In the last 32 years of my writing on the arts, I have been a cultural crusader of sorts in my own little way. I have tried to bring to light the lacunae in policy and highlighted wrongs being committed in my self-chosen area of the arts, rather like Pabuji ki phad where the larger picture exists, but it is left to the Bhopa or the story teller to hold a burning mashal to highlight the area of the phad or painting whose story he chooses to tell at that particular moment. And since the arts as a composite whole is like the very life blood that carouses through my artistic and intellectual veins, when I see the holes in the larger picture, it pains me no end.
It never ceases to amaze me how easily, we as a people, blame the government for all our ills. Unlike most others whose favourite whipping boy is the government, I can’t bring myself to blame it for all that ails the culture firmament. For without governmental support, even this wouldn’t have survived and I must give it to our predecessors who instead of putting all eggs in one basket by loading the ministry of culture, distributed it to many areas so that there could be an overlap for a double pronged or in some cases, several pronged approach.
For instance, the handlooms and crafts fall under the purview of the ministry of textiles, and the support extended to our craftspersons and handloom weavers has been huge in spite of fickle fashion trends. We as a people should be grateful to the information and broadcasting ministry for their role in preserving classical and folk music and dance and now rare recordings of erstwhile masters. The strict system they put in place for equitable distribution of support can never be highlighted enough, or when cultural diplomacy was the norm, dancers and musicians and other performers were sent by the ministry of foreign affairs via the ICCR as cultural envoys to distant shores, or the National Literacy Mission using folk performing arts to spread literacy.
The near forgotten rule for all governmental buildings to acquire artwork and support works of public art that is equivalent to one per cent of the cost of the building ensures that sculptors, artists and muralists got their share of support. Its interpretation sometimes leaves much to be desired like a recent government building that wants murals and sculptures for almost 10,000 square feet in `1 crore, which means `1,000 per square feet which will not even cover installation charges, let alone creation of the art works! Over the years, the interpretations of many of these systems and rules have been twisted, but that is another story.
For their part, the ministry of culture has the central and state Sangeet Natak Akademis, the Lalit Kala Akademis, the zonal culture centres, small and big museums and several other arts institutions like Kalakshetra and Bharat Bhavan and of course, fellowships and grants to individual gurus to have their troupes and repertories. Even highly political groups like the Left-oriented Sahmat are beneficiaries of this largesse, never mind that they use the grant to cock-a-snook at the government! Let us not forget that even world-class ballet companies like the Bolshoi Ballet in Russia and the Stuttgart Ballet Company in Germany had to shut shop for lack of funds. What is dismal is the private patronage to the arts. And companies that have tried to do this like the CMC or ITC, the moment the top honcho changed, out went the patronage to the arts.
It is my contention that institutions rarely survive a dynamic leader. One has seen countless institutions flounder and often peter out when an individual, who has made it an institution, exits. The reasons may not necessarily be megalomaniacal or arrogance related, or that head honchos left triggering off time bombs, but quite simply that one person’s vision may not match with the incumbent. This is true even when the heir is specifically groomed to step into the shoes of the previous head. It assumes even more destructive proportions in the absence of a proper cultural cadre who can walk the fine line between artistic freedom and administrative continuity.
Countless wonderful institutions led by government officials or even individual artists have gone downhill every time there was a change of guard. It is not merely incompetence; it is also vested interests that have spelt doom.
The latest to join the ranks is Lalit Kala Akademi that had emerged from the shadows after a long period of strife. It will yet again see dissension what with the new chairman (lamentably yet again a bureaucrat) having suspended both the secretary and the lawfully ongoing election process — this within hours (not days) of taking charge. Makes one wonder as to who is the sutradhar of this puppet play? When culture is low on agenda of our political bigwigs this is what we will get and the Bhopa in me will shed some more tears at our cultural phad.

Dr Alka Raghuvanshi is an art writer, curator and artist and can be contacted on alkaraghuvanshi@yahoo.com

The views expressed above are the author’s and do not reflect those of this newspaper