Debate on Art and Politics

Literary debate on Art and Politics

Can artist be committed to political party and yet remain faithful to art?

Is it necessary for an artist to be committed to social cause?

Is it possible to exist as an artist committed to politics as well as art?

Party is a 1984 Hindi film directed by Govind Nihalani. The film boasted an ensemble cast of leading art cinema actors of Parallel Cinema,^[1] including Vijaya Mehta, Manohar Singh, Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, and Rohini Hattangadi. It based on the play Party(1976) by Mahesh Elkunchwar. (Wikipedia)

Difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England Explained

Majoritarianism and Religious Identity

Majoritarianism spreads by fear. The fear that they are the most persecuted religious group. The people are shown fear that they will persecuted if they become minority. They give examples of similar conflicts among religious groups. The fear that minority religious identities will become majority. Thereafter, the life of the majority religious identities will be terrible.

Such people who show fear of religious persecutions do not inform people to stay away from religions but advice to cling steadfastly to their religious identities. This is exactly what is going to do what they are prophesying. 

The only way to stop these religious persecutions is to keep new generations away from religions of any sort. 

Girish Karnad: The Artist, the Citizen and the Question of Truth

In 2005, in his Nobel Speech, Harold Pinter referred to what he wrote in 1958: 

‘There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.’

I believe that these assertions still make sense and do still apply to the exploration of reality through art. So as a writer I stand by them but as a citizen I cannot. As a citizen I must ask: What is true? What is false?

Truth in drama is forever elusive. You never quite find it but the search for it is compulsive. The search is clearly what drives the endeavour. The search is your task. More often than not you stumble upon the truth in the dark, colliding with it or just glimpsing an image or a shape which seems to correspond to the truth, often without realising that you have done so. But the real truth is that there never is any such thing as one truth to be found in dramatic art. There are many. These truths challenge each other, recoil from each other, reflect each other, ignore each other, tease each other, are blind to each other. Sometimes you feel you have the truth of a moment in your hand, then it slips through your fingers and is lost.

If there is any writer in recent past on whom this 'fits in', it is Girish Karnad. The controversies in obituaries offered to him are an example enough to prove the point.

Here are some write-ups written as obituary and videos on the demise of Girish Karnad when he passed away on 10th June 2019.

These are views against Girish Karnad:

1. 

2. Girish Karnad: A Consummate Hindu Hater, An Opportunist And An Appeasement Expert

3. In Memoriam: The Dreams of Tughlaq-Tipu Girish Karnad

4. Saurabh Shah's FB post - Views on Girish Karnad in Hindi:

I agree 100 % with this forwarded post by someone written in Hindi. આપણી તકલીફ એ છે કે ગિરીશભાઈ કરતાં દસગણા ટેલન્ટેડ લોકો આ દેશમાં છે, દરેક ક્ષેત્રમાં છે પણ આપણને લેફ્ટિસ્ટ સેકયુલર મીડિયા તરફથી એવા જ ટેલેન્ટેડ લોકો વિશે સતત કહેવાતું રહે છે જેઓ પોતે વામપંથી વિચારોના પુરસ્કર્તા હોય. આ જ લોકો અત્યાર લગી અવૉર્ડઝ, સરકારી માનપાન-સુવિધાઓ તથા પદ-પુરસ્કારોને લાયક ગણાતા. આને લીધે non leftist and non secular ટેલેન્ટેડ લોકો હાંસિયામાં ધકેલાઇ જતા એટલું જ નહીં હાંસીપાત્ર પણ ગણાતા. મરનાર વિશે સાચું જ લખવાનું એ તો આપણને આવા જ ટેલેન્ટેડ પત્રકારો વિનોદ મહેતા અને ખુશવંત સિંહે શીખવ્યું છે. R I P Girishbhai 🙏🏻

Forwarded post👇

सवेरे टीवी खोला तो देखा तो पता चला कि गिरीश कर्नाड मर गया।
न्यूजचैनलों पर यह भी याद दिलाया जा रहा है कि इस देश ने गिरीश कर्नाड को पद्मश्री, पद्मभूषण, साहित्य अकादमी, ज्ञानपीठ सम्मान से सम्मानित भी किया था।
लेकिन उन्हीं न्यूजचैनलों द्वारा यह नहीं बताया जा रहा कि इसी गिरीश कर्नाड ने पाकिस्तान परस्त देशद्रोही अरुंधति रॉय के साथ कंधे से कंधा मिलाकर आतंकवादी अफ़ज़ल गुरु की फांसी की सज़ा के खिलाफ बड़ी जोरदार ज़ंग भी लड़ी थी।

न्यूजचैनलों द्वारा यह नहीं बताया जा रहा कि इसी गिरीश कर्नाड ने कर्नाटक के महान योद्धा और अत्यधिक सम्मानित शासक रहे केम्पेगौड़ा के नाम पर बने बंगलुरू एयरपोर्ट का नाम बदलकर टीपू सुल्तान एयरपोर्ट कर देने की मांग का अभियान इसलिए चलाया था क्योंकि उसके अनुसार केम्पेगौड़ा और छत्रपति शिवा जी तथा महाराणा प्रताप से भी बड़ा और महान योद्धा टीपू सुल्तान था। गिरीश कर्नाड की इस कुकर्मी मांग के खिलाफ कर्नाटक की जनता सड़कों पर उतर आई थी और हज़ारों की संख्या में उसके पुतले फूंक कर, उसके घर पर अद्धे गुम्मों की जमकर बरसात की थी। परिणामस्वरूप इस गिरीश कर्नाड को हाथ पांव जोड़कर माफी मांगनी पड़ी थी।

न्यूजचैनलों द्वारा यह नहीं बताया जा रहा कि JNU में हुई "भारत तेरे टुकड़े होंगे" और "भारत की बरबादी तक ज़ंग चलेगी ज़ंग चलेगी" सरीखी देश विरोधी नारेबाजी में नामजद और गिरफ्तार हुए कन्हईय्या कुमार के खिलाफ दर्ज मुकदमे के विरोध में यही गिरीश कर्नाड बंगलौर में धरना प्रदर्शन अनशन की नंगई पर उतारू हो गया था।

न्यूजचैनल ये नहीं बता रहे कि गिरीश कर्नाड गौमांस भक्षण का इतना बड़ा समर्थक था कि गौमांस खाने की वकालत खुलकर करता था और गौमांस की सार्वजनिक दावतों में चीफ गेस्ट बनकर जाता था।

अब आज इस गिरीश कर्नाड के मरने पर मैं कैसे शोक मनाऊं, कैसे श्रद्धांजलि दूं.?

These views are in favour of Girish Karnad:

4. Girish Karnad | The dogged defender of liberal values

5. A few obituaries in Gujarati news papers.

6. Girish Karnad was more than just an accomplished actor and a celebrated playwright. He was a strong public voice who decried religious fundamentalism and defended freedom of expression. He passed away in Bengaluru on June 10 at the age of 81.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=646642815816861&id=268114290336384

#Girish_Karnad
This line in the tweet by Prime Minister @narendramodi is a #tribute in truer sense to artists like Girish Karnad.
Karnad's implied political satires on Nehru or Indira's style of governance neither turned him into the #Harold_Pinter of India, nor his social satires termed him as the #Arther_Miller or #Tennesse_Williams of India, nor did his retellings of myth categorised him with the postcolonial insight of #Rushdie. . . And yet, being a versatile artist, he was not all lost to the socio-cultural-religious-political power.
He was never a #Lost_Leader like #William_Wordsworth on whom Browning has to write these lines:
"Just for a handful of silver he left us,
Just for a ribbon to stick in his coat—"
Those who
'Lived in his (Karnad's) mild and magnificent eye,
Learned his great language, caught his clear accents,
Made him our pattern to live and to die' will not have Browninging-like frustrations from Karnad.

If 'Shakespeare was of us, Milton was for us,
Burns, Shelley, were with us,—they watch from their graves!'
then, Karnad, too, is in the galaxy of these stars.
Whenever India is in the fen of stagnant waters, Karnad will be there, shining bright, to guide the lost caravan!

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