Story and photos by Sujatha Fernandes
We will make you account for your repressive activities, one day
We will answer your sticks and bullets, one day
Until that day comes
Until this place is developed
The flame of revolution will keep burning in Uttarakhand
This poem, written by the young Garhwali poet and singer Narendra Singh Negi, expresses the struggle of the people belonging to Uttarakhand, a region in the northern part of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, in the Himalayan mountain range. Since the days of the independence struggle, there has been a strong tradition of protest in Uttarakhand — from the Chipko movement to save the forests, the anti-liquor movement and the anti-Tehri dam struggle to the movement for a separate hill state.
Negi's song expresses the frustration of the Uttarakhandi people with a government which has exploited their forests, restricted their employment opportunities and denied them basic infrastructure such as roads, electricity, schools and hospitals. Negi is the product of a strong cultural movement that has developed in Uttarakhand — a movement of artists, poets, singers and actors using cultural and artistic forms to further the struggle.
Negi was one of the artists who performed at a cultural festival in Nainital, held from May 20 to 23. One of the major hill stations in Uttarakhand, Nainital has hosted the All India Cultural Festival for the last seven years.
The festival, organised by the Yug Manch and Jan Sanskriti Manch (cultural organisation of the Communist Party of India — Marxist Leninist), included street theatre performances, a poetry recital, a poster exhibition and a procession through the city. There were performances of street theatre in major public spaces of Nainital as well as in various schools and universities.
The festival drew cultural teams and organisations from various parts of Uttarakhand — Pithoragarh, Dehradun, Uttarkashi, Almora and Dineshpur — as well as from all over India: Delhi, Patna, Varanasi, Agra, Allahabad, Gorakhpur, Jaunpur, Aligarh, Meerut and Shahjahanpur.
The first festival was organised in 1989 in memory of renowned cultural activist Safdar Hashmi, who was killed by Congress party goons while performing in Delhi Sahibabad. For the last six years the festival has been held in memory of the martyrs of the Uttarakhand movement; this year it was dedicated to the revolutionary cultural activist and poet Maheshwar.
The inaugural ceremony of the festival was addressed by Brij Bihar Pandey, editor of the CPI-ML's cultural magazine Janmath, and Nainital district president of the Jan Sanskriti Manch, Zahoor Alam. The speakers described the current crisis of bourgeois politics in India and the need to use forms of cultural activism to inspire people in their struggle against the system.
Alam described "a period of great crisis in the current political order. In this situation the rulers present their worries as the problems of the country, and they are propagating a pessimistic view of culture. In such a situation the duty of the cultural activist is to break this cloud of hopelessness and bring a ray of hope to the people. With their pens, brushes and art they should say that behind the darkness there is hope for the construction of a better society. The 1996 cultural festival is organised with this sentiment."
The street theatre dealt directly with these themes of the crisis of bourgeois politics and the need for an alternative. The team Bhumika from Varanasi presented a satire on the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its play Leader 1996. The BJP gained a substantial vote in the recent elections by mobilising the popular discontent with the policies of the ruling Congress (I) in a Hindu fundamentalist movement.
In the play a BJP leader suggests that employment can be created by building more temples and employing people in these temples. Through this satire, Bhumika suggest that religion, particularly the right-wing BJP brand, is no solution to the problems facing India.
The corruption of government bureaucrats is also a familiar theme. In the play Sarkar ka Jadu (Government's Magic) performed by Nainital's Yug Manch, a young man goes to a government department with an application that disappears in the usual manner. After taking a magician's advice the young man attaches a 100 rupee note to the application. Voila! The money goes into the pocket of the bureaucrat, and the application is passed.
In most of the street theatre, bureaucrats and politicians are the targets of satire, and the audience readily relates to themes of corruption, empty promises and opportunism.
There was also a poetry recital held at Ramlila stage in Nainital, with poetry and songs presented by well-known artists such as Narendra Singh Negi and Balli Singh Chima from Uttarakhand, Atul Sharma from Dehradun and Zahoor Alam from Nainital as well as lesser known and younger talent. The poetry recital was presided over by storyteller Prem Singh Negi.
Sharma sang his well-known song "The King is Silent" in which the metaphor of the king is used to represent the government which has no answers for the present crisis: "Today the people are questioning, but the king is silent/ Troubles become a storm, but the king is silent."
Throughout the festival there was a poster display of poetry and art involving the work of 50 students. These students were selected from a competition in which students were asked to create posters based on the themes "The effect of TV on our lives", "Hill life" and "Our dreams and the 21st century". The exhibition was seen by thousands of tourists and people holidaying in Nainital.
The festival ended with a procession through the streets of Nainital led by a large banner and accompanied by lively singing and playing of instruments. The majority of the songs were from the Uttarakhand struggle, while others, including the following song by Zahoor Alam, referred to the power of struggle to break down barriers and uplift:
"Break this silence, break all the ties
Make a boat from the waves and turn the storm
Count yourself among human beings
Not Hindu or Muslim
Don't say this is yours or mine
The whole world is yours."