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Illustrations by Prashant Kanyalkar

This column was initially printed in Verve Journal’s Quantity 5, Concern 3; July-September 1997. 

You’d assume, wouldn’t you, that the Authorities of India had sufficient discover that this yr’s fifteenth August was considerably particular? And that it wanted long-term planning to commemorate it in a manner past the routine?

However clocks and calendars run otherwise for the federal government. So as an alternative of the three years or so which ought to have gone into the organisation of nationwide celebrations, now we have had 9 months of committees. (Is there a Freudian symbolism hidden there?)

The Nationwide Committee was the mom of all committees. It had 227 members together with cupboard ministers, all chief ministers, presidents of all main political events and all ex-prime ministers. That’s a number of politicians, which might be why of their two conferences, members got here up with concepts like these for a 50-year celebratory bash: Get rid of scavenging. Encourage the expansion and welfare of the farming sector. Arrange an institute for Comparative Religions. Set up a multi-religious centre at Ayodhya. Construct a Corridor of Freedom in Delhi. “We need to rejoice in such a manner as to ignite the creativeness of our youth,” stated one of many members of those and different concepts. Oh effectively.

Maybe it’s simple to sneer. The rationale why a Nationwide Committee has to exist is that no authorities can take an opportunity by leaving anyone out: it anticipates criticism of non-inclusion by co-opting nearly everyone. It’s a time-wasting however crucial ritual.

If that they had requested a small organisation to concurrently get on with it and staffed it with males of concepts and imaginative and prescient supported by males of motion, even 9 months might need produced one wholesome physique. However the secretariat which was arrange, was neither given its full employees nor was its funds launched in time. Its time, as an alternative, was spent in organising conferences of the Nationwide Committee plus the Particular Cupboard Committee, the Implementation Committee, state authorities committees and as many as ten advisory committees.

Come to consider it, this was a celebration of kinds, and an apt one at that.

Authorities By Committee

In spite of everything, our 50 years have been notable for the truth that we’re like this solely: authorities by committee in order that there’s a number of discuss however no motion: the fixed striving to please everybody that ultimately nobody is happy; an absence of ahead planning and the last-minute scramble to retrieve the state of affairs; the sanctioning of plans on paper and the shortcoming to launch funds when they’re wanted; a scarcity of will masked by the paperwork of forms… And, lastly, the inevitable reassigning of dates. So right here it’s: the federal government has formally decreed that there will likely be a year-long celebration of our golden anniversary. Starting fifteenth August 1997. Neat.

Because it occurs, the temper within the nation was sombre relatively than joyous. Laloo Prasad Yadav, Sitaram Kesari, Mayawati, Rabri Devi, H. D. Deve Gowda… That was our roll name of honour; these have been our freedom fighters of immediately (the liberty to have unfettered ambition and to hell with the fee). We would have liked a really giant shove to get us out of our slough of despond and the federal government was not offering it. There we might have remained, moping and dragging our toes, if it hadn’t been for the Overseas Hand.

The Overseas Hand was, initially, British. The BBC led the way in which with The Dynasty, its documentary on the Nehru-Gandhi household. It didn’t inform us something we didn’t know (that’s the issue everybody was confronted with), however the archival footage was fascinating. I discovered the Indira Gandhi episode particularly fascinating because it confirmed the transformation of a painfully shy lady into the dominating politician of her later years. Even right here was a shock: so deeply has the picture of Indira Gandhi as Empress of India turn out to be embedded in our minds that we count on to see a disapproving martinet with a stern voice. As an alternative, we see that the shyness of her method by no means actually left her, and that her voice remained that of a schoolgirl even until the tip.

That’s solely one among many programmes on British tv. However the printed phrase wasn’t going to be left behind: each publication price its identify introduced out at the least one cowl story in its color complement or journal part.

Even Individuals who have been proof against Indophilia all these years, succumbed to the 50-year an infection with cowl tales from Time and Newsweek and particular points from The New Yorker and Self-importance Honest. So we, who’ve all the time regarded to the West to usher in our developments, even when they have been based mostly on purely ‘Indian’ issues just like the sitar or meditation or yoga or ayurveda, now in supreme irony took our cue from the West to rejoice the fiftieth anniversary of our freedom from the rule of the West.

The 50-12 months An infection

As soon as we had begun, there was no stopping us. The trickle grew to become a stream, the stream, a torrent, the torrent a flood. To make any sense of it, listed here are some classifications.

The Surprising: The rehabilitation of Jinnah. A re-appraisal of the founding father of Pakistan needed to occur sometime. Who would have anticipated it now? But it surely got here strongly. A guide by Philip French sowing the seeds, and journal and newspaper articles following it up, both professional or con.

The Faces Behind The Knives: Outlook journal’s good cowl story on the Partition labored as a result of it went to the opposite facet of the divide as effectively, and talked to individuals in Pakistan who have been affected. Time too confirmed the human tragedy of our holocaust. Different publications took up the theme as effectively. Eventually, collectively, now we have begun to look squarely within the face at this horrifying chapter of our historical past which we had all buried very, very deep in our consciousness. For a youthful technology for whom Partition is simply a phrase, it should now be very clear why India and Pakistan can by no means actually get collectively.

The Face Behind The Knife: The mad story of the Radcliffe Award and the person behind it, Sir Cyril Radcliffe, given — in opposition to his will — the job of taking a pen and drawing a line throughout undivided India, to eternally resolve what went the place, and who grew to become a Pakistani and who an Indian. Lahore, unbelievably now, was a contact and go case. It might effectively have been an Indian metropolis.

Tales From The Border: Maseeh Rahman’s story for Time from the Wagah border and Robert Nichelsberg’s surreal {photograph} of two sentries standing subsequent to one another at touching distance, one an Indian, the opposite Pakistani, each frozen in postures of hostility, each about to start a day by day conflict dance, very similar to ritualistic actions of birds marking out their territories.

Cultural Bonding: We all know concerning the cultural bonding throughout the border, however we by no means consider cultural bonding elsewhere. It wanted Span journal to remind us about people who cast surprisingly shut hyperlinks between India and the USA. Like Mark Twain and Swami Vivekananda, like Emerson, Melville, Whitman and Thoreau, like Elihu Yale, an American who labored for the East India Firm as Governor of Fort George in Madras when he gave a donation to an American faculty which then grew to become Yale College. Or like Sam Stokes, scion of an previous Boston household who got here to India at 22 and by no means went again, changing into a follower of Gandhi. He settled in Himachal, imported hundreds of apple seeds from America, gave them free to the mountain individuals and thus gave start to the state’s flourishing apple business.

Large Brother India

Pakistan, anybody? Within the theme of India, 50 years, everybody appeared to have forgotten that it was additionally Pakistan, 50 years. OK, so we couldn’t bear in mind, however what about the remainder of the world? Books, magazines and tv throughout, harped on the primary theme and had collective amnesia concerning the second. Even satellite tv for pc tv on this area Star, Sony and the remainder, adopted an Indian motif for his or her particular logos, whereas beaming to different nations together with Pakistan. How do you assume individuals there felt? Large Brother India strikes once more?

By no means The Twain Shall Meet: Given the above, the jubilee offered an unparalleled alternative for joint celebrations. But nobody considered it, besides Asia Home, a lately arrange organisation in Britain, which organised a gala dinner on the Royal Albert Corridor in July with Prince Charles because the chief visitor. If solely others had adopted that instance….

Windfalls – I: The Instances of India, on successive days used as its fundamental edit web page article, Nehru’s well-known “tryst with future” speech and Jinnah’s not so well-known handle to the constituent meeting in Pakistan. It was a pleasure to learn the complete textual content of the Nehru speech, with its advanced syntax and its rolling cadences. After studying Jinnah’s phrases, one wished that they have been higher recognized. They make such a ringing declaration for a secular Pakistan that copies of the speech ought to be circulated to all of the fundamentalists of that nation.

Windfalls – II: One other surprising bonus of the jubilee is the British Museum’s exhibition, The Enduring Picture, which can come to Delhi and Mumbai in October. As many as 300 priceless artwork objects and antiquities will do the journey, collected from historical Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia, the Roman Empire, the Americas and East Asia. The Museum is intentionally not bringing its Indian antiquities, after the hullabaloo that was raised when the Padshahnama was exhibited in Delhi final yr (“That is ours and should not be allowed to go away India,” some individuals stated). Additional excellent news: the Museum’s director has stated that that is solely the start. Many extra exhibitions will observe.

Windfalls – III: This must be essentially the most far-fetched but, however welcome nonetheless. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Company determined to rejoice the jubilee in a singular manner by declaring fifteenth August, “Zero Rubbish” Day. In a metropolis the place being a pedestrian is injurious to well being, a day of freedom from rubbish was a blessing. Everybody desires encores.

Windfalls – IV: Begum Sumroo has nothing to do with the Jubilee, however Partap Sharma’s play brings to life an interesting but unknown little bit of minor historical past. The play has flaws, particularly its leaden dialogue, however director Alyque Padamsee retains you engrossed.

Extra Than A Thousand Phrases – I: Artwork exhibitions of all types, everywhere in the world, some with relatively tenuous connections with the Jubilee. However nonetheless it was a chance to get treasured artwork out of mothballs and into galleries for us to take pleasure in. RPG Enterprises’ two exhibitions, 50 years of Freedom of Expression, was splendidly organised and featured some work of a really excessive order (with some which wasn’t, however that’s to be anticipated).

Overseas, there was the six-month lengthy exhibition of up to date prints from India and Pakistan which started in April on the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V & A additionally confirmed Shamiana, an exhibition of Mughal and Rajput ornamental arts. Then there was India: A Celebration of Independence, 1947-1997 which ran within the Philadelphia Museum of Artwork until the tip of August. This showcased 250 pictures taken by 21 photographers over the past 50 years.

Asia Society in New York put up an exhibition of miniatures God, The King and Tiger: the Artwork of Kotah which obtained rave evaluations. Its present in Washington, King of the World, was dedicated to the artistry of the Mughal dynasty which peaked within the area of Shah Jahan within the seventeenth century. The Padshahnama was additionally proven.

Extra Than A Thousand Phrases – II: The Nationwide Movie Theatre, London’s season of Indian movies. As an alternative of selecting the flicks themselves, NFT requested Indian authors to decide on one every. You thus obtained an fascinating — although disconnected – combine.

The Thousand Phrases Themselves: Really there have been tens of millions, as guide after guide, hit the stands. However the one which made the largest impression was Salman Rushdie and Elizabeth West’s The Classic E-book of Indian Writing 1947-97. Because of Rushdie’s now infamous essay through which he took all of India’s non-English writing and dumped it into the Arabian sea. Ridiculous, agreed. However supposed he had referred to as the guide Indian Writing in English nobody would have created a fuss, and the guide would have been like some other. Publications – newspapers and magazines – added their two bits to the celebrations. However, inform me, do you bear in mind a single article of the thousand or so written for the event? All that occurred was the publications made some huge cash on adverts. And we made just a little further from our raddiwala.

The Discovery Of India – I: Each product found methods of placing the tricolour in its advert and a few reference to the liberty motion, nonetheless distant. One product epitomised all of it. It was from a international gentle drink producer who dressed his bottle like a champagne bottle. You paid extra for the privilege of celebrating with it, and celebrated the Jubilee with pretend fizz.

The Discovery Of India – II: Everybody stumbled throughout an previous tune which had all of it: positive phrases, lilting melody and patriotic feeling. Who may ask for extra? So it was that Vande Mataram was orchestrated into documentaries, sung on the drop of the flag, spoken into the digicam by celebrities and made right into a pop-hit by the thumping percussion of A.R. Rahman.

The Final Phrase: The ultimate phrase should belong to Ravi Shankar. On the Tata Theatre, he performed from 10 p.m. to previous midnight on 14th August, thus ushering within the Jubilee. His enjoying, as traditional, transported you to a unique airplane (floating someplace in house), and on the stroke of midnight the raga he was enjoying metamorphosed into Sare Jahan Se Achcha Hindustan Hamara, the tune he wrote to Iqbal’s phrases. He signalled the packed home to affix in, and we – stiff higher lipped, not given to singing in public – started hesitatingly, then joined full-throatedly.

It was magical. So magical, actually, that we virtually believed the phrases.