The confluence of cultures

The confluence of cultures
Saeed Naqvi

Pronouncements made at the recent RSS conclave in Agra have triggered off memories of a TV series I produced ten years ago. Every episode in the series on Indian culture began with a couplet by Mir Taqi Mir and ended with one by Raghupati Sahai Firaq Gorakhpuri. Mir's couplet was : Uske Faroghe husn se jhamke hai Sab mein noor/Sham-e-haram ho ya ki diya Somnath ka. (His light permeates through all: the lamp lit in the Kaaba, Mecca or in the Somnath mandir).

On this couplet not only was there no criticism but rather fulsome praise across the ideological spectrum. Firaq's couplet was: òf40óSar zameen-e- Hind par aqwam-e-aalam ke, Firaq/ Qaafile bastey gaye, Hindustan banta gaya. (Caravans of the world came and made it their home, O' Firaq, thus contributing their bit to the creation of Hindustan).

This couplet became an integral part of the five-minute episodes telecast several times a day. One day I received a call from a friend, a devout RSS man, but equally a man of some erudition with a remarkable capacity to listen. We had become friends on the margins of seminars where we discussed exactly the issues addressed in the TV series. He had a good word for the series with one point of disagreement: He did not like Firaq's couplets at the end of each episode. Firaq, he thought, had destroyed the Indian reality. "We are not just a settlement of caravans" he said. "Bharat is much larger than the sum total of these settlements." Of course it is, but that was not Firaq's point, nor mine. But let that rest here.

Guess how I responded to my friend's criticism? This friend of mine, I said to myself, has ideological differences with me but he respects my views and seeks me out on awkward, political issues. Several times he clarifies issues for me. He has drawn my attention to a couplet in my series, which offends him. He is a friend and has therefore informed me of his strong reservation. Supposing a sizeable number have likewise misunderstood my usage of Firaq. They may be nursing a grievance, which may acquire some public expression.

Under the circumstances, was it important to dig my heels in and sustain my interpretation of Firaq's couplet? That would appear to be the intellectually honest thing to do.

Or, was it more important to find wider acceptability for the message implicit in the series? This purpose entailed making adjustments and compromises. Was this line of reasoning intellectually dishonest? The series, after all, was about aspects of culture and civilisation, which bind us as a people. Take Dara Shikoh, for instance, Aurangazeb's elder brother. Here was a Moghul prince who authored The confluence of the Oceans in which he attempted to harmonise Islamic and Vedantic thought. Abdul Rahim Khan-e-Khana's Sanskrit verses in praise of Lord Rama remain unmatched as Saiyid Ibrahim Raskhan's poems on Lord Krishna's childhood. And do you know the individual who retains a large chunk of this poetry in his memory and can rattle it off at will? Pandit Vishnu Kant Shastri, scholar, senior RSS leader and currently governor of Himachal Pradesh. (I wonder how he would explain the wildly intemperate stuff that came out of the RSS conclave in Agra?)

Visit Bhimsen Joshi in Pune or Gangubai Hangal in Dharwar and you will find the photographs of their guru, Abdul Karim Khan in their music room. The late Allaudin Khan's house in Maihar (where his son Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar learnt their music) is resplendent with the presence of Saraswati in every room. The great ustad recited his namaz five times a day, but turned to the "Sharada" temple at the nearby hill for musical inspiration. It might be instructive for Bal Thakeray to know that the great Maharashtrian singer, Kishori Amonkar's mother, Mogu Bai, never forgot to visit her guru Alladiya Khan's grave in Mumbai on March 14, each year. It would be equally humbling for him to read Ali Sardar Jafri's books on Mira Bai and Kabir. That Jafri had to go into hiding during the post-Babri Masjid Bombay riots was a painful memory Jafri Sahib put behind him.

There are aspects of literature, music, architecture, history, sociology, common worship, rituals which bind us as a people and which our politicians cannot afford to be ignorant of. Alas, they are. And by their ignorance they place the exquisite mosaic of India under great strain. Of course in a thousand years of interaction there will be unfortunate memories too. To harp on them alone would promote contention, divisiveness.

The idea is to enlarge the area of agreement. With this in mind I would not even risk the possibility of contention. That is why I dropped Firaq's couplet from the TV series after my friend expressed his reservation about it. I wanted him as a regular viewer of my programme and not one who would swell the ranks of those in opposition to it's content. As Mir said: òf40ólay saans bhi aahista, Ki nazuk hai bahut kaam. (Breathe gently for the task at hand is of the utmost delicacy).

Politicians by their ignorance place the exquisite mosaic of India under great strain