Emperor146;s new prizes

Whether or not the information and broadcasting ministry carries through its decision to challenge a Bombay High Court order on the National Film Awards, its current dilemma comprehensively establishes how anachronistic this mode of state recognition is. The issue holding up announcement of the awards 8212; once Indian cinema8217;s most coveted honours 8212; is whether or not to allow uncensored films to be nominated. The court has allowed them to be, and predictably the I038;B ministry is uncomfortable with the prospect. The ministry would be better advised to abort any ideas it may have of appealing the court order and instead recognise this moment for what it is: an apt opportunity to allow the practice of the state appraisal of cinematic excellence to lapse.

It doesn8217;t even need the overtly political choices of much of the history of the National Awards to underwrite this opinion. The whole notion of the state directly sitting in judgement on art is itself flawed. The socialist notion of art 8212; especially cinema 8212; being an instrument for ideological and social change has been shown to be deeply misplaced. Art is a source of immense soft power, but that power is harnessed through the creative chaos of the medium, not through a socialist system of controls.

Art in all its forms does need to be evaluated by peers and experts. In recent decades various non-governmental forums have been nurtured for this. The government must retreat from its Mughal pretence of being prime patron of the arts 8212; and this applies as much to the conferring of awards of excellence as it does to direct funding of projects or the conduct of film festivals. At least some of the emperors were true sophisticates who drew imperial pride from the forging of new cultural forms. Today there are other entities than the government who perform this function well.