By Shakir Mir
"I am in a gutter engulfed
in darkness and stench and they don't even want me to see the sunshine on the
street." - Anonymous
Elsewhere, when Zubin Mehta
adjusts his bowtie just minutes before he’s about to swing his baton before a
choir, a mere word about the event is significant enough to draw the orchestra
enthusiasts in droves. But there’s something unusual about the Kashmir valley
where the news announcing the scheduled performance of the 77-year-old
celebrated conductor next month has triggered the ripples of discontent.
Mehta’s concert, that will
involve conducting with Bravarian State Orchestra for the first time since 2006
in the sprawling Shalimar garden of Srinagar, has raised the hackles among the
Valley’s political camp. The notion driving this cynicism is not a new one. The
opponents are besotted with the fear that the concert will facilitate the
Indian state to publicize normalcy in Kashmir. But such a presumption has a
fragile ground to stand on. On the contrary, it might likely pique the
attention of international community towards the conflict and the stark
realities that lie within.
Mehta is known to have performed
for places awash with the trouble. In 2005, he made a rendition for the Indian
Ocean Tsunami victims at Madras Music Academy. His contemporary and close
friend, pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim has become a beacon of the
Israel-Palestine unity. The concert, with all its broader connotations, is
therefore certainly going to allude to its troubled present.
The idea to organize the concert
in Kashmir arose out of Mehta’s impending desire to perform in the Valley, significantly distant from an “orchestrated plan” to portray the state as normal.
“What a shame that I have given concerts for peace all over the world but never in Kashmir,” Outlook magazine quoted Mehta as having said at his felicitation ceremony organized by the German embassy. It was then, the German ambassador to India, Michael Steiner lobbied with New Delhi to make his wish come true.
“What a shame that I have given concerts for peace all over the world but never in Kashmir,” Outlook magazine quoted Mehta as having said at his felicitation ceremony organized by the German embassy. It was then, the German ambassador to India, Michael Steiner lobbied with New Delhi to make his wish come true.
The concert is not open to public
and is by invitation only. Western classical music is not so popular in the
valley, except perhaps among some socialites. So the concert is of no
consequence to an average Kashmiri. At the same time, there is a little reason
with everybody else to complain if Kashmiris are introduced to this musical
genre.
It’s unfortunate that events that
are commonplace elsewhere, find opposition from the usual suspects. Be it a
student organizing a musical concert in KU for charity, that was cancelled
ostensibly because 'music is haraam' or be it a literary festival, scrapped out
of the fear that it might portray normalcy. And if at all, the event intervenes with the state’s international dimension, as one of its opponents reportedly
said, shouldn't every influx of anything foreign in the valley be suspected of
diluting the issue?
The core argument behind the
opposition, nonetheless, remains the same gnawing fear about state not being
abnormal. There’s even one petition, perhaps trying to be in line with the trend du jour, by
“civil society” members requesting the German embassy to call off the event
because it was “legitimizing the occupation.” By that token, the "civil
society" should start writing petitions against marriage ceremonies in
Kashmir since they are generally lavish, festive and sumptuously grand -
totally incongruous with the "military occupation" that Kashmir is.
The presumption that Mehta's
concert will present the Kashmir as normal stems from an indiscriminate desire
to calcify a hardline position on Kashmir up against the "deceitful
narrative" of a Hindu state that "occupies" it which is plainly
counterproductive because it thwarts the buildup of any common ground that
might serve as a precursor to the solution.
A rite during Hajj pilgrimage
involves throwing pebbles at a supposed stony embodiment of the Satan. It's
despised, cursed and stoned but never would the authorities conceive a plan to
dismantle it. Why? What would pilgrims stone, should the structure ever be
pulled down? Our "civil society" composed of a catalogue of activists
introduced to everybody else as writers, film-makers and sometimes, even
historians, have found a similar infatuation with Kashmir issue.
Besides, musical concerts are
merely recreational. The anxiety that a certain political maneuver might be
lurking behind this event, which is not even remotely a political one, is silly
and symptomatic of an intellectual shortcoming plagued with paranoia and a
dangerously infantile cynicism. It's desperation that propels this involuntary
association of a plainly innocuous event with the conspiracy that entire world
would be deceived into believing that Kashmir was normal.
Kudos!! well articulated.
ReplyDeleteMay your ¤neurons¤ remain fired like this forever, and armed with them, may you set ablaze all those who oppose rationality. With this essay, you have established yourself in the special league.
ReplyDeleteBest, AR
SM, you have just entered the top league. May your ¤neurons¤ always stay fired, and with their help, may you set ablaze all that is irrational.
ReplyDeleteBest, AR