When Britain hosts India’s Independence celebrations this June, Winston Churchill and the Mahatma would have buried the hatchet at last.
How does one capture India on a canvas? Speakers wove analogies aplenty
When the British High Commissioner Sir Michael Arthur and Lady Arthur host a curtain raiser of The Challenge of India, the Tehelka summit to be held in London on June 7and 8 alongside “Art for Freedom”, an auction at Bonhams, in celebration of 60 years of India’s independence, how does one react? Does one look upon this as delicious irony or as the sign of maturity in two nations who, shaking off the historic burden of the past – one as coloniser an
d the other as the subordinate – are interacting on absolutely equal terms? The summit is the brainchild of Tehelka the weekly newspaper.
This summit has on the anvil a series of lectures by a mix of leading political, business and civil society leaders ranging from V.S. Naipaul who dwells on his vision of India, to Ram Jethmalani deliberating on the triumphs of an idiosyncratic foreign policy. From Nikesh Arora, Vice President of Europeon operations, Google inc, to Vijay Mallya the business magnate-cum-Rajya Sabha member, from Aruna Roy the social activist to P.K. Pachauri, Director General, Teri, and Chairman, IPCC, and a host of reigning political bigwigs, the lectures grapple with subjects like Critical Futures, Shining India, Simmering India, Riddle of the Young, Rough Weather: the Role of India in Global Climate Change, New Passages to India and what have you.
“I adore India – such a challenge – like travelling through so many continents…and yet that essential India running through it all – how would you define it?” gushed a guest from London at the get-together.
Analogies aplenty
How does one capture India on a canvas? Speakers wove analogies aplenty. The logo had a diagram of the four blind men identifying the elephant that is India. One speech likened a few in India to the buffalo wallowing complacently in the slush, unwilling to raise itself out of the quagmire. The economically padded parading in glory and pomp are like the vainglorious peacock – hopefully their strutting will leave something for the poor pigeons and sparrows too. But India also has its fireflies emitting light without help, and these are the eternal workers making the country glow despite little to show for themselves. Tarun Tejpal of Tehelka referred to India’s mind-boggling range of songs sung and heard, to songs sung and not heard, to no songs to sing or hear for a great many people.
Ram Jethmalani, declaring himself a stickler for English prose and punctuation said that while all had been describing the challenges in and to India, he would like to place emphasis on the subject of the Challenge of India. The secular fabric accomodating within its fold a whole community that had voted for another separate country, a country where the majority cannot impose its will on the entire people and an independent judiciary were all points that posed a challenge to less liberal-minded countries. Despite a fringe mad minority masquerading as moral policemen, grinding poverty and corruption, he predicted a great future for the country.
Art for Freedom at Bonhams will mount an auction of contemporary Indian masters, many artistes like Satish Gujral having come forward with their works. A preview of 85 art works at Asia House and at Bonhams the prospect of M.F. Hussein and Shah Rukh Khan engaging in a unique live collaboration of art, complete the bill of fare for these eventful two days.
Michael Arthur said that unlike Japan and China and many other countries, sixty years of independent India with its millions of young is an exciting prospect .
LEELA VENKATARAMAN
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