People's Democracy

Sahmat’s Month-Long Programme In Delhi…

A Flash Back Into The Past Ten Years

A MONTH long programme depicting the last ten years since the demolition of Babri Masjid and the growing rise of rightwing forces in that period through “systematic assault on the spirit of nationalism and the cultural imagination of this country” began on December 4 in the capital.  Titled ‘Ways of Resisting – Ayodhya to Gujarat’, this programme is being organised by the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (Sahmat).

A galaxy of artists, theatre personalities, film-makers, photographers, writers, scholars, journalists, academics, scientists and other section of the intelligentsia will be participating in this programme.

The programme includes symposiums, street plays, film screenings, and an exposition of the arts. This exposition, scheduled to open on December 23 will have painting, sculpture, posters, cartoons, photography, video and documentary which will present political allegories to understand the present.

Addressing a news conference in connection with the programme on December 3, eminent historian Professor K N Panikkar said that the growth of communal forces and their control over institutions has made the task of organising resistance in different fields, particularly in cultural arena, all the more important.

He termed the publication “Saffronised and Substandard: A critique of the new NCERT textbooks” as a significant contribution to this resistance. This book comprises articles, essays and press reports about the errors, howlers and the ideological slant of the newly published textbooks for class VI, IX and XI. Some of these articles have been written by Sumit Sarkar, B D Chattopadhyaya, Arjun Dev and others.

Renowned painter Vivan  Sundaram  said  the various works of arts  being exhibited  would be an attempt at “mapping ten years of resistance to communalism”. Theatre personality M K Raina recalled that “it is a complete circle from Gujarat  (Somnath Yatra ) to Ayodhya to Gujarat”.

In the month long programme there will be several symposia analysing the implications of our recent history where the democratic and secular aspirations of this country, its plural and diverse polity, have suffered serious political distortion. The participants in the symposia include Professor K N Panikkar, Irfan Habib,  K M Shrimali, Prabhat Patnaik, Zoya Hasan, Javed Akhtar, Mahesh Bhatt, Shubba Mudgal and Ela Gandhi.

For theatre and music lovers there would be specially created theatre productions by M K Raina, Anuradha Kapur and Saumya Joshi of Ahmedabad. These will put in perspective the tragic events of our times and raise questions of citizenship/nation.

There will be musical performances that underline the multifaceted tradition of our culture with special reference to Gujarat. This programme is being conceived by Shubha Mudgal and Madan Gopal Singh.

A statement issued by Sahmat on this occasion stated “The resistance to hindutva and the sangh parivar has come from various sections of society on a vast scale.  It has come from artists, theatre persons, film-makers, photographers and writers, as much as from scholars, journalists, academics, scientists and other section of the intelligentsia. The resistance has also come in various forms: they have participated in street demonstrations, taking public positions in defence of the secular; they have, at the same time, worked it into their creative practice and devised a language with which to reflect upon and critique the threat of fascism.”