"In Italy, for thirty years they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonard da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, they had some 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock!" - Harry Lime played by Orson Welles in the film The Third Man.
It was during one of those emotive and highly tensed months this year. The news of children allegedly kidnapped by militant outfits for using them in armed conflict gripped the attention of people not only in Manipur but also the international community. While everyone was concerned about what was happening to Manipur and a sense of despair hung like a gigantic cobweb over our heads, I got a call from one of my friends, an alumnus of the National School of Drama, New Delhi. She asked me when I would be able to come and be part of a continuing workshop she was organising on the theatrical form and content of Manipuri Gostha and Goura Lila in July.
Some months back, I had requested her to invite me for the workshop and the final production. She did not forget my request and here I was trying to dish out an alibi for not making it to the workshop. Besides the telephonic invitation, she also told me about innumerable hardship she had to endure for mounting theatre productions in rural areas, how she would drop young members of her repertory home late in the night after rehearsals and how she encountered inquisitive patrolling armed security forces on her way back home. Deep within, I longed to be part of the experience and recover childhood memories of attending numerous Shumang Lilas, Ras Lilas and intermittent Goura Lila performances. Days passed by and I kept asking myself, what is that makes an average Manipuri so passionate about their performing arts, literature and sports.
I recall a senior colleague of mine telling me that he was once asked by a top Delhi based political psychologist and cultural theorist a similar question. Just as my senior colleague was sharing his views, the political psychologist interrupted and said that in a civilisation order, it is quite common to have a genius every one or two generation, but Manipur has two geniuses in one generation. He was primarily referring to Ratan Thiyam and Heisnam Kanhailal and their brilliant approaches to Experimental Theatre. Having seen and scrutinised the two great theatre personalities' work and leaving little space for conjecture, this cultural theorist concluded that this phenomenon can only occur in a social set-up that has experienced a high, dynamic yet stable and complex civilisational arrangement.
When we talk of a stable and complex civilisational order, it is easier for us to mentally construct a socio-political structure which was/is conducive to the birth of creative ideas that reflected the same. This does not mean that the best of art productions are incubated and hatched only in times of political peace and stability. For the last few decades, political analysts have rather been intimidated if not intrigued by Manipur's socio-political fate. The everydayness of violence and bloodshed has left its indentation on the individual mind and soul. But this has not been able to stop us from executing our creative endeavour.
The quote in the beginning of this write-up is from the lines spoken by the character Harry Lime ably enacted by Orson Welles in the film The Third Man. Welles interpolated these lines into the screenplay originally crafted by Graham Greene in 1949. These lines from the film was effectively used by Roy Shaw, a former British Secretary-General of the Arts Council in his book The Arts and the People (1987) while sharing his thoughts on democracy and excellence in arts. In the same book Shaw argues that the glories of the Renaissance were "produced not because of, but in spite of" bloodshed, social and political turmoil. He goes on to put forth his view that art can flourish and made widely accessible to people in a working modern democracy supported by institutions. Taking the example of Britain, Shaw also argues that there are state policies which threaten the quality of our "cultural life" I do not think any perspicacious citizen would disagree with Shaw's contention notwithstanding his another believe that there are aspects to intellectual climate, quite distinct from "state policies" that may be hostile to producing excellence in arts and culture.
Now, how do we make sense of the passion and appetite for arts in Manipur? Is there any other way of understanding the phenomenon? Do our great writers, playwrights, directors, theatre personalities and dancers possess common latent elements which are capable of leading into the production of a distinctive unified artistic civilization? Taking a cursory look at the qualitative contents of works of performing arts in Manipur, I would choose to contend with the perspective that most literary and cultural products are churned out of the lived-world experience of the people. Moreover, there definitely is a latent connection that links the works of our great theatre personalities like the late G C Tongbra, Ratan Thiyam and Heisnam Kanhailal whose seminal works I am familiar with. Whether or not, the great creative minds have survived due to the benign patronage of the central or state governments, is a question that needs to be analysed and answered.
However, one has to understand that it is not just the quintessential spirit of the individual which is manifest in their works but also the fount of all their creative expressions which is deeply rooted in the same social, economic and political conditions in a given locale. In an amorphous socio-political structure, can their sensibilities outgrow the decadent politics so widely prevalent? Well, beyond the functional role of artistic compendia or creative cultural products, we are still trying to find an answer. In a peaceful stable modern democratic set up, the state may aid in the production of art works and fulfil the appetite for creative individuals. Nevertheless, this contention does not erase the historicity of hundreds of other artistes who possess the appetite for arts and also draw their sustenance from popular support least caring whether or not they have institutional support. And also like Bertrand Russell, it is all the more better if one argues that a stable social system is necessary but every social system devised had at some point of time impeded the growth of "exceptional artistic or intellectual merit".
Published in HUEIYEN LANPAO, English Daily, Dated 21 September, 2008, Page 4.
It was during one of those emotive and highly tensed months this year. The news of children allegedly kidnapped by militant outfits for using them in armed conflict gripped the attention of people not only in Manipur but also the international community. While everyone was concerned about what was happening to Manipur and a sense of despair hung like a gigantic cobweb over our heads, I got a call from one of my friends, an alumnus of the National School of Drama, New Delhi. She asked me when I would be able to come and be part of a continuing workshop she was organising on the theatrical form and content of Manipuri Gostha and Goura Lila in July.
Some months back, I had requested her to invite me for the workshop and the final production. She did not forget my request and here I was trying to dish out an alibi for not making it to the workshop. Besides the telephonic invitation, she also told me about innumerable hardship she had to endure for mounting theatre productions in rural areas, how she would drop young members of her repertory home late in the night after rehearsals and how she encountered inquisitive patrolling armed security forces on her way back home. Deep within, I longed to be part of the experience and recover childhood memories of attending numerous Shumang Lilas, Ras Lilas and intermittent Goura Lila performances. Days passed by and I kept asking myself, what is that makes an average Manipuri so passionate about their performing arts, literature and sports.
I recall a senior colleague of mine telling me that he was once asked by a top Delhi based political psychologist and cultural theorist a similar question. Just as my senior colleague was sharing his views, the political psychologist interrupted and said that in a civilisation order, it is quite common to have a genius every one or two generation, but Manipur has two geniuses in one generation. He was primarily referring to Ratan Thiyam and Heisnam Kanhailal and their brilliant approaches to Experimental Theatre. Having seen and scrutinised the two great theatre personalities' work and leaving little space for conjecture, this cultural theorist concluded that this phenomenon can only occur in a social set-up that has experienced a high, dynamic yet stable and complex civilisational arrangement.
When we talk of a stable and complex civilisational order, it is easier for us to mentally construct a socio-political structure which was/is conducive to the birth of creative ideas that reflected the same. This does not mean that the best of art productions are incubated and hatched only in times of political peace and stability. For the last few decades, political analysts have rather been intimidated if not intrigued by Manipur's socio-political fate. The everydayness of violence and bloodshed has left its indentation on the individual mind and soul. But this has not been able to stop us from executing our creative endeavour.
The quote in the beginning of this write-up is from the lines spoken by the character Harry Lime ably enacted by Orson Welles in the film The Third Man. Welles interpolated these lines into the screenplay originally crafted by Graham Greene in 1949. These lines from the film was effectively used by Roy Shaw, a former British Secretary-General of the Arts Council in his book The Arts and the People (1987) while sharing his thoughts on democracy and excellence in arts. In the same book Shaw argues that the glories of the Renaissance were "produced not because of, but in spite of" bloodshed, social and political turmoil. He goes on to put forth his view that art can flourish and made widely accessible to people in a working modern democracy supported by institutions. Taking the example of Britain, Shaw also argues that there are state policies which threaten the quality of our "cultural life" I do not think any perspicacious citizen would disagree with Shaw's contention notwithstanding his another believe that there are aspects to intellectual climate, quite distinct from "state policies" that may be hostile to producing excellence in arts and culture.
Now, how do we make sense of the passion and appetite for arts in Manipur? Is there any other way of understanding the phenomenon? Do our great writers, playwrights, directors, theatre personalities and dancers possess common latent elements which are capable of leading into the production of a distinctive unified artistic civilization? Taking a cursory look at the qualitative contents of works of performing arts in Manipur, I would choose to contend with the perspective that most literary and cultural products are churned out of the lived-world experience of the people. Moreover, there definitely is a latent connection that links the works of our great theatre personalities like the late G C Tongbra, Ratan Thiyam and Heisnam Kanhailal whose seminal works I am familiar with. Whether or not, the great creative minds have survived due to the benign patronage of the central or state governments, is a question that needs to be analysed and answered.
However, one has to understand that it is not just the quintessential spirit of the individual which is manifest in their works but also the fount of all their creative expressions which is deeply rooted in the same social, economic and political conditions in a given locale. In an amorphous socio-political structure, can their sensibilities outgrow the decadent politics so widely prevalent? Well, beyond the functional role of artistic compendia or creative cultural products, we are still trying to find an answer. In a peaceful stable modern democratic set up, the state may aid in the production of art works and fulfil the appetite for creative individuals. Nevertheless, this contention does not erase the historicity of hundreds of other artistes who possess the appetite for arts and also draw their sustenance from popular support least caring whether or not they have institutional support. And also like Bertrand Russell, it is all the more better if one argues that a stable social system is necessary but every social system devised had at some point of time impeded the growth of "exceptional artistic or intellectual merit".
Published in HUEIYEN LANPAO, English Daily, Dated 21 September, 2008, Page 4.
