change, civil society has responded strongly and is on the streets wanting to fight for change. It is to be seen how the artistic community responds, for it can certainly play a definitive role in building a voice for change.
