NEW DELHI: Hopping over the last large block of stone on the cobbled street, Kathak dancer Shivani Varma led herself into a charming little stationery store in Seville, Spain. She picked up a notebook and on June 13, 2017, penned down the concept narrative of Champaran Se Bapu, a recital that she would perform upon her return. The time has now come. The show is an acclamation to Mahatma Gandhi’s Satyagraha movement that extolled passive resistance. “It takes you back a 100 years, through a dance form that’s over a 1000 years old,” says Varma.
It is a story woven together with some of Gandhi’s favourite hymns, and portrays a belief in his continuing relevance, as an humble offering to his greatness, the artiste says. The performance also commemorates 70 years of Partition.
The preliminary thought about the subject emerged when Sukanya Bharatram, the great grand-daughter of Mahatma Gandhi, approached Varma for a recital in 2017 for the Sarvodaya Trust to celebrate a 100 years since the Champaran Satyagraha. The call had come when she was meandering through the little picturesque streets of Seville. As she spent her time taking in the beauty of the place, there was something important she noticed.
She saw locals revelling in the enthusiasm of Flamenco, a traditional Spanish art form that brings together cante (song), baile (dance) and toque (musicianship). She was left amazed, yet a tad disappointed. “While I was happy to see Spaniards and others being proud of their culture, I wondered what it would take for Indians to feel the same? While Flamenco is UNESCO World Heritage, none of our classical dances are anywhere on the world stage,” she says.
The presentation renders the story with thath, aamad, parans, tukras, tehais, larhis as well as abhinaya. Whether it is a purist piece, Varma isn’t sure. The form can be made to look modern even in its most traditional form because of aspects of stance, its natural emotiveness and recitation, it doesn’t limit itself to one definition. “We can do the most intricate things but if they don’t touch an audience what is that good for. That is not to say that one must do anything in the name of Kathak. The aesthetic and fundamentals of the form must remain if we are calling it that,” she says.
Part of the presentation is a commemoration piece to 70 years of Partition. Through it, Gandhi’s feelings, particularly dissent is highlighted. Varma has tried to interpret the happening in a detached way, from the perspective of Sir Cyril Radcliff who was the person in charge of drawing those lines. “Within seven weeks, he had to hastily divide a whole nation with completely inadequate knowledge and based on outdated records. Decisions were taken as randomly, for instance, Lahore was to be a part of India until someone mentioned to him that, that would leave no major existing city in Pakistan, so he just redrew the lines and Lahore went to Pakistan,” she says.
That was a time of great tumult. It was one of the darkest times India had ever seen. It’s estimated that close to 14 million people fled from their homes. There was looting, rioting and displacement. Everything had changed. Varma grew up listening to stories of her grandfather, Amar Raj Lall, a graduate of the London School of Economics, a barrister from the Inns of Court, of how he stole petrol for his Studebaker to ferry things and people from one side to the other, how when he was caught, his friend Zia Moiuddin (akin to the Amitabh Bachchan of Pakistan) hid him and saved his life.
“How the family buried valuables in their compound never thinking that they may never come back. How he lost his most loved sister to appendicitis in a refugee camp and watched helplessly as her hair turned grey over night. How he used to sit outside the trial courts in Delhi hoping that a client would come his way,” she recalls.
The emotion in these experiences never showed regret. To the dancer they read like a fantastical page turner, she says. Yet they were real. “That is how I want to present this piece— without denying the facts, but with no regrets,” says Shivani. March 6, at 7 pm, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road.
Quickly then...
I hope I don’t mess up my show because I’m doing this