How does one figure out Kiran Seth?

Before I come to the protagonist of today’s blog I need to mention that I have always, ever since my childhood, wondered what “selflessness” was about? What was meant by the slogan, “Let go let God”? What was “detachment”? What was “forgiveness”? What was “nishkaam karma”? The pious quotes from Bhagwad Gita were a steady drone in the ears during growing up years.

Yes, people around me did possess one or the other exalted qualities mentioned above but to me they failed invariably in some sterling quality or the other. My young mind during growing up years registered that those were the exalted goals which were meant to be preached but do not exist in reality. Only saints are blessed with those qualities and ordinary people cannot be saints. 

Into this milieu of my impressionable mind entered education, success, power, career, cut throat competition and the women’s empowerment, etc.  The last term especially caused a lot of agony personally because I did not understand what it was about… in our homes the women always wielded a lot of influence and commanded respect… they were empowered even if they did not go out for building careers outside home…. The man of the house entrusted the woman with his entire earnings and thus she was financially empowered too! Women in our families were home makers and they did a damn good job of it…. They were like the women characters in our epics that fascinated me for their strength and resilience.

Yes, there is a lot of exploitation and atrocity against women out in the world which one ought to fight back against and thus assert oneself… and I air my voice for them… but I could never see Sita, Draupadi or any other character from the epics as a wronged or a weak woman....

Then entered into my intellect the dimension of reality vs ideology when as an adult I set out to live my life…. as a home maker....I had the fortune of being in constant touch with classical dance and music and other arts which helped me grow… the seeds of which were sown with zeal by my ORDINARY father in his children’s upbringing….

After having mapped my intellectual and emotional inclinations and where they emerge from…..

Let me come back to the protagonist of today’s blog, Kiran Seth, the founder of SPIC MACAY (The Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture Amongst Youth) which in the past 3 decades has made a tremendous difference to the country’s youth (how tangible or intangible; is a matter of study in itself) by taking classical music and culture to school children across the country and abroad and making an indelible impact on their young souls. No mean job.

Everyone agrees that our arts are the richest and most enriching as a necessary input to character building which invests one with all possible wisdom; but somehow they always take a back seat in day to day lives.

Set out to study SPIC MACAY as a part of my Senior Research fellowship I came in contact with Kiran Seth and many of the sterling volunteers of SPIC MACAY. A loosely knit structure SPIC MACAY is an example of a baffling movement which no structured government body can ever dream to emulate in propagating classical arts and culture. I will not deal with the finer details of the movement, its operations and its impact here. 

In this post I just want to figure out the persona that Kiran Seth is. Every volunteer whom I had met and interviewed spoke of him in a superlative adulatory tone. Some of them are his hardest critics with respect to his managerial and financial acumen and vociferously point out the flaws in the execution of his ideology, lack of strategy, planning, etc. However their bitter criticism always ends with an emphatic BUT…. He is the driving force of the movement!

Being allergic to hero worship, it was hard for me to take their assessment at face value. However always wary of any researcher’s bias, I went about observing him and talking to him for quite some time now and here is what I have arrived at… A simple summary of him with no IFs and BUTs…

This man is as simple as one can get nearest to the term SIMPLE… He is a very ORDINARY person who MERELY lives the properties of selflessness, detachment and nishkaam karm, does his work without any expectation what so ever. He is driven by single minded devotion to the cause he believes in and owns a super positive outlook with no trappings to distract him. He simply believes in the strengths of the people and places indomitable faith in them and brushes off their weaknesses as inconsequential. A generous dose of humility is a mere extension of his personality.

The only area he does not compromise in is the artistic excellence and brilliance of the artists and their art which is taken by the SPIC MACAY to the youth to enable them to experience a life transforming beauty and doing so with grace and dignity.

He is a leader who has assembled a network of people who are smarter than him in many ways and is an excellent team member and follower in the team which he has put together and inspires.

I think one really cannot figure out Kiran Seth in terms of the words in a lexicon as all analysis leads to the word – SAINT.

I definitely am not a believer in Hero worship! In fact I am allergic to eulogizing a mere man….BUT….

Whose Heritage is it anyway?

The article is a reflection of a layman’s difficulties in accessing and exercising ownership of his own culture and heritage and the questions that he poses to its guardians.

                        

“Proud to represent a culture enriched through millennia” says a slogan on the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) website. In the ICCR library one encounters liberally displayed quotable quotes of the revered Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the first Minister for Education of independent India and a member of the Constituent Assembly who established the ICCR in the year 1950. The Maulana, talking of the rich history and legacy of the nation inherited by him spoke for every citizen of the country, when he said, “I am an essential element which has gone to build India. I can never surrender this claim.”

At the sleepy office of the ICCR at Azad Bhawan, New Delhi; locating some officers at their work place is quite often, an arduous task. Often the person one is looking for is late to come to the office; supposedly tied up with some official work, of course, on his way to the office. Another is availing a wash room facility from which he takes forever to get back to his desk; or one is told that the person one is trying to locate is in a meeting in somebody else’s office; and appears only in the second half of the day back at his desk. These seem to be the often repeated reasons for the officials not to be found at their desks. One does not suspect the truth of the reasons given. But the utter disinterest and disdain of the manner in which a visitor is informed about the same reeks of a sedate work culture.  And finally, when one gets to meet the person one was looking for after a long and patient vigil; he barely lifts up his eyes from the files which are in front of him; and is evasive, disinterested and dismissive in his interaction. This seems to be the general behavioural trait at the supposedly busy office which takes the Indian culture abroad and brings the cultures from abroad to us Indians.

An innocuous request by a scholar to examine the annual reports of the ICCR since 1950 is met with derision. She is set off on a wild goose chase. After meeting a dozen officers in the building she discovers that the annual reports for the past 10-15 years are available but the older ones are not there. Instead of making an effort to trace them and make them available for her study, they suggest to the scholar that she should study only the past 15 years of the ICCR operations. This, they further suggest, will keep her vast project from getting out of hand. When asked if one could file an application under the RTI Act to get the necessary information, an officer sarcastically remarks that it would be a sure shot away to fish out the reports.

That was not all; the poor researcher enquires about the reports of the seminars and workshops conducted/ funded by the ICCR in the past years. The details would assist her in evaluating the programs and the operations of ICCR over the years. The officer is matter of fact in replying that once the artist gets the ticket to the foreign land or once the cheque is sent out to support a seminar/workshop; that is the end of the event they hear of. Not even a brief report is filed by the artists or the organisers on the proceedings for which the ICCR has doled out the money; the ICCR does not insist on one. The body seems to be a mere disburser of money and there is no apparent accountability/ assessment of their various assistance programs. Moreover, the premier body which cannot even preserve its own annual reports does not generate much confidence about its vision, planning skills and effectiveness of its operations.

The imposing National Museum is another institution which could swell ones heart with pride with the collection it holds. However, an interested layman unarmed with academic credentials could never gain access to see the objects which are not on display but are catalogued and are in its store; he dare not undertake scholarly research.  The mammoth set up allows only a bona fide scholar to make a special request for accessing its archives. The library at the National Museum is at any time empty with hardly any users; but even a Senior Research Fellow, Ministry of Culture, Government of India is reluctantly allowed its use only for a day or two, for reference purposes. The kind permission is accorded only after the scholar assumes a grovelling demeanour to please the librarian. The seemingly surplus staff is usually seen twiddling its thumbs with no work. But a visitor is shooed away with myriad eligibility norms and discouraged from using the library. One cannot but help contrast it with the British Library in London which trusts even a mere verbal information by a foreigner about his scholarly credentials and promptly issues its membership card after a brief, hassle free procedure.

National Gallery on Trafalgar Square in  London is always abuzz with visitors

The British Museum in London does seem to be the most visited museum in the UK

One cannot but help but remember museums like the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Gallery, the National Museum and the National Portrait Gallery in London which are at any time full of interested visitors. Often one sees droves of dedicated parents on trips to the museums with their children and also innumerable youngsters. The friendly atmosphere and the audio visual aids/guides to familiarise the visitors with the objects in the museums are a delight; which sadly, the Indian museums do not offer much of. Museums in India are tomb like with an air of decadence, separation and alienation from the artefacts; while in contrast, the above mentioned museums offer a lively air of belonging and continuance of the heritage and history to the visitor.

Ram Gopal's painting by Feliks Topolski at the National Portrait Gallery in London

The Powis Castle in Wales where Clive's Museum is located

The Clive Museum at the Powis castle in Wales displays many Indian pieces including a couple of swords and a tent belonging to Tipu Sultan. The museum hand who was stationed at the display chamber was ever courteous and one could even detect a tinge of sensitiveness on her part to the issue that such objects of our national pride found their way to Britain. It was most gracious of the staff there to assure an ordinary Indian visitor that our treasures are well looked after and respected in their country; and that they are as proud of our heritage as we are. Every question was answered with utmost alacrity and sincerity which definitely is the hallmark of culture and heritage, be it ours or theirs.

The politics of propagation and preservation of culture and heritage in our country, at one extreme, has assumed farcical proportions. At the other end they do help safeguard them. Another glorious institution, the fourth estate, plays a significant role in the safeguarding of our culture and its art forms. While many newspapers have done away with the reporting of classical arts, the others which do so cannot assure much beyond mere reporting. There are few serious writers who plod along with brave efforts at writing and educating the readers on classical arts, albeit always keeping in mind the need to catch eyeballs. There are also others whose reports are incredulously manufactured under the cloud of the unhealthy nexus of the media and the artists. Often the philanthropic policy of a section of media which still devotes space for classical arts boomerangs at them and they become the unwitting propagators of dubious standards in arts. Mediocrity and the outright lack of ethics in reporting at the individual level by the half baked experts on the subject do the harm. The basic question still remains, whose art and heritage is it anyway and who are its guardians?

Pascal Gielen(2010) rightly says that it is a sociological commonplace that cultural practices always go hand in hand with a strict hierarchy of values and norms; and according to classical sociology an institution apart from possessing other characteristics also brings with it a moral authority and a certain historicity. It may well be significant to recognise that great institutions/ businesses of any country stand out not only for their exemplary successes but also the cultural values in their operations and end products which they extend to the farthest reaches of the society.