Art in the time of war

Is Shiv Sena's demand that Dilip Kumar return the Nishan-e-Imtiyaz to Pakistan to demonstrate his patriotism just another one of those we...

Is Shiv Sena’s demand that Dilip Kumar return the Nishan-e-Imtiyaz to Pakistan to demonstrate his patriotism just another one of those well-known arm-twisting tactics that Shiv Sena and other like-minded right-wingers adopt at the slightest excuse? Or has something seriously gone wrong in the relationship between art and politics, and more so between artists and politicians, on the national scene? One expects a stock response of contempt for Shiv Sena from the left-wingers such as Shabana Azmi, not only a good actress but an MP. But when the playwright Vijay Tendulkar is reported (I hope wrongly) to have advised the great old thespian to rebuke Pakistan by returning the honour, and the actor is forced to seek, call it mediation, intervention or advice of the Prime Minister, one begins to wonder if the nation has not lost sight of what art and artists are supposed to be.

It is amusing to see that for the artists and intellectuals, with some exceptions, last year the wind was blowing fiercely in the pacifistdirection, particularly after the Pokharan blasts. Artistic correctness seemed to demand that there should be a strong hypothetical condemnation of war at least, if not of the atomic detonations. The candle-holding artists in a night march was the paradigm of art for peace. Nobody last year mentioned that Socrates was a soldier and Aeschylus and Sophocles fought at Salamis, Mansingh Tomar was a regular veteran and so were Akbar and Jahangir the great patrons of art. One of our international prize-winners declared herself to be a “sovereign state” over and above all national commitments. It is difficult to believe that artistic observations overlooked the Pakistani activities then. Terrorist infiltration is two-decade old. Or were there no observations but only the clamour on the bandwagon? If so, is it any different now? Is the show of patriotism again not a fashionable volt-face?

The truth of the matter is that the intellectual and creative people in India have forgotten to keep a measured distance fromthe partisan aspects of subcontinental events. They have mostly ceased to even differentiate between a work of art and the individual as the artist. The Saleem of Mughal-e-Azam is the creation that merited Nishan-E-Imtiyaz, Dilip Kumar is merely the individual who received it may be possible for Pakistani historians to argue that the Mughal Empire gave a happier period to the subcontinent than the Ashokan Empire and for Indians to assert vice-versa. But the film and Saleem the character convinced its audience long ago on both sides of the LoC about the cruel impotence of royalty in face of love. The theatre of the artistic mind is not meant for territories or nationalisms. It is for all humanity and above immediate and smaller concerns. Prizes are given to creations of that mind, not to the persons or the countries from where the creations originate.

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Perhaps the distinction that I am making between art and the artist is not the order of the day. Creative work as symbolic of universality is anathemaand committed art in service of causes and ideologies is the done thing. All “text” is now supposed to have an “agenda”. If so, artist who through art are supposed to pose problems and dilemmas that philosophies cannot resolve, would have to obey dictates of ideologues whether of secular or cultural or uncultured nationalism. The choice is before the artists themselves. If they serve one ideology they cannot run away from the intimidation caused by the proponents of a rival one.

In times of war, it is not for the artists as the creators to take sides though as a citizens they have their individual duties. If they are to be professionally true, not demonstrations of patriotism but of creative insights would be laudable which may or may not serve immediate national needs. It is the complexity of life and death showing war sometimes as necessity, sometimes as hubris, sometimes as both that has produced great works like the Mahabharata, Prometheus Bound, Andromache, War and Peace and many more. Letus leave the creator alone to reveal the true value of those who sacrifice their lives.

The writer is an associate professor at Delhi University

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