It is the presentation that is bad, says Professor

What would an an swer be to the question as to how we should react to the deluge of 'commercial' entertainment that seems to be fed to us daily by our media? Providing alternatives, perhaps? Showing what else there is in India - telling us that its ancient culture had a place for subtlety, for discipline and for aesthetics.

Fortunately for us there is a parallel to the exposure that television gives us, albeit a lesser known one. The exponents of the classical arts of music, dance and painting are invited to Sri Lanka by various institutions who are almost struggling to keep this kind of art alive. The Sri Lanka Gandharva Parshad and the Tagore Society can be cited as examples. The welcome addition of the Indian Cultural Centre to this list in 1998, will undoubtedly be of great help in this regard.

The latest visitor to Sri Lanka from India is Prasant Kumar Bhanja, Professor of music from the Sangeet Bhavan at Visva Bharati, Shantiniketan. On the invitation of the Sri Lanka Gandharva Prashad, he came to deliver a lecture on our own great musician of the past, Lionel Edirisinghe, at the Commemorative Ceremony held on July 25. After the lecture he entertained the audience with the lilting music of his sitar.

It seemed of interest to ask the sitarist his impressions of the position of the classical arts in India - to see how they were coping with the rapid advent of popular art - and specially in music.

"Music is of two kinds," he says. "One starts from the intellect, and involves aspects like spiritualism and finds its origin within the mind and the soul of a person and then there is 'Deshi Sangeet' - music that is found among the people, having its origin in their ancient and folk rituals inherent in various parts of the country."

"I would place the Indian raga system in the first group. It starts as an intellectual activity. It is the most classified and systematic of music. There is a base to each raga. It can be explained and known, and enjoyed through the intellect as well as through the emotions and is proof of the great aesthetic sensitivity and development of man."

"Then there is pop music - or popular music. That has less systematic or classified origins and is more to the side of Deshi Sangeet. But it does not mean that it is bad. I myself have enjoyed attractive tunes. There is nothing wrong with that. But I do see something wrong with some of the presentations of these songs," the professor stresses.

For him, a trained classical musician, discipline is important. It is discipline, he says, which builds up a healthy society.

"Some of the actions - the movements which accompany these melodies, the suggestions they give, are really not suitable for beings living within a social framework. They are almost obscene. But I feel that just like it is not the socially acceptable thing to utter obscene words in public, it is not suitable to show these things as part of being the accepted code of behaviour."

The reason he emphasizes the necessity of social norms and codes is that he feels the natural inclination of man is to be close to the animal. Therefore - more the reason as to why we should not think lightly of codes.

"If they are to be taken away almost overnight - as it seems to be happening now, can you think of the chaos that will follow?" "Art - for me - should be something that leaves a person a little better than he was before he came into contact with it. It should leave him or her in a higher plane of spirituality than before," says Professor Bhanja. "That is why the classical arts of music, painting and dance are so precious to me."

The acquiring of these arts takes years of learning, perseverance and dedication, he says. That moulds a different kind of person - one who is in control of his mind and body. Perhaps it is because Fine Art is such a hard task master that many young people of today hesitate in approaching it. "We live in an 'instant' world. Everything is needed in a hurry and even given in a hurry.

"If you want to be a pop singer or dancer, maybe it takes only a couple of years to become famous - and not much time to be featured on radio, television etc. The world of 'glamour' is much closer and much more accessible to these artistes than it would be to a young man or woman who has to spend solitary years in study and training to master a classical art." Professor Bhanja then asks. "Given a situation like this, how can you really accept young people to be attracted to this field?"

He does prescribe a solution to all this though. "When someone has really tried to master any art, the media can help him in gaining exposure and appreciation. That would help a great deal."

This quiet spoken, slim, dignified gentleman in his sixties, by his personality shows the effect classical training gives a human being. Trained as an economist, and even touring the world as one, Bhanja however had the sitar from his childhood, learning music for the sheer love of it. It was as a music lecturer that he was offered a post at Shantiniketan in the early 80's, which he accepted eagerly - since it gave him a chance to combine his love with his vocation, after twenty two years of being an economist. In 1991 he also worked as the principal of Sangeet Bhavan.

The presence of people like him in Sri Lanka gives us the much needed view of how much good India can offer us and our culture. Of course, even before such wealth we should never forget that an unending attempt should be made to preserve what has traditionally been ours - like our folk music, drums, folk dance etc.

Also there is no question that artistes here should try and evolve a music that can one day be called Sri Lankan. Fortunately for us there are a few people who are engaged in these attempts - like Lionel Ranwela who researches on our folk music, and Khemadasa who has created what may be termed as the new music of Sri Lanka, to just name two.

But if exposure to other cultures is inevitable, as it has always been, and will always be, let us at least get the best of the other countries to be exposed to.

More Plus * Words, words, words!

Return to the Plus Contents