Tagore wrote perceptively: The weighing scales of the shopkeeper reappeared as the royal sceptre once the night was over... The poet's allusion was to the ignominious Battle of Plassey (Palashi, in Bengali), waged near the then capital Murshidabad in 1757 between the Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal, and the British East India Company, and led by Colonel Robert Clive and Admiral Watson. The British, worried about being outnumbered, formed a conspiracy with Siraj-ud-Daulah's demoted army chief Mir Jafar, along with others such as Jagat Seths (Mahtab Chand and Swarup Chand), Umichand, Rai Ballav, Rai Durlabh and others. The conspirators assembled their troops near the battlefield but made no move to actually join the battle. Siraj-ud-Daulah's army with 50,000 soldiers, 40 cannons and 10 war elephants was defeated by 3,000 soldiers of Robert Clive, owing to the flight of the Nawab from the battlefield and the inactivity of the conspirators.Judged to be one of the pivotal battles for the control of Indian subcontinent by the colonial powers, the battle - lasting only 11 hours on a hot June day -- paved the way for the British to wield enormous influence over the Nawab and consequently acquired significant compensations for previous losses and fresh revenue from trade. The British further used the money to increase their military might and push the other European colonial powers such as the Dutch and the French out of South Asia, thus leading to the eventual rise of the British Empire. Mir Jafar, presented on September 25 in Kolkata by Kalindi Bratyajon, recapitulated on a grand scale the turbulent time period ranging from four months after that historic battle in 1757 till the year 1764, just before the battle of Buxar, waged by Mir Kasim as one final effort to dislodge the usurping British traders, but to be decisively quashed by the latter. In the play, the murky annals of Bengal were played out almost like a fantasia: as a sequence of real or imaginary images quite often like that seen in a dream.
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Was the last column clairvoyant? Just about fifteen days after I wrote the "Me too in Dance" column, formally tilted"#TimesUp", and It is Your Time Now: Why the dance world needs to think about #MeToo", inspired by the #MeToo exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum at Toronto, the #MeToo broke out in India, first with Tanushree Dutta's outing of Nana Patekar, icon of regional pride, and then the outing of Minister of State for External Affairs, M. J. Akbar's toxic abuse of his editorial power, through acts of sexual harassment, by no less than twenty women journalists.
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Reams have been written about the legendary Odissi Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, who was one of the key figures in the Jayantika Movement of the 1950s, that was instrumental in getting classical dance status for Odissi, as a major classical dance style of India. His son Ratikant Mohapatra, Director, Srjan, who is diligently carrying forward his father’s legacy, pays his tribute in his own special way. The pictorial tribute DANCING INTO ETERNITY - AN ENDEARING VIEW OF HIS MULTIFACETED LIFE AND WORK: GURU KELUCHARAN MOHAPATRA published by Ratikant Mohapatra, was formally released on September 9, 2018 at Bhubaneswar on the final day of the Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Award Festival.
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By fortuitous circumstances and also because of serendipity, call it just luck, to be at the right place at the right time, I have been able to cherish so many moments of my career as a dance critic, researcher and a writer. Among them, one is of inauguration of Natarani open air theatre at Ahmedabad many years ago as a tribute to that legendary diva, Mrinalini Sarabhai. The performing arts scene since then in Ahmedabad has changed so much.
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Is the spinning earth spinning out of control with its overload of human problems? Large segments of humanity, swathed and overwhelmed under depraved conditions -- without any fault of theirs -- are virtually beggars at the doors of the more fortunate and the affluent. At the other end, is the gap between the world of artistic expression and this horrific social reality of today's world becoming an over-widening chasm? Is our artistic reaction to our times aimed at all towards interpreting the ever-widening divisions created by hate and greed, through art's message of peace and harmony? Can Indian classical dance, in particular, play a role -- as was poignantly asked by the dance connoisseur Anita Ratnam, in one of her recent perceptive comments -- beyond depicting endlessly the images and icons to the tunes of the ethereal song, Krishna ni begane baro...?Sangam presented on September 29 in Bhubaneswar by Art Vision, took up this challenge. ....
Artha Shringara directed by Sandhya Purecha, followed as another highly innovative item, derived from her research on theory and practice of Kalasa Karana and Sthanaka-Mandala Bheda.....
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The #MeToo movement showing the darker side of many, from the worlds of cinema, arts, publishing etc., also brings to light the complete non-existence of a redressal machinery whatsoever, in these sectors.The implementation of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, and the earlier 1997 Vishakha guidelines, has seen most of us bureaucrats, serve on these Committees, conduct detailed enquiries leading indicting many, and recommending to the administration various degrees of punishment, even as we also sifted through many false allegations. These Committees are taken very seriously and over the years, this robust system has emerged as a powerful deterrent factor, making the Government workplace much safer, as has a strong and empowered HR, for Corporate enterprises.
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