Congrats for doing this service—covering classical music, a subject that rarely features in a newsmagazine (Heir Gloom, Sep 25). All the same, the focus of your story, inevitably, was personalities and not the art. And here too, by avoiding views from younger-generation artistes, you seem to be subscribing to a common, popular pessimistic view on classical arts. You have compared masters in their eighties with artistes half their age. Don’t you think the really talented among the budding ones will bloom with age and mature to gain a status on par with the legends? In any case, the younger lot are busy performers and make big money. Surely, our classical music is still on solid ground.
Yashwant Parashar, Muzaffarpur
The nihilistic view only shows the writer has not been attending concerts lately. In fact, a casual ear to performances by some students of leading music schools like itc Sangeet Research Academy alone will suffice to change one’s opinion. Undeniably, changes are taking place in the music scene, but as one who has been an impresario for decades, I don’t see the art facing any dark future. True, geniuses may not be easily replaced, but there are new entrants who are good. Hindustani music is not dying, at worst it’s at a crossroads.
Navjeevan Khosla, on e-mail
Here’s my tip for boosting our classical music: give mass media space to the maestros. Let Pt Jasraj and Girija Devi endorse healthy television ads like Amitabh Bachchan. Let the government sponsor these, and channels look for returns. You will see the difference. Col R.D. Singh, Jammu
The masses must get a chance to understand the basics of classical music if it has to be popularised. Terms like sur, raag and taal have always escaped the grasp of the common man. Yet our musicians survived because, till recently, they had the patronage of the maharajas. Agreed, there’s corporate sponsorship today, but then the musicians have to climb down from their lofty perches and demystify the art if the masses have to tune in.
Nauzer Gagrat, on e-mail
It’s a shame that you narrowed down your views on Hindustani music to just Khayal, and left out the grand tradition of Dhrupad—the most ancient of India’s classical music idioms. Oh, but then you will have to ignore the virtuosity of young vocalists like Wasifuddin Dagar and rudra veena player Bahauddin Dagar. Also, the story stems from the fallacy that maestros need necessarily be great tutors too. It’s an insult to those lesser-known masters who are silently involved in teaching music and researching on it. Our classical music is so part of nature that it will remain alive till there’s spring in the air and rain in the sky.
Ashok Mathur, New Delhi
A few musicians have been too busy performing, some others are concentrating on promoting their offspring, but that doesn’t mean an entire legacy is lost. After Ali Akbar Khan, we have Basant Kabra, after Kumar Gandharva it’s Kalapini Komkali, after Bade Ghulam Ali Khan it’s Ajoy Chakraborty, after Girjia Devi it’s Rupan Sarkar, after Hari Prasad Chaurasia it’s Rupak Kulkarni, after Pt Jasraj it’s Sanjeev Abhayankar, after Shiv Kumar Sharma it’s Rahul Sharma, after Vilayat Khan it’s Shahid Parvez, after Kishori Amonkar it’s Shruti Sadolikar—what else do you want? Yes, there are some mediocre but popular artistes like Amjad Ali Khan and Debu Chaudhuri. Listening to them, I feel it’s better to let their tradition die rather than pushing their children into the business of cacophony.
M.S. Lalas, Jodhpur
Ignorance about the nuances of classical music apart, it’s a lack of cultural literacy that bothers me at the concerts. Well-dressed, educated couples sit in the front rows, chewing snacks and attending calls on their cell phones. When this is the scene opposite the dais, your question "After Them, Who?" (about torch-bearers) arises much later. That said, why do we see relatives of maestros mostly turning out to be excellent learners of music than the poor, talented ones sans any such legacy? It only shows the authoritative tendency in sharing knowledge. Thus, I feel introducing a place for classical music in school textbooks won’t be a bad idea.
Awanish Somkuwar, Bhopal
Amjad Ali Khan said it right: aspiring musicians have to surrender to the Almighty to ‘make it’ (No Shortcuts). Nevertheless, very few maestros take the pains to groom inheritors—they too are to blame.
C.V. Venugopalan, Palakkad
Today’s generation doesn’t tend to work hard. They want overnight fame and money. Remember, even a born genius like Beethoven used to practise for hours together. He once famously said, "If I don’t practise for a day, I can make out the difference. If it’s for two days, my critics easily make out. And, if I don’t practise for three days, all of you will make out."
V.K. Tangri, Dehradun
Finally a positive piece on Carnatic music (So Surges The Kaveri). Thanks a lot.
Lakshmi Srinivas, on e-mail
The 1993 Bombay blasts verdict now being delivered piecemeal (Kode Red: Eight-Part Odyssey, Sep 25) seems to me like using a teaspoon to push a large plate of stale food down the parched throat of a starving man, with no water to help the process.
K.P. Rajan, Mumbai
Isn’t it a national shame that it took our judiciary 13 years to deliver a verdict, that too in instalments, on an issue that required prompt action? No wonder terrorists feel encouraged and we’re held hostage to their unreasonable demands and face routine humiliation, as at Kandahar.
S.P. Sharma, Mumbai
Reading the flyer The Judgement Takes Effect, But the Cause?, I realised that you are the monarch of multiple standards. The Bombay blasts were a ‘reaction’ of ‘alienated’ poor Muslims but Hindus ‘massacred’ Gujarati Muslims after burning their own ilk in Godhra? Give us a break.
Ankush Poddar, Calcutta
Of what relevance is a law of the land that indicts only the second-line, brainwashed hirelings of the ’93 Bombay bomb blasts guilty, but cannot bring equal justice to the pleading cries or wipe the tears from the eyes of equally innocent victims of the then contemporary communal riots in the city? How blind is justice? In our country, blind enough to cut its nose to spite its face and thereby creating a new breed of terrorists. Are not perpetrators of communal rabble-rousing just as detrimental to the fabric of Indian democracy as terrorism itself?
Mickie Sorabjee, Mumbai
What’s the cutoff point for looking back into history for ‘past’ wrongs? Ten years, 100 or 1,000? Does a provocation justify a war on the nation?
Srinivas, Lucknow
The Lashkar-simi motive for the Malegaon blasts (Ambush at Mosam Pul, Sep 25) is clear. Shab-e-Barat, for some the holiest night of Muslims, is the worst type of Bid’ah (innovation) for Wahabi Muslims. Clearly, the blasts were targeted not just at the mosque (which is under orthodox Sunni control) but at the gathering which the Wahabis consider Persian pollution of pure Islam.
A. Neelakandan, Nagercoil
The Indian contribution to World War I is something not taught in our schools for some unfathomable reason, leaving many of us ignorant of the scale of death involved and the number of young men used as cannon fodder (Exported Martyrdom, Sep 25). Instead of saffronising textbooks, perhaps our politicians could tackle this terrible lapse? The issue of Indian soldiers being sent abroad to fight somebody else’s war by proxy made news three years ago when the US wanted India to send troops to the graveyard it’s dug in Iraq. The Indian government categorically refused, and thank God for that. The article also refers to the racism Indian soldiers faced. They must have been regarded by the red-faced, rummed-out colonels of England as an expendable sea of brown faces, individually indistinguishable the way all turbaned men are indistinguishably Muslim to today’s Americans. In England, Remembrance Day is held every year with Prince Charles and the rest wearing a bright red poppy in their buttonhole, a solemn silence is maintained for all the young English lads who died in foreign lands. Our subedars and buglers and infantrymen go unmourned. How strange and ironic that more Indians died fighting for the British than against them in our freedom struggle! With apologies to Rupert Brooke, all one can say is: There’s a corner in a foreign field that is forever India.
Maria M., Mumbai
Old-timers in Punjab may still remember the tactics used by the British to find fodder for their war machine in the two wars. Apart from mobilising big zamindars and other influential people, poverty and social deprivation were exploited skilfully. Witness this song sung in a gramophone record by Bhai Chhaila, a popular folk singer of those days: Bharti ho ja wey, bahr kharey rangroot. Bharti ho ja wey.../Aithey chalaweynga kahihan khurpey, Othey chalaweynga badook, pattooa badooook. Bharti ho ja wey.../ Aithey khaweynga wey sukki roti, Othey khaweynga biscoot, pattooa biscoooot. Bharti ho ja wey.../Aithey paweynga kaddar dey leerey, Othey paweynga soot, pattooa soooot. Bharti ho ja wey... (Get enlisted fast, the other recruits are waiting outside. Here you’ll be working with hoes and spades, there you’ll be shooting with a rifle! Here you’ll be eating stale rotis, there you’ll get biscuits! Here you’ll be wearing coarse handspun, there you’ll be wearing a suit!) Or, remember Malika Pukhraj singing Yey arosan parosan chahe jo kahe/Main to chhore ko bharti kara aayi re? A Song Publicity Organisation was quickly set up to get such stuff composed by well-known poets and sung by radio artistes, while records were distributed widely and regularly broadcast over air.
N. Khosla, Panchkula
Regarding the impressment or ‘dragooning’ of our youth to the war that your story hints at, it’s only partially correct. Many joined the colours to see the world beyond their backyard. The last thing on any soldier’s mind when he goes to war is the prospect of death. As for Maj Gen Townshend’s comments that you quote on Indian troops, they must be taken with a pinch of salt. From all accounts, he was a disgrace to the uniform. He led the 6th (Poona) Division in the worst possible manner to a catastrophic surrender at Kut Al Amara comparable to the surrender of Singapore in the last war or at Dacca in 1971.
Lt Gen M.S. Shergill,
on e-mail
Let me take off on the erroneous reference to Hitler in your strapline. True, we all tend towards a blanket identification of German force with him, but Hitler was the bad guy of the Second World War, and the piece refers to the First World War. Hitler did indeed participate in WWI, was decorated twice for bravery but only rose to the rank of corporal. The Indian sepoys were actually battling the German imperial army of the time.
Henry Konsen, Mumbai
Your article on Afghanistan (Half the War Lost, Sep 25) quotes the Senlis report and several Senlis Council members, but ignores the report’s main conclusion—that the brutal, inefficient and militaristic approach of the Americans and their allies is the main reason the Taliban is regaining popularity. For instance, the report devotes an entire chapter to the obsession with brutal poppy eradication tactics, which has pushed many Afghans into starvation. This is in addition to the frequent killings of civilians. The Taliban provide reliable basic social services, accompanied of course with their repressive ideology, and at least are seen as honest. Ignoring this, you give the impression that the isi is the only factor in the revival of the Taliban. Whitewashing America and blackballing Pakistan—how very typical of our Indian media today.
S. Gopalakrishnan, on e-mail
What about the cpi(m)-backed Maoist insurgency in Nepal and India? Is it so benign compared to those Taliban thugs? Is there no limit to our hypocrisy?
S. Pillalamarri, Vijayawada
Apropos Shefalee Vasudev’s column on removing Section 377 from the ipc (Protest, You Must, Oct 02). We already have too much unwarranted intrusion by law in most matters strictly individual. Let’s do away with it where we can. To have sex or not, and with whom, is wholly an individual’s concern. Unless there is force or a child involved, society has no business to question the individual’s choice. Sexual orientation is decided largely by biology and partially by one’s own experiences. To exercise it in the way one likes should be a given. If we cannot grant even such basic freedom to individuals, it’s mere sham if we consider ourselves mature and ‘developing’ as a society. Freedom is open to abuse, but denying freedom is not a solution for that. Grant freedom, but control abuse. Let individuals have the right to choose their partners—whether of the same sex or opposite is a mere priority, not crime.
Vijayender, Bangalore
Rajinder Puri’s Bull’s Eye on Vande Mataram and Omkarnath Thakur (Sep 25) was thought-provoking. Omkarnath was undoubtedly one of the greatest singers of Hindustani music in this country. But in his efforts to praise Omkarnath, Puri has done great injustice to the great M.S. Subbulakshmi by describing her as a minion, albeit subtly and indirectly. And to even think of such a humble person like the late MS ever "flaunting" the Bharat Ratna only reflects Puri’s complete ignorance of matters concerning Carnatic Music and of the stature of Subbulakshmi. It’s naive to interpret one musician as being greater or inferior than the other.
Shrinivasan V., Bangalore
Omkarnath Thakur was very well-known in my childhood. It is indeed true that many minions have got higher awards than him, thus belittling the value of the award bestowed on him. Can this be undone? This point has merit and needs to be meditated upon.
Sandip Kumar, Richland, US
Reading the review of John Zubrzycki’s book on Mukarram Jah (Sep 25)), I wondered: why this fascination with the erstwhile princely states? The princely kingdoms had to be all integrated into India’s federal structure before India could really get on with development. However, there are some in the West who’re still nostalgic for the princes, partly because they represent a world that has vanished, and partly because those princes were stable allies of British imperialism!
Varun Shekhar, Toronto
As a proud Mauritian of Indian origin, a great-grandson of indentured labourers from UP, let me point to a few things apropos Saeed Naqvi’s Mauritius Diary (Aug 28). We Indo-Mauritians are proud of both our Indian cultural heritage and our local Mauritian culture. The reason why French has such a hold in a country whose official language is still English is that after the British took over the island in 1810, they allowed French to be used in the local administration. This was done in the hope of retaining the rich French settlers. English appeared in our courts of law (ousting French) only a century or so after the British takeover. A few British families did settle in our island, but they also joined the fold and adopted French as their language. We’re very happy juggling English, French and Indian languages. Creole—a warm and flowery language blend—remains our lingua franca. The World Hindi Council’s secretariat is due to be set up in Mauritius soon. Most of our surnames did get changed, as Naqvi points out. But sincerely, sir, we attach no importance to names, be it Bhangee or Naqvi! While Naqvi was apparently bar-hopping he perhaps never realised that though 68 per cent of our population is originally from India, we have no dowry system, no female infanticide, no child labour and no reservation. We don’t have any army, and most of our gnp is spent on education and health. No wonder, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, during his March 2006 state visit, found Mauritius very close to what he dreams of in a country, in terms of infrastructure, good health and education facilities.
Dr Yan Jhugroo, Mauritius
If nothing else, Gandhiji’s views on food and diet are relevant to our times of mass obesity (Gandhi, A Second Coming, Sep 11). A modern nutritionist such as Dr Fuhrman, in his Eat To Live diet and Fasting and Eating For Health, is pretty close to Bapu’s thoughts.
Gul Ramani, Dusseldorf
