Sudipta Mitra: The Nitpicker’s Chronicle : Flip side story of I...

Sudipta Mitra:
The Nitpicker’s Chronicle : Flip side story of I...: The Nitpicker’s Chronicle : Flip side story of Indian national movement   The Trojan Horse       In 1914, when the World ...

Sudipta Mitra: The Nitpicker’s Chronicle : Flip side story of I...

Sudipta Mitra:
The Nitpicker’s Chronicle : Flip side story of I...: The Nitpicker’s Chronicle : Flip side story of Indian national movement   The Trojan Horse       In 1914, when the World ...

Sudipta Mitra: The Nitpicker’s Chronicle : Flip side story of In...

Sudipta Mitra: The Nitpicker’s Chronicle : Flip side story of In...: From time immemorial, India has been blessed with personalities who have not only left an indelible mark on its culture but also shaped ...

The Nitpicker’s Chronicle : Flip side story of Indian national movement

 

The Trojan Horse

 

 

 

In 1914, when the World War broke out, Gandhi took the command of Indian National Congress and clamoured in favour of joining the British Armed Forces, brushing aside his philosophy of ahimsha for the time being. Gandhi argued, “To bring about such a state of things we should have the ability to defend ourselves, that is, the ability to bear arms and to use them...If we want to learn the use of arms with the greatest possible despatch, it is our duty to enlist ourselves in the army”[1]. Mahatma’s clarion call snuffed out 47,000 Indian lives in the battle field. After his return from abroad, when Gandhi was outpouring his unmatched loyalty to the British in their war effort, a group of young leftist radicals, sitting abroad on the other side of the fence, was hoping for an armed revolution to oust the imperialists from Indian occupation forever. Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh, along with Abdul Hafiz Barakatullah went to Afghanistan to launch an armed struggle against the British in India and to conquer India with the help of German army led by General Von der Goltz. The German government decided to support the Indian revolutionaries for an armed uprising and promised to supply arms for the final onslaught. Germany assured to give financial assistance to the Indians in the form of a national loan to be repaid after the nation was set free. It was also decided that Turkey would be asked to join hands in order to draw the Indian Muslims to take up arms against the British.  Barakatullah organised the Indian soldiers in German custody as POWs to turn their arms against the Raj. Mahendra was a staunch believer of Marxist philosophy and formed a provisional government in 1915, with Barakatullah as the prime minister. The first Indian leftist movement ended futile before the British agility, but the seeds of revolution for a total independent nation had been sown by the revolutionaries on communist beliefs at the time when the Bolshevik revolution (1917) had not found its place in human history.

 

 

Nearly a quarter of a century after the First War, Britain once again locked horns with Germany. Soviet Russia, which severed her relation with Germany, was trying to find a place next to Britain. The ‘nation builders’ of India, still under British hegemony, were caught in a whirlpool of dilemma stoked by events that were slowly unfolding. The same two political identities with a common objective of making the nation free, found the Empire in danger. One, who on the previous occasion recruited soldiers for Britain, was now hell-bent on staying away from the war and ousting the British from India in no uncertain terms. The other, who had connived with Germany against the Raj earlier, now had a secret pact with the erstwhile enemy to support their effort in the War. The drama enacted then was having a rerun now, but the roles were reversed.  In this political play the dramatis personae were the same; the former was the Indian National Congress represented by Mahatma and the latter was the Communist Party of India, characterised by the Indian Marxists. Was it just a happenstance? Or direct spin-off of an unadulterated perfidy? The volte-face eventually had an ineffaceable influence on shaping of the polity of the country and may be an interesting read.

The October revolution and the unprecedented success of the Bolsheviks in Russia left an indelible mark on socio-political thinking of the Indian icons from Tilak to Nehru. Tilak was full of praise for Lenin and extolled him as “advocate of peace[2]”. B.C. Pal was often alleged as an agent of the Bolsheviks when he tried to inspire the Indian workers on similar lines against British capitalism[3].  Tagore wrote, “The cry of Russian Revolution is the cry of the world” in his Letter from Russia (1931), which was banned by the British Government. Khilafatists in many conferences desired to use Bolshevism as their weapon to fight against the British. Bolshevik literatures were found in their headquarters. Bhagat Singh was deeply influenced by Bolshevism and spent most of his time in jail reading Marx and Lenin. C.R. Das argued in favour of organising the workers on Bolshevik line.[4] Gandhi preferred to see Bolshevik revolution as Hindu ethical idea of non-possession in the realms of economics. He would have no prejudice if such economic renunciation could be achieved bloodlessly. Nehru too believed that he could have socialism in India minus the Red Terror of Bolshevism[5].

From 1942 to 1945, for three long years, when all the Congress leaders were either in jail or went underground and the patriotic wave was blowing over the nation as the strongest tsunami, a golden opportunity came to the Indian Communists to take control of the movement. But their seditiousness and clandestinity at the most coveted moment pushed them into political oblivion. The communists supported the British faithfully in their war effort, which they termed as “people’s war”.  CPI applied its notorious ‘Trojan horse’ tactics from within, to split the Congress in their favour. The Indian Communists can be best understood in the words of Soli Batliwala, a former member of the Central Committee of Communist Party, who dropped his first bombshell in a press interview on 22 February 1946. The volte-face eventually had an ineffaceable influence on shaping of the polity of the country and may be an interesting read.

(Releasing shortly – Nitpicker’s Chronicles : Flipside story of Indian National Movement)

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[1] Gandhi, Mahatma – Collected Works, Volume 14, Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India, 1965, page - 440

[2] Kesari – 29 January 1918

[3] Pal, B.C – speeches published under The World Situation and Ourselves, 1919.

[4] Congress Presidential Addresses ...: First[-second] Series, Volume 2, published by G. A. Natesan & Company, 1935 for Indian National Congress, page 601

[5] Nehru, Jawaharlal - Soviet Russia: some random sketches and impressions, Allahabad Law Journal Press, 1928,page 117

Nitpicker's Chronicles (part1)

 Solitary prison cell of Arubindo Ghosh at Alipore Jail

 
At the turn of the last century, on a day in early spring, an assembly of the elites of Calcutta drew full house to the Hall of the Indian Association. The eminents had turned up to listen to the invigorating speech of an overseas guest from Japan. The gentleman, dressed in a black silk kimono, was a riveting orator. He was introduced to the august gathering by Sister Nivedita, as a professor and critic of traditional Japanese art.  

Kakuzo Okakura, as his name goes, came to India to meet Vivekananda. Okakura was a stark believer of spiritual union of the Asians as a whole and a sympathiser of India’s liberation from  British supremacy. Nivedita was a pen friend of Okakura since she was introduced to him by a common friend and her American fellow-disciple, Josephine MacLeod. Okakura’s political rhetoric and his radical thinking of oriental unification against westernisation impressed the intellectual audience.  The Japanese speaker threw up a veritable question to the Calcuttan elites, “You are such a highly cultivated race. Why did you let a handful of Englishmen tread you down? Do everything to achieve freedom, openly and well secretly. Japan will assist you”. On a later occasion Okakura made clear of the meaning of “secretly” and explained that, “political assassinations and secret societies are the chief weapons of a powerless and disarmed people, who seek their emancipation from political ills”.  

Bengal has always played a special role during watershed years in the colonial past. The battle of Plassey in 1757 provided the colonial lords with a firm foothold on Indian soil and 1857 was the year of the first Indian uprising. While both the events took place and sparked within the geographical boundary of Bengal, the archetypal Bengali bhadralok could hardly claim a role in the pages of history. The protagonists standing face to face in the mango-orchard of Plassey were neither Bengali nor belonged to a pure Indian stock. In 1857 too, the sepoy whose bullet popped out from the musket to kindle the fire of rebellion in the country, was also not a Bengali. No matter how the events sensitised the future trajectory, the Bengali Hindu gentries opted to live a docile existence under colonial sky. The victory of Robert Clive not only sown the seeds of the British Empire on Indian soil but also espoused the rise of a genre called Bengali bhadralok who remained happily ever subservient to the whites till the end of British occupation. The opulent zamindar of Calcutta,Raja Nabakrishna Deb, commemorated Clive’s victory by organising Durga puja in his palace, which he boastfully had referred to as “company’s puja”. Needless to say, loyalties and subservience also paid dividends.  On to 1857, when the colonial interlopers were almost on the verge of being thrown out from different parts of the country, the Bengali bhadralok frothed at their mouths to drum up support for the brighter side of British reign and how it would save the Hindu culture and civilization from the oppressive Muslim infidels. The same Bengali bhadraloks who were trying to spread their wings in the western sky and rubbing shoulders with the European elites, turned a blind eye to the nationwide political stir which was brewing against the Raj in the later decade of the nineteenth century.

But Bengal once again came under the spotlight. It was the same archetypal Bengali bhadraloks, who were known to the progressive-minded jingoists as compradors of their white masters, suddenly took a turn.  Bengal and the same Bengali bhadraloks featured a dual existence in colonial history and strongly espoused militancy in nationalism which was never thought of.  The faithful sycophants overnight turned into “terrorists’ in the eyes of the British masters. It was not just a happenstance, but the upshot of a cogent deliberation of two pathfinders who took the plunge because of their natural abhorrence against the British. Yet again, the pathfinders were neither Bengali nor belonged to any Indian race.  One was the Irish disciple of Swami Vivekananda whose hermitage-name was Sister Nivedita, and the other one was a Japanese art connoisseur - Kakuzo Okakura who came to India to meet the monk. Both had two common interests – Swami Vivekananda and India’s liberation from British yoke.

Okakura’s discourse at Indian Association Hall was graced by some notable Bengali gentries at the behest of Nivedita, whose mere presence in the audience could inspire a sweeping change. Nivedita introduced them to Okakura. Amongst them was Surendranath Tagore whom Okakura met on a previous occasion.  Suren babu was the nephew of Rabindranath. Others were Pramathanath Mitra – an influential barrister and a burly looking gentleman whose four successive attempts to organise a revolutionary society in Bengal failed; and Rabindranath’s niece,Saralabala Ghoshal, who was the daughter of a Congress secretary Janaki Ghoshal. The trio, along with Nivedita, would be known in the history as pioneers of revolutionary terrorism in India. The seed was sown in the Indian Association Hall and Mitra was assigned to head a network of secret societies, which would soon be brought up in the disguise of fitness centres. Incidentally Mitra was approached by one Satish Chandra Basu, a devotee of Nivedita and Vivekananda, who opened a gymnastic club in the name of Anushilan Samiti at Madan Mohan Lane for physical fitness and practising the art of self-defence using cane sticks. The name Anushilan Samiti was coined by one Narendra Nath Bhattacharya, who later metamorphosed into M. N. Roy, the founder of the Communist Party of India. Saralabala Ghoshal made the “Lathi khela” (as the martial art was known by) popular and she was encouraged and sponsored by P. Mitra with the idea to keep the youth physically active for militancy for a national cause. Mitra’s acceptance of Satish’s proposal was a stepping-stone towards building a revolutionary organisation in Bengal.

Mitra’s dream came true when Aurobindo Ghose made an attempt from Baroda to organise secret societies in Bengal and sent his envoy, Jatindranath Bandhopadhyay, to Saralabala. Jatin, meanwhile, opened an office in Upper Circular Road and started recruiting young aspirants to form secret societies in disguise of gymnastic clubs. Jatin came in contact with Mitra and merged his office with Anushilan Samity’s arkra in Madan Mohan Lane. The secret society networking finally brought Nivedita, Mitra and Aurobindo into a single lane. The ball was set rolling by Okakura in the Indian Association Hall, which finally ended up in forming the Bengal Revolutionary Society under Barrister Mitra.  An active member of Mitra’s Bengal Revolutionary Society was Bhupendranath Datta – the younger brother of Vivekananda and a youth full of radical sensibilities.

The seed of militancy was sown in Bengal explicitly by the crème de la crème of Calcutta, Sister Nivedita being the earliest proponent, and led the armed insurrection to a conspicuous level. Other exponents were Saralabala Ghoshal, Barrister P.Mitra and Bhupendranath Datta. Several secret societies in the disguise of physical training mushroomed all over ndivided Bengal. Sarala’s own gymnasium at her residence at 26 Ballygunge Circular Road was virtually a fencing club where youths were trained to wield swords and daggers. Sarala engaged at her cost a Muslim trainer named Murtaza to coach the boys[1]. Rabindranath’s most favourite niece was the first to hit the bull’s eye and vowed to erase the stigma that the Bengalis were cowards. Dogs have teeth, cats have talons, even insects have a sting, and they all retaliate when attacked. Only Bengalis do not; when they repeatedly hit they do not return even a single blow. Why are they such poor specimens of humanity? Why are they so week?” Sarala goes on. “Possession of a weapon does not necessarily rid one of pusillanimity, but with appropriate skill in use of weapon, one knows where to his an adversary, not to kill him, but stun him. One can be charged of injuring a person, and not accused of murder”[2].

Sarala’s mental makeup was not unknown to Rabindranath; rather she inherited her militant nationalism directly from her culturally versatile maternal house. Janakinath Ghoshal was a Congressman of moderate breed.  The poet’s immediate elder brother Jyotirindranath founded a secret society called Sanjibani Sabha with Rajnarain Basu (grandfather of Aurobindo) in the line of Italian revolutionist Mazzini's Carbonari[3], which aimed towards political liberation of India. Young Rabindranath, who followed his elder brother intuitively, was a member of the secret society. The Sabha ‘held its sittings in a tumbledown building in an obscure Calcutta lane’, recalled Rabindranath in his memoir. The Tagores’ family magazine, Bharati, which was edited by the Tagores, gave Sarala a platform to write inflammatory articles on India’s liberation on extremist lines. “I started writing for Bharati and converted it into combative organ”.  Sarala’s autobiography further reads, “During my editorship of Bharati, it was not an organ of just literary and fine arts; it was also the mouthpiece of nationalistic evangelism”[4]. Sarala used her pen to evoke militant nationalism amongst the Bengali youths and invigorated them to retaliate against the tyrannical whites. Although Rabindranath censured extremism in Indian politics, he was somewhat charmed by his sister’s daughter and could not put aside her inflammatory writings from being published in his family’s literary periodical.

Sarala first met Vivekananda on the riverbank of Belur Math probably in the end of 1898. The monk was addressing his American disciples Sara Bull and Miss Josephine MacLeod – both dressed in black Japanese kimono. Sarala came with her cousin Surendranath and Nivedita introduced both to Vivekananda.  With all her progressive sensitivities Sarala discovered herself amidst a group of notables whose more pertinent identities nudged her progressive jingoism. Was that a happenstance? Ole (Sara) Bull the widow of a world-renowned Norwegian violist was an activist in Norwegian movement for independence. It was Mrs Bull who first introduced Nivedita with the leading Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin and through Mrs Bull Kropotkin maintained contacts with the Indian revolutionists[5].  Nivedita met Kropotkin twice in London and was in close touch till her last. Kropotkin also acknowledged Miss MacLeod as his good friend in a letter dated July 1907. Swamiji’s brother Bhupendranath Datta claims that he was introduced to Kropotkin by his common friend Mrs. Ole Bull in August 1900.[6]   Miss Josephine MacLeod was a great sympathiser of the Indian cause for independence and sponsored many secret revolutionary circles through Nivedita. She regularly donated funds to import arms to organise armed revolution in India[7]. She maintained close contacts with Okakura since her first meet in Japan. Miss MacLeod introduced Okakura to Nivedita and insisted the Japanese revolutionist to pay a visit to Kolkata.   

(will continue)

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[1] Chaudhurani, Sarala Devi, The Many Worlds of Sarala Devi: A Diary : Translated from the Bengali Jeevaner Jharapata, Socila Scince Press, 2010, page 148

[2] Chaudhurani, Sarala Devi, The Many Worlds of Sarala Devi: A Diary: Translated from the Bengali Jeevaner Jharapata, Socilal Science Press, 2010, page 149

[3] Carbonari or ‘charcol burners’ in Italian dialectics, means secret societies.

[4] Chaudhurani, Sarala Devi, The Many Worlds of Sarala Devi: A Diary: Translated from the Bengali Jeevaner Jharapata, Socilal Science Press, 2010, page 169

[5] Datta. Bhupendra  - Swami Vivekananda – Patriot-Prophet, Nababharat Publisher 1954, page 119

[6] Stavig, Gopal - Western Admirers of Ramakrishna and His Disciples, Advaita Ashrama, 2010, page 490.

[7] Basu, Sankari Prasad - Nivedita Lokmata, Publisher Ananda Publishers Pvt. Limited, 1968, vol 3 page 95

 

Sudipta Mitra: WajidAli Shah establishes “Chota Lucknow” in Calc...

Sudipta Mitra:
WajidAli Shah establishes “Chota Lucknow” in Calc...: Wajid Ali Shah establishes “Chota Lucknow” in Calcutta   The tune of a dulcet song was pouring across the long corridor of the Du...

Wajid Ali Shah establishes “Chota Lucknow” in Calcutta

 

The tune of a dulcet song was pouring across the long corridor of the Durbar hall of Matiya Burz. The floors were covered with decorative carpets and over it spread a white sheet or chandni were the musicians assembled. Large mirrors and crystal chandeliers reflected a bevy of admirers. The ambience reminded the lost glory of Lucknow.

 

A Bengali bhadralok, with all his smugness stepped down from a buggy and sauntered down the hallway of the Durbar. He was cordially greeted by Wajid Ali Shah and made him seated next to him. Raja Sourindra Mohan Tagore was a connoisseur of music in those days and belonged to one of the richest cultural genres. All the way from Pathurighata Rajasahib travelled to Matiya Burz to cherish the quintessence of Lucknowi thumri fostered by the Nawab. Soon, the sweet voices and rich melody filled the air and rose to great heights of eloquence. The Raja was an allegiant of the British Crown but an ardent devotee of Wajid Ali’s thumri. The musical genre was not unknown to him, yet the thumri sung in the Nawab’s durbar had the pride of place, specially when sung by the Nawab in his Durbar. The story of an exotic and highly mellifluous musical genre started to unfold in the bank of Hoogly.

 After being exiled to Calcutta from Lucknow, Wajid Ali Shah reached the bank of Hoogly on 26^th May 1856 – following a long weary journey of three months in the scorching summer. But the destiny was not kind to him and soon he was kept under arrest in Fort William by the British government with the plea to safeguard the King from the tumult of first Indian war of liberation. After a custody-life of 13 months the ex-king was finally set free, and was conferred a monthly stipend of rupees one lakhs – a settlement which was inevitable to happen and the king could not deny.  A twirl of destiny had changed his path and taken him away from luxury to austerity.  King Wajid Ali Shah purchased a large riverside estate at Matiya Burz in the southeastern fringe of Calcutta. Step by step an extension of the Nawabi Lucknow concluded in a remote corner of Calcutta.

 

Wajid Ali Shah's most popular thumris turned out to be one of the saddest and sweetest of parting songs. In the Durbar of Matiya Burz, the Nawab sung his own songs with great devotion and patriotism. With his songs the Nawab had his soul and mind drifted back to his beloved Lucknow. He sat mute for a moment and tears ran down his face. The Durbar Hall of Matiya Burz was studded with eminent musicians and music personalities of Calcutta assembled to cherish the archetypical style of Lucknowi thumri and kathak composed by Wajid Ali Shah. The great dhrupad exponents of Bishnupuri gharana - Jadunath Bhattacharya popularly known as Jadu Bhatta, and Aghore Nath Chakravarty, were aficionados of the Nawab’s durbari thumri at Matiya Burj.  Pandit Jadu Bhatta was the music-guru of Rabindra Nath Tagore and a resident of Thakurbari at Jorasanko for sometimes.

 

Sitar maestro – Sajjad Muhammad, the adept son of sitarist Ghulam Muhammad Khan was a regular visitor of Wajid Ali’s court. He was the court player of Maharaja Jyotindra Mohan Tagore  - the elder brother of Raja Sourindra Mohan Tagore of Pathuriaghata. Among several other musicians of Calcutta to visit Matiya Burz, Murad Ali Khan was one. The renowned North Indian vocalist of Tilwandi gharana was a long time resident of Calcutta and the music guru of Aghore Nath Chakravarty.

 

Initially alluded to as a raga rather than a genre, thumri is believed to have originated in the nineteenth century court of Wajid Ali Shah. Thumri developed after Kheyal. Perhaps the rigor of the musical rules, though more facile than Drupad, was found less supple to the more imaginative singers who further wanted to break the shackles. Thumri as a genre - as what we find today - was born in Lucknow and spread far and wide in the country and Wajid Ali Shah is ascribed as the father of present day genre of Thumri. Wajid Ali himself was an adept composer of light classical thumri under his penname, Äkhtar Piya”.

 

Unlike classical dance, Bengal perceived the taste of classical music long before the sojourn of Wajid Ali Shah.  A dhrupad style of Bengali classical music famed as Bishnupur Gharana had its debut in the court of Malla King Raghunath Singh Deo II of Bishnupur between 1702 and 1712. Still, the sojourn of Wajid Ali Shah in Calcutta and the pouring down of musicians from his erstwhile kingdom is a landmark in the musical history of Bengal. From that date Bengal got the taste of pure north Indian classical gharana. Thumri was implanted in Calcutta by the Nawab and genre soon percolated from the Zamindars to the womenfolk of the city’s red-light area.   A new generation of musician and great talented singers was born in Calcutta who contributed to the further refinement of Thumri. Lucknow never emboldened pure classical music; rather it bolstered a variety of light classical styles and made them popular all throughout the country. The lighter style of Thumri was much applauded in the music world of Bengal than the abstruse Kheyal and dhrupad.  And in Calcutta too, Thumri went hand in hand with Kathak. 

 

Nineteenth century colonial Bengal witnessed a grand era of British Orientalism and Bengal Renaissance that begun in the ferment of European ideas and Oriental education movement. The city boasted a Europeanized intelligentsia, well conversant with the western updates and responded favorably to the European culture in brining forth an enlightening renaissance in Bengal. Yet it was precisely a Hindu dominant awakening. Muslim traditional ethos and sensitivities did not touch the arch of Bengal intelligentsia of nineteenth century; rather they preferred to stand outside as an external proletariat. The Bengali Bhadraloke (elite folklore) deeply engrossed in western mores, circumscribed a prominent realm of their own, and kept the traditional Muslim aspiration away from its fold.  King Wajid Ali Shah, the proponent of traditional Orientalism and ethos, suddenly found himself outside the orbit of the Bengali intelligentsia.

 

The memories of Lucknow were fading fast. The ripple of Hoogly had entwined his heart with deep and enduring bonds. The water of Gomti and Hoogly bore testimony to the flow of King’s life. Calcutta was new to him and too the culture of Bengal. When the giant shadow of Anglicism was looming large in the horizon of Calcutta, King Wajid Ali Shah, with his unwavering and yet unquenched fervor of traditionalism, went adrift boisterously exemplifying his Mughal durbar in a remote corner of Calcutta. Matiya Burz had replaced Lucknow in his heart.

 

There was the same bustle of activities, same language spoken, same style of poetry, same conversation, same wit, same cock-fighting and opium. The opulence of Lucknow could never be matched with the novelty of Matiya Burz. Still then peace prevailed in the enforced solitude. The British assimilated his kingdom but could not stifle his songs or snatch his pen. Prudence urged him to accept his destiny. And a new life unfolded.

 

Wajid Ali lost his kingdom but regained his intellectual ecstasy in Calcutta and nurtured within himself layers and layers of dreams. The hurdle of religious orthodoxy stumbled before Wajid Ali Shah’s fervour in oriental music. The King had realized that in order to cherish the essence of Hindustani art, one must gain to understanding the fundamentals of Hindu culture and mythology treasured down the age. Lord Krishna became his role model. Wajid Ali Shah discovered within himself, the archetypal romantic image of Krishna with his tenderness and mesmerizing beauty to enflame the desire of the individual soul for union. Krishna’s romance with his Gopis (female devotees) in a full-moon night on the bank of Jamuna was a perennial theme of inspiration to Wajid Ali Shah. The divine sport of Raas leela once enacted by Krishna, metamorphosed into Rahas in Lucknow and later in Calcutta. Wajid Ali’s Rahas was a kind of opera with a perfect blend of dance from Braj region depicting mystic life of Krishna, and kathak of his own composition.

 

Wajid Ali Shah’s fervent appetite for good music, dance and women continued with equal diligence during his sojourn in Calcutta.  Matiya Burz emerged as an edifying hub for the music connoisseurs. Wajid Ali made full use of his womenfolk to compose nearly twenty dancing troupes in Matiya Burz and named them Radhamanjilwali, Jhumurwali, Latkanwali, Sharda Manzilwali, Nathwali, Ghunghatwali, Raswali, Nakalwali and so on. From the details available in Bani ( 1875), it is evident that Radha Kanhaiya ka Kissa was staged regularly at Matiya Burz since 1861

Although Bengali stage-art made its debut in the mansion of Calcutta Theatre as early as 1795, during its infancy the genre of Bengali theatre was more Europeanized than Indian, unlike that of Hindustani Theatre played in the durbar of Wajid Ali Shah.

 

The Bengali bhadralok lived a dual existence under the colonial sky of Calcutta. The fervent espousal of the European ethos was no hindrance to intensify passion for classical dance. The Zamindars of Calcutta - embellished in their best feathers, learnt to cherish the kernel of North Indian classical gharans in the early nineteenth century. However, what was seriously missing in the majlis, came into being after the banished king settled in Calcutta. A stream of classical dance gharana, hitherto unfamiliar to Calcuttans, began to pour forth in the court of Bengali riches. Kathak provided the quintessential vigor of Lucknowi gharana and that had whetted the appetite of Bengali intelligentsias.  

 

Although unfamiliar but the taste of Lucknowi gharana was not unknown to the elites of Calcuttans before Wajid Ali Shah set his foot in. Dancers from Muslim family, having north Indian linage specially acquainted with Lucknow gharana, held an exalted position in the court of the Bengali baboos.   They were called baijees while the British branded them as nautch girls. Nevertheless, the babu-baijee culture, which was once fostered by the Calcuttan elites, alluded to an extravagant and envious pursuit rather than a truthful attempt to cultivate the quintessence of a performing art.  Its professional contributors - the nautch girls - were exploited by their Bengali sponsors to captivate the Europeans by their seductive charm.

 

Truly speaking, the tradition of Lucknow gharana was largely preserved and nurtured in the dark alleyways of Lucknow since its heyday. If the exponents of dance and music in the court of Wajid Ali Shah went on to win laurels after laurels, it was the tawaifs living in the Kothas of obscurity embellished their creation and fostered the art from being lost in oblivion. Tawaifs were courtesans but were not bazaari nautchwaalis or khemtawalis who capitalized on their vulgar dance and seductive body language.   The classical line of performing art remained in the firm clutches of the upper echelons of Calcutta where tawaifs were not rebuffed. In the labyrinthine lanes and alleyways of Bowbazar and Chitpore in old Calcutta, the sounds of ghungur reverberated and the air was full of melody. Kathak found its way from Lucknow to Calcutta. The rich patrons of Calcutta arranged big musical assemblages or soirees in the mansions of the Tagores of Jorashanko and Pathurighata, Debs of Shobhabazar, Mallicks of Sindurpatti, Nandis of Cossimbazar Rajbari, where the tawaifs of Lucknow evoked much ardency and excitement.  Patronage of Lucknow gharana in Calcutta was given a new thrust when Wajid Ali Shah settled in the city with a bevy of baijees brought from Lucknow. . Perhaps, Wajid Ali Shah was unaware of the socio-cultural locus of his contemporary Calcutta. In reality, before the Nawab set foot, dancing in Calcutta was confined within the abodes of women dancers of lower orders called Khemta-walis whose voluptuous movements of hip and flashing of limbs were in perceivable contrast with the classical dance of Lucknow The Durbar Hall of Matiya Burz beheld great musical assemblage of maestros and exponents of classical dance and music.  Music-lovers of Calcutta gathered to hear Wajid Ali Shah sing his favourite Lucknowi thumris, and to get a marvelous glimpse of his Kathak dance. The Durbar was lavishly adorned to incite the old memories of Lucknow Baradari.

 
Once in 1867 during Holi, the Nawab danced himself in the attire of a nautch girl. The rare moment was witnessed by connoisseurs of Calcutta’s music circle like Aghore Nath Chakrborty, Sajjad Mohammad and other honoured guests gathered in his Durbar Hall. It was an unforgettable evening. The Nawab also sang and the ecstasy was springing out of his vocal chords.

 

The decline of Delhi and Lucknow empires abated the patronage of the old aristocrats, which led to emigration of the nautch girls to Benaras and largely to Calcutta. A new breed of courtesans adept in kathak and thumri marked their exquisite presence mainly on Chitpore Road and adjacent streets and by-lanes, receiving guests of every caste and creed. The skills cultivated by them from the shaded areas in the course of traditional trade were incredible.

 

In the Durbar of Matiya Burz, the dancers were born for the sake of art. Prostitution was forbidden. The Nawab had no fascination to keep mistresses, but had an uncanny fervor to nurture the art of Kathak and Thumri amidst his dancers and singers - many of them being adored as his mutá wives.

 

 

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At the turn of the last century, on a day in early spring, an assembly of the elites of Calcutta drew full house to the Hall of the Indian Association. The eminents had turned up to listen to the invigorating speech of an overseas guest from Japan. The gentleman, dressed in a black silk kimono, was a riveting orator. He was introduced to the august gathering by Sister Nivedita, as a professor and critic of traditional Japanese art.  

Kakuzo Okakura, as his name goes, came to India to meet Vivekananda. Okakura was a stark believer of spiritual union of the Asians as a whole and a sympathiser of India’s liberation from  British supremacy. Nivedita was a pen friend of Okakura since she was introduced to him by a common friend and her American fellow-disciple, Josephine MacLeod. Okakura’s political rhetoric and his radical thinking of oriental unification against westernisation impressed the intellectual audience.  The Japanese speaker threw up a veritable question to the Calcuttan elites, “You are such a highly cultivated race. Why did you let a handful of Englishmen tread you down? Do everything to achieve freedom, openly and well secretly. Japan will assist you”. On a later occasion Okakura made clear of the meaning of “secretly” and explained that, “political assassinations and secret societies are the chief weapons of a powerless and disarmed people, who seek their emancipation from political ills”.  

Bengal has always played a special role during watershed years in the colonial past. The battle of Plassey in 1757 provided the colonial lords with a firm foothold on Indian soil and 1857 was the year of the first Indian uprising. While both the events took place and sparked within the geographical boundary of Bengal, the archetypal Bengali bhadralok could hardly claim a role in the pages of history. The protagonists standing face to face in the mango-orchard of Plassey were neither Bengali nor belonged to a pure Indian stock. In 1857 too, the sepoy whose bullet popped out from the musket to kindle the fire of rebellion in the country, was also not a Bengali. No matter how the events sensitised the future trajectory, the Bengali Hindu gentries opted to live a docile existence under colonial sky. The victory of Robert Clive not only sown the seeds of the British Empire on Indian soil but also espoused the rise of a genre called Bengali bhadralok who remained happily ever subservient to the whites till the end of British occupation. The opulent zamindar of Calcutta,Raja Nabakrishna Deb, commemorated Clive’s victory by organising Durga puja in his palace, which he boastfully had referred to as “company’s puja”. Needless to say, loyalties and subservience also paid dividends.  On to 1857, when the colonial interlopers were almost on the verge of being thrown out from different parts of the country, the Bengali bhadralok frothed at their mouths to drum up support for the brighter side of British reign and how it would save the Hindu culture and civilization from the oppressive Muslim infidels. The same Bengali bhadraloks who were trying to spread their wings in the western sky and rubbing shoulders with the European elites, turned a blind eye to the nationwide political stir which was brewing against the Raj in the later decade of the nineteenth century.

But Bengal once again came under the spotlight. It was the same archetypal Bengali bhadraloks, who were known to the progressive-minded jingoists as compradors of their white masters, suddenly took a turn.  Bengal and the same Bengali bhadraloks featured a dual existence in colonial history and strongly espoused militancy in nationalism which was never thought of.  The faithful sycophants overnight turned into “terrorists’ in the eyes of the British masters. It was not just a happenstance, but the upshot of a cogent deliberation of two pathfinders who took the plunge because of their natural abhorrence against the British. Yet again, the pathfinders were neither Bengali nor belonged to any Indian race.  One was the Irish disciple of Swami Vivekananda whose hermitage-name was Sister Nivedita, and the other one was a Japanese art connoisseur - Kakuzo Okakura who came to India to meet the monk. Both had two common interests – Swami Vivekananda and India’s liberation from British yoke.

Okakura’s discourse at Indian Association Hall was graced by some notable Bengali gentries at the behest of Nivedita, whose mere presence in the audience could inspire a sweeping change. Nivedita introduced them to Okakura. Amongst them was Surendranath Tagore whom Okakura met on a previous occasion.  Suren babu was the nephew of Rabindranath. Others were Pramathanath Mitra – an influential barrister and a burly looking gentleman whose four successive attempts to organise a revolutionary society in Bengal failed; and Rabindranath’s niece,Saralabala Ghoshal, who was the daughter of a Congress secretary Janaki Ghoshal. The trio, along with Nivedita, would be known in the history as pioneers of revolutionary terrorism in India. The seed was sown in the Indian Association Hall and Mitra was assigned to head a network of secret societies, which would soon be brought up in the disguise of fitness centres. Incidentally Mitra was approached by one Satish Chandra Basu, a devotee of Nivedita and Vivekananda, who opened a gymnastic club in the name of Anushilan Samiti at Madan Mohan Lane for physical fitness and practising the art of self-defence using cane sticks. The name Anushilan Samiti was coined by one Narendra Nath Bhattacharya, who later metamorphosed into M. N. Roy, the founder of the Communist Party of India. Saralabala Ghoshal made the “Lathi khela” (as the martial art was known by) popular and she was encouraged and sponsored by P. Mitra with the idea to keep the youth physically active for militancy for a national cause. Mitra’s acceptance of Satish’s proposal was a stepping-stone towards building a revolutionary organisation in Bengal.

Mitra’s dream came true when Aurobindo Ghose made an attempt from Baroda to organise secret societies in Bengal and sent his envoy, Jatindranath Bandhopadhyay, to Saralabala. Jatin, meanwhile, opened an office in Upper Circular Road and started recruiting young aspirants to form secret societies in disguise of gymnastic clubs. Jatin came in contact with Mitra and merged his office with Anushilan Samity’s arkra in Madan Mohan Lane. The secret society networking finally brought Nivedita, Mitra and Aurobindo into a single lane. The ball was set rolling by Okakura in the Indian Association Hall, which finally ended up in forming the Bengal Revolutionary Society under Barrister Mitra.  An active member of Mitra’s Bengal Revolutionary Society was Bhupendranath Datta – the younger brother of Vivekananda and a youth full of radical sensibilities.

The seed of militancy was sown in Bengal explicitly by the crème de la crème of Calcutta, Sister Nivedita being the earliest proponent, and led the armed insurrection to a conspicuous level. Other exponents were Saralabala Ghoshal, Barrister P.Mitra and Bhupendranath Datta. Several secret societies in the disguise of physical training mushroomed all over ndivided Bengal. Sarala’s own gymnasium at her residence at 26 Ballygunge Circular Road was virtually a fencing club where youths were trained to wield swords and daggers. Sarala engaged at her cost a Muslim trainer named Murtaza to coach the boys[1]. Rabindranath’s most favourite niece was the first to hit the bull’s eye and vowed to erase the stigma that the Bengalis were cowards. Dogs have teeth, cats have talons, even insects have a sting, and they all retaliate when attacked. Only Bengalis do not; when they repeatedly hit they do not return even a single blow. Why are they such poor specimens of humanity? Why are they so week?” Sarala goes on. “Possession of a weapon does not necessarily rid one of pusillanimity, but with appropriate skill in use of weapon, one knows where to his an adversary, not to kill him, but stun him. One can be charged of injuring a person, and not accused of murder”[2].

Sarala’s mental makeup was not unknown to Rabindranath; rather she inherited her militant nationalism directly from her culturally versatile maternal house. Janakinath Ghoshal was a Congressman of moderate breed.  The poet’s immediate elder brother Jyotirindranath founded a secret society called Sanjibani Sabha with Rajnarain Basu (grandfather of Aurobindo) in the line of Italian revolutionist Mazzini's Carbonari[3], which aimed towards political liberation of India. Young Rabindranath, who followed his elder brother intuitively, was a member of the secret society. The Sabha ‘held its sittings in a tumbledown building in an obscure Calcutta lane’, recalled Rabindranath in his memoir. The Tagores’ family magazine, Bharati, which was edited by the Tagores, gave Sarala a platform to write inflammatory articles on India’s liberation on extremist lines. “I started writing for Bharati and converted it into combative organ”.  Sarala’s autobiography further reads, “During my editorship of Bharati, it was not an organ of just literary and fine arts; it was also the mouthpiece of nationalistic evangelism”[4]. Sarala used her pen to evoke militant nationalism amongst the Bengali youths and invigorated them to retaliate against the tyrannical whites. Although Rabindranath censured extremism in Indian politics, he was somewhat charmed by his sister’s daughter and could not put aside her inflammatory writings from being published in his family’s literary periodical.

Sarala first met Vivekananda on the riverbank of Belur Math probably in the end of 1898. The monk was addressing his American disciples Sara Bull and Miss Josephine MacLeod – both dressed in black Japanese kimono. Sarala came with her cousin Surendranath and Nivedita introduced both to Vivekananda.  With all her progressive sensitivities Sarala discovered herself amidst a group of notables whose more pertinent identities nudged her progressive jingoism. Was that a happenstance? Ole (Sara) Bull the widow of a world-renowned Norwegian violist was an activist in Norwegian movement for independence. It was Mrs Bull who first introduced Nivedita with the leading Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin and through Mrs Bull Kropotkin maintained contacts with the Indian revolutionists[5].  Nivedita met Kropotkin twice in London and was in close touch till her last. Kropotkin also acknowledged Miss MacLeod as his good friend in a letter dated July 1907. Swamiji’s brother Bhupendranath Datta claims that he was introduced to Kropotkin by his common friend Mrs. Ole Bull in August 1900.[6]   Miss Josephine MacLeod was a great sympathiser of the Indian cause for independence and sponsored many secret revolutionary circles through Nivedita. She regularly donated funds to import arms to organise armed revolution in India[7]. She maintained close contacts with Okakura since her first meet in Japan. Miss MacLeod introduced Okakura to Nivedita and insisted the Japanese revolutionist to pay a visit to Kolkata.   

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[1] Chaudhurani, Sarala Devi, The Many Worlds of Sarala Devi: A Diary : Translated from the Bengali Jeevaner Jharapata, Socila Scince Press, 2010, page 148

[2] Chaudhurani, Sarala Devi, The Many Worlds of Sarala Devi: A Diary: Translated from the Bengali Jeevaner Jharapata, Socilal Science Press, 2010, page 149

[3] Carbonari or ‘charcol burners’ in Italian dialectics, means secret societies.

[4] Chaudhurani, Sarala Devi, The Many Worlds of Sarala Devi: A Diary: Translated from the Bengali Jeevaner Jharapata, Socilal Science Press, 2010, page 169

[5] Datta. Bhupendra  - Swami Vivekananda – Patriot-Prophet, Nababharat Publisher 1954, page 119

[6] Stavig, Gopal - Western Admirers of Ramakrishna and His Disciples, Advaita Ashrama, 2010, page 490.

[7] Basu, Sankari Prasad - Nivedita Lokmata, Publisher Ananda Publishers Pvt. Limited, 1968, vol 3 page 95

The Nitpicker’s Chronicle : Flip side story of Indian national movement

From time immemorial, India has been blessed with personalities who have not only left an indelible mark on its culture but also shaped its character. India is known to the world through the eyes of great pathfinders, and their wisdom in building up the modern nation is unanimously accepted. On the critical analysis of their views, one can find certain divergences, which in true sense, might be logical in the preceding circumstances. Although conflicting, the views are genuine and expressed with great solemnity.

The path of freedom, since the colonial days, encountered successive seismic waves before reaching the final destination in 1947. Controversies prevailed in the national politics during that time, and the nation was put to occasional strains of contradictions. As lines were drawn to delineate political controversies, positions became more polarised. The trailblazers strived to build up more rhetoric ideologies to put forth their rationale. The dichotomy that prevailed at that time can tell how the nation reached its destiny. Nitpickers might quibble that if the great men of yore were so great, why did they fail to build a great nation? How could the evils of religious bigotry occupy an enduring place in the heart of the nation when the great men decided to bisect the country on communal lines only to build India as a secular republic where religiosity would have no place in the statecraft? No wonder the great men fought a tough battle to break the shackles of subservience. They were great thinkers too. Traditionally India is hallowed by great thinkers, known not only for their sagacity but also their relevance in today’s world. The depth and diversity of their thoughts and the spectrum of issues they debated on, earned them a unique distinction worldwide.

About half a century before independence, in the era of nationalism and struggle against the colonial hegemony, Indian politics was flooded with ideas of great visionaries on subjects elucidating what India was and what she could or should be in the days ahead. Some of them were attracted to the Western models, while others relied upon the traditional culture and religion. Few expressed confidence on the British administration. The divergence of opinion owing to political ideologies of the political class was not new, rather expected. India is a land of diversity where lived seven times more people than those in His Majesty’s own country at the turn of the last century. There have been divisions on the grounds of religion, caste, creed, faith, custom, gender, colour and language. There was a time when leaders were indecisive and there were divergences of opinion on democracy, secularism, freedom of speech, solidarity, justice, stand on the princely states and, lastly, the inevitable partition of the country. Directions were many, including swaraj, ahimsa, satyagraha, terrorism, non-cooperation, poorna-swaraj and even declaration of war against the Crown. Despite their dissimilitude, the propounders had the same goal, which was to achieve freedom. But the conflicts of thoughts and egotism did not disappear; in fact, they multiplied, which further led to the fraction of the leading parties like the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League and that too many a time on the verge of attaining freedom. 

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