ISLAMABAD: Slighted after being denied permission to perform at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Mumbai on December 1, the world-renowned Sachal Jazz Ensemble decided to pack up and leave India, cancelling their concert scheduled in Bangalore the following day.
While Mumbai police had granted permission to three British musicians in the seven-member band, it denied clearance to the four Pakistanis the group. The Lahore-based band comprising musicians from India, Pakistan and the UK were on a three-city India tour. Jay Visvadeva, head of the London-based Sama Arts Network said the Pakistani artists were “stunned and saddened that they could not do what they do best play their music.
The music, which could have built bridges became the latest casualty in the continually sliding bilateral relations between the two neighbours. The diplomatic handshake at the recent 18th Saarc Summit in Nepal, between the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan appeared to not have eased the fears of Mumbai police who apprehended violence as the concert was timed after the 26/11 anniversary of the Mumbai attacks of 2008.
Explaining why the group decided to leave India, Visvadeva told Dawn, The morale of the group was down and the producer took the decision to return without further concerts in case there was going to be another such episode.
The performances were organised by Sama in association with Mumbai-based event management company Culture Grind.
Not getting to see and hear the concert was certainly a big loss for the audiences too. Rez Abbasi, a New York (of Pakistani-origin) based jazz fusion and jazz guitarist, music producer and composer, with 10 albums of compositions under his belt said, The production value is fantastic and the players themselves are incredible.
Describing his own difficulties to perform in India, he said, It is a struggle even for myself who is an American citizen and has lived in the US for over 40 years to get a simple visa to perform in India and that’s because I was born in Karachi!
There needs to be a better vetting process that’s more conducive to common sense rather than a blanketed approach, he said, adding that he failed to understand why India and Pakistan could not clear the political way for the envoys of culture.
How else do we find common ground if not through peaceful communication via the arts? said Rez who found the news of Sachal band not getting permission very unfortunate.
Mushtaq Soofi- one of the producers at the Sachal band however said, it wasn’t totally unexpected. He claimed, This kind of treatment is often meted out to Pakistani artists.
Senior journalist, Beena Sarwar, also editor of Jang Group’s Aman Ki Asha, and a long time advocate of normalcy in India-Pakistan relations, said the incident reflected poorly not only on the Mumbai administration, but also on the politicians who allowed it especially since the band had already performed in Delhi and there seemed to be no question of a security threat.
Visvadeva said, of all the Indian states, Maharashtra is the most sensitive. Also the concert in Mumbai was taking place just five days after the fifth anniversary of the 26/11 attacks there, he pointed out.
But he went on to add: There was no security threat as such. The 900 audience who waited 45 minutes before being informed that the performance had been called off, were all invited guests.
Such petty, unnecessary leg-pulling only strengthens right-wing extremists on either side- this is exactly what they want. Is that really what India wants?
According to Sarwar, people-to-people engagement was critical to overcome this extremism. But every time there’s an indication of hope, someone does something to undermine it, on one side or the other, she said, adding Its time to break this cycle!
Shai Venkatraman, a Mumbai-based freelance journalist working as a senior consultant with Bollywood actor Aamir Khan’s weekly television show Satyamev Jayate, echoed Sarwar’s sentiments from India.
“Artists are ambassadors- cultural ambassadors, and it is interactions like these that have kept Indo-Pak relations alive through the decades, even when the two governments have been at loggerheads at various points. There was so much hope after Modi extended the invite to Sharif for the swearing in ceremony. This latest move just pushes all that down the drain,” she said. To Venkatraman, the No Objection Certificates (NOC) given to the British members and denied to other artists in the same band wreaked of a disturbing jingoistic streak.
Ambreen Agha, a research assistant with New Delhi’s Institute for Conflict Management and also a music aficionado, is not surprised by the Sachal row. She said, In its latest act of idiosyncrasy, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a right-wing militant Hindu organisation, had on November 25 this year exhibited its discomfort at Santa Claus distributing chocolates to children in relation to Christmas in the Bastar District of Chattisgarh State… and have also pushed for institutionalising Hinduism by pressing for the installation of statues of goddess Saraswati in these schools.”
According to her, The Sachal band is just a victim of cultural narcissism that the Hindutva brigade exudes.
She further pointed out that this kind of narcissism was not bereft of politics: “With the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coming to power in India this year, the peripheral forces, or allies, like the VHP have been emboldened in their resolve for cultural and moral policing, she said.
Agha predicted that more such incidents reflecting religious fundamentalism could take hold of the country in the near future if these regressive forces were not nipped in the bud.
She is pessimistic about the situation being brought under control. In fact, the deliberate silence at the top will fortify the so-called cultural guardians of our country, she said.
On the political front and Indo-Pak relations, Agha said that by not allowing a music band, and particularly singling out Pakistani artists in it, says a lot about the “ever-growing souring of relations with Pakistan.
The band has performed globally at all music centres, including the Barbican Centre and South Bank Centre in London, Jazz At Lincoln Centre in New York, and the prestigious Marciac Jazz Festival in France, without a hitch.
Sheema Kermani, who is travelling to Mumbai to perform on Dec 6, found the news disconcerting: “This is very unfortunate and sad because it is precisely our cultural exchanges that help to bridge the differences between the two countries,” she said.
Not one to give up, Visvadeva said he would definitely try again maybe in a better climate.
Agha is not so sure. With all the political brawls on the border, music seems to be the collateral damage. The religious conservatives in India, who get their succour from the right-wing political party at the centre, will only shrink the space for cultural expression, making it difficult for creative artists across the borders, she said.
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