State of the arts, art of the state

Recently, drama took precedence over dance and music at the Sangeet Natak Academy. A spate of resignations by high profile office bearers revealed that all isn’t song and dance at the state-ordained vanguard of our cultural heritage. The imbroglio, it appears, is over the chairman and her alleged high-handedness in running the academy’s affairs.

Although the artistic community has been divided on the issue, everyone seems to agree that our state-run institutions are plagued by ills that have aggravated beyond stop-gap measures. The justification for a state-run organisation to promote the ‘ancient cultural heritage of India’ came from two basic assumptions. That the state is the “organised manifestation of people’s will” and hence it must undertake the “maintenance and development (of arts) as one of (its) first responsibilities”.

Both these assumptions are invalid. The first more than the second and today, as the nation revels in the prosperity made possible by a philosophy that is the precise antithesis of the one that is pronounced in these lines, more so than ever before. Any and all justification for state patronage for the arts is nothing but an attempt to protect what is an inexhaustible mine of much sought after doles to comrades in crimes, political pimps and party foot soldiers. Personal agendas of politicians and not some fancy abstraction called the organised will of the people find gratification in these institutions and it is high time we wrote their obituaries.

State involvement in, or patronage of, the arts will always result in skewed preferences for art forms. Instead of investing the taxpayer’s money in the arts regardless of exchequer preferences — which cannot be captured by the state in the first place — it would be many times better to let the tax payers choose which art form or which artist to pay for. And we, as a people, could do very well without having allegations and speculations beamed on to us 24 hours a day.

Perhaps a tad more importantly, shouldn’t Panicker, Balamuralikrishna and Sonal Mansingh be performing what they have mastered to splendid perfection, painfully, over a lifetime, to the enthrallment of a people who are in desperate need of good art? And, just in case anyone is worried about Indian culture, it has taken good care of itself for centuries and is in good shape to do so for times to come. Besides, don’t you hear its agonised cry suffocated from the imperiling weight of ministries, departments and uncouth individuals who claim to be its exponents? I mean, give our culture a break.

The writer is with the Centre for Civil Society