Yesterday, I was helping Kaberi and friends stage their first Online Sahithyasabha . We postponed the start by half an hour (compared to what I had announced in my blog post last weekend) as it would otherwise have been very early for Debangana, Irabati and Suparno to perform from Texas. The other performers were in London, Kolkata and Santiniketan.
The performers were, in order of appearance: Saranya Sen Gupta, Irabati Banerjee, Manini Mukhopadhyay, Kaberi Chatterjee, Tirthankar Roy, Debangana Banerjee, Pritha & Soumitra Bandhopadhyay, Sangita Tripathi Mitra, Sayan Bandhopadhyay, Nilanjana Sen Majumder & Debanshu Majumder, Sudakhsina Roy & Nibedita Sen Gupta.
Guest of honour: Professor Somendranath Bandhopadhyay
Oddly enough, the live nature of the performance meant that the back stage emotions were very similar to those back stage at a stage performance. Everyone had to finish their costume and make-up by the time the performance was due to start. We also had separate ‘entrances’ for artists and audience: the artists had a Zoom connection while the audience had the link to the live YouTube event (which I had posted in my post last week).
During the performance, all the performers were supporting each other. The tradition of those listening saying ‘Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu’ after each performance also provided an immediate feedback to the performers.
Afterwards, most of the performers were able to catch up about the experience before the US friends had to leave for breakfast, we went for lunch and the friends in India went for dinner.
We had just over 60 concurrent viewers following the live stream on YouTube and several were commenting in the live chat – including posting ‘Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu’ in Bengali after each performance. The feedback both during and since the performance was very positive. So maybe there will be an Online Sahityasabha 2 in a month or so … .
Some lessons learned:
have a clear running order which the performers and technical support can follow
have a backup plan in case there is a problem with the internet connection of a performer just before or during their performance
make sure that all the performers are aware that, since Zoom no longer allows Zoom hosts to unmute people for privacy reasons, the performers each need to make sure they know how to unmute themselves before they start their performance
test the internet speed of the performers’ connections in advance
record the performance in Zoom as well to allow more options for a post-performance edit
the YouTube live chat disappears after the live event and can only be replayed if the original video remains public or unlisted and untrimmed
it is possible to trim the video after the live event using YouTube Studio, as well as skipping any long pauses. However, this is saved as a new video which is published separately.
Invitation
Saranya Sen Gupta
Response
Irabati Banerjee
Tagore song
Manini Mukhopadhyay
কত অজানারে জানাইলে তুমি (First part missing due to technical problem)
About Sahityasabha*
Kaberi Chatterjee
সাহিত্যসভার মুখবন্ধ
Tagore song (esraj)
Tirthankar Roy
শ্রাবণের ধারার মত পড়ুক ঝরে
Short story
Debangana Banerjee
স্বরচিত রচনা পাঠ
Tagore song
Pritha & Soumitra Bandhopadhyay
কোন পুরাতন প্রানের টানে
Tagore dance
Dancer: Kaberi Chatterjee Recitation: Nilanjana Sen Majumder Esraj: Animesh Chandra
নববর্ষা (হৃদয় আমার নাচেরে আজিকে)
Tagore recitation
Sangita Tripathi Mitra
রথযাত্রা (লিপিকা)
Tagore song
Irabati Banerjee
প্রাণ ভরিয়ে তৃষা হরিয়ে
Tagore song
Sayan Bandhopadhyay
নিবিড় মেঘের ছায়ায় মন দিয়েছি মেলে
Tagore recitation
Nilanjana Sen Majumder & Debanshu Majumder
পাঠ: বর্ষামঙ্গল
Tagore song
Singer: Sudakhsina Roy, Esraj: Tirthankar Roy
এস্রাজ সহযোগে গহন রাতে শ্রাবণধারা পড়িছে ঝরে
Tagore song
Suparno Banerjee
হৃদয়ে মন্দ্রিল ডমরু গুরু গুরু
Tagore dance
Dancer: Nibedita Sen Gupta Singer: Saranya Sen Gupta
মোর ভাবনারে কী হাওয়ায় মাতালো
Tagore song
Manini Mukhopadhyay
গানের ভিতর দিয়ে যখন
Appreciation
Professor Somendranath Bandhopadhyay
Programme of yesterday’s Online Sahityasabha
* based on শেষ পারানির কড়ি by Hirendranath Dutta and কবির পাঠশালা by Swati Ghosh and Ashok Sarkar
The dark side of copyright
I also realised that copyright collection bodies like IPRS have convinced YouTube to flag any Tagore songs for automated copyright claims. The live broadcast received no less than 5 copyright claims:
Copyright claims against yesterday’s Online Sahityasabha
Now, this means that, even if Kaberi’s channel cannot generate revenue from this video, YouTube could add advertisments and these copyright bodies would receive a share of the advertising revenue. One could imagine that YouTube does this systematically from the tens of thousands of Bengalis around the world (including professional singers) who upload videos of themselves singing Tagore songs. It could be quite lucrative for these copyright collection bodies.
Tagore’s works have been in the public domain since 1 January 2002 (over 18 years ago!). YouTube requires anyone disputing copyright claims to accept that their channel may be closed down if they dispute copyright claims repeatedly. Needless to say, I have advised Kaberi to dispute these spurious copyright claims but others may be intimidated by the declarations YouTube requires them to make before doing so.
Both claiming unlicensed revenue for other people’s work and discouraging these people from disputing spurious copyright claims by threatening them with closing down their YouTube channels would seem to be anti-competitive practices.
Anyhow, here is a list of the bodies/companies behind the copyright claims listed above, according to the details provided by YouTube:
Song
Copyright claim by
Kato Ajanale Janaile
Saregama Publishing, The Royalty Network (Publishing)
Gahana Raate Shravana Dhara
IPRS_CS
Ganer Bhetor Deye
G Series Publishing
Shaboner Dharar Moto
IPRS_CS
Gahan Rater Shrabandhara
IPRS_CS
Copyright collection bodies claiming rights on Tagore songs (Source: YouTube)
Watch the first Online Sahityasabha on YouTube here [Link updated after the live event]
Every Tuesday evening in Santiniketan, the home town of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, he established the tradition known as Sahityasabha (“literary gathering”) for children studying at Patha Bhavan. It is a performance at which schoolchildren are invited to perform their own creations, including works by Tagore, based on recommendations from their teachers. This is how they learn to become stage-free.
Kaberi and I are preparing an hour-long, live programme next Saturday (27 June). It will bring together mainly former Patha Bhavan students, including Kaberi, who will be performing from their homes in different countries. For those in India, it will start at 18:30 while, for those in the UK, it will start at 14:00 – see the image for the start time in different time zones.
You should be able to watch the performance live from anywhere in the world via YouTube Live, which is embedded at the top of this post. You should also be able to catch up with the recording later here. Note that the performances will be in Bengali, with some explanations being provided in English.
Virtual celebration of Tagore’s birth anniversary for Shakespeare’s Birthplace
Together with Kaberi and the friends from Prantik with whom we have been celebrating Tagore’s birth anniversary at Shakespeare’s Birthplace each year, we were due to be there again last Sunday (10 May). Unfortunately, like many other things, the lockdown since mid-March to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic obliged the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust to close the Birthplace until the end of May.
However, all of us in the team were very disappointed not to be able to get together as in previous years, both for rehearsals in the preceding weeks and for our annual excursion to Stratford for the birth anniversary. So, exchanging with them the previous weekend, and also having just organised a virtual birthday party in which relatives in India had performed dances and songs from their homes, I realised we could prepare a virtual celebration of Tagore’s birth anniversary. Given the context, the theme of Tagore’s concern for Man’s impact on Nature and the environment seemed to us to be the most appropriate.
I checked with the Birthplace if they could coordinate with us on this and Paul Taylor, their Acting Director of Cultural Engagement, kindly recorded and sent me a video of his introduction. We decided to dedicate the performance to the key workers and healthcare workers keeping us safe and well, and to those who have lost their lives during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Fortunately, most of the team had the bank holiday on 8 May to record videos of themselves singing or reciting solo. Paul Taylor provided some images of Shakespeare’s Birthplace and Supratik Basu filmed some video of the flowers in the garden of their home nearby. We also had photos from our previous anniversary celebrations.
The traditional birthday chorus “He nuthon”, which we usually sing by the bust of Tagore in the Birthplace garden was going to be more complicated, though. With any online video conferencing tool like Zoom, Google Hangouts, Skype, etc, there is always a slight time lag (latency) between one person saying something and the others on the call hearing it. This is barely noticeable if you are having a conversation but, as we had already experienced from trying to rehearse remotely in the past, it is not possible to synchronise with each other like this.
So Kaberi and I recorded a base, audio track of the song with a tanpura. We used a metronome to ensure that there were no speed variations during the song. We then sent it to the rest of the team, asking them to listen to it through earphones on one device and film themselves with their phones vertically.
With all the recordings, I assembled the videos in the final video you see above and added English subtitles. I also wrote and recorded the narration, explaining how the performances illustrated Tagore’s concern for Man’s impact on Nature and the Environment.
I used Final Cut Pro X for the main edit but for He nuthon, I experimented with Da Vinci Resolve, which includes more sophisticated audio mixing possibilities, including spatial stereo. Fortunately, I had just invested in a Blackmagic Design eGPU Pro to speed up the processing time needed for my video editing!
Performers from Prantik: Anindita Sengupta Saha, Anupam Ganguli, Chhaya Biswas, Farzeen Huq, Kaberi Chatterjee (dance), Mousumi Basu (recitation), Nikhilesh Das Gupta, Obhi Chatterjee, Sudakshina Roy, Supratik Basu and Tirthankar Roy (esraj).
Morubijoyer ketona (danced by Kaberi Chatterjee) was sung by Manini Mukhopadhyay and Ritwik Bagchi, accompanied by Alok Banerjee (esraj), Asit Ghosh (tabla) and Dipak Das (sitar).
English subtitles translated from the original Bengali by Obhi Chatterjee, Kaberi Chatterjee & Prasenjit Saha.
More about virtual performances
I devised the technique to record He Nuthon after seeing other virtual performances during the lockdown around the world. Of course, the virtual choir videos composed by Eric Whitacre since 2010 were the pioneers in this field. Here was the third in his series: Water Night.
One of the first lockdown virtual performances I saw was this version of the song All I ask of you from The Phantom of the Opera. Andrew Lloyd Webber had originally tweeted a recording of him playing the song on the piano. Members of the Phantom of the Opera orchestra had then recorded their tracks.
Another was the virtual performance of Ravi Shankar’s ‘Sandhya Raga’ by Anoushka Shankar and other Indian musicians who were originally due to perform at concerts around the world to celebrate the 100th birth anniversary of Ravi Shankar.
From among the lockdown virtual performances, a colleague drew my attention to those from the Orchestre national de France. Here is their performance of Ravel’s Boléro.
Perhaps the most visually complex virtual performance of this lockdown period has been La valse n°2 de Chostakovitch, again performed by l’Orchestre National de France:
Dance performance by Kaberi’s niece Rimi in Kolkata
After the experience of my first virtual birthday party last year, as well as a virtual New Year’s Party a few months ago, I decided (rather late) to organise another virtual birthday party. In spite of the short notice, between Kaberi and me, we managed to invite at least double the number of friends compared to last year. Of course, since everyone we know around the world is in lockdown, we knew that everyone would be at home … !
I changed a few things from last year, in particular by not sending the invitation via an intermediary platform (EventBrite). That had confused several friends and relatives last year when they had tried to connect from their phones. Instead we had sent invitations personally. Kaberi had also included a request to prepare some kind of performance in the invitations she had sent.
As a result, some of the friends and relatives joining from India had prepared something they could present to the other guests. In the photo above, you can see an image of the dance performance given by my niece Rimi in the living room of her home in Kolkata.
Auntie Rita in Kolkata dancing for Obhi
Here, you see Auntie Rita (in Kolkata) dancing first to the song Ye banks and braes o’ Bonnie Doon , and then to the song it inspired Rabindranath Tagore to write: Phule phule, dole dole. Kaberi’s cousin Kumkumdi, also in Kolkata, performed a song for me.
A masked Enrique sings and plays Happy Birthday to Obhi from his Castillo in Spain
We also had Enrique wearing a mask and sitting with his guitar against the backdrop of a Spanish Castillo, ready to sing me Happy Birthday! We learned later that he has re-learned how to play the guitar during the lockdown.
As last year, friends joined in phases from different time zones. So we had at most 22 guests at one time but around 100 guests overall in the course of the party.
Most of our first guests were Bengali-speaking while others were English-speaking. So I assigned them to different language groups in our virtual living room. They then took the opportunity to discuss how they knew me.
Kaberi’s nephew Bubu in Delhi wasn’t able to connect but his mother helped him record a birthday wish for me with the tabla piece he had intended to perform.
Originally, I had intended that Kaberi and I would also connect from our mobile phones so that we could “mingle” with the guests in different rooms. Unfortunately, we both settled down in front of our main computer. This would be something I would do differently next time – it is closer to how we would host a physical party and would also have given us a chance to have dinner!
Of course, this would require a wifi network strong enough to sustain three devices connecting to the same video conference. Fortunately, I recently installed a ‘wifi mesh’ at our apartment, which has increased our internet speed and its reliability.
However, I learned from the experience of the virtual New Year Party that I cannot assign guests to different virtual rooms if I manage the video conference from a tablet or smartphone – the ‘breakout room’ feature is not available in the Zoom mobile app.
After leaving some friends in the virtual living room groups, I brought them back to the main room, where more friends had joined. Toa, the daughter of one of Kaberi’s classmates in Santiniketan, had prepared a pencil sketch for me.
Pencil sketch by Toa, daughter of Kaberi’s classmate Dolon in Santiniketan
We then played a quiz I had prepared about foods from different parts of the world. I had set it up using Slido but, in practice, most of our guests were connected from mobile phones and it was too challenging for them to keep open the video conference and also reach Slido, so I encouraged them to post their answers in the chat.
Later, with most of the friends and relatives from India signing off as they reached their bedtime, we discussed different approaches to lockdown in the different countries we were all living in. We also joined the applause for healthcare and essential workers at 8pm Central European Summer Time and, an hour later, UK time. We heard how various friends had joined initiatives to support their communities through this crisis.
From time to time, we would show those guests who were online the birthday cake which Kaberi had prepared.
Birthday almond & chocolate cake baked and decorated by Kaberi
Of course, Kaberi had prepared more but we didn’t manage to sit down for dinner, away from our main computer, until later! Both of us really enjoyed seeing and chatting with all the friends who joined, some of whom we had not been able to meet in person for years, in between our various travels.
Obhi with the cake and friends singing Happy Birthday
Then we settled down for the delicious chicken biryani, fish chops and raita which Kaberi had prepared especially for the occasion. She had also made a special sandesh topped with mango.
Birthday dinner prepared by Kaberi
Our friend Raju, who works for the NHS in London, joined us as we were having dinner (finally connected on my mobile phone). As we hadn’t had a chance to chat to him for some months, we had a unique opportunity to catch up with him … until all of us were ready to go to sleep.
It was probably the longest birthday party I have ever had: just over 8.5 hours! But it was fun, also to be able to introduce friends across continents. I even managed to introduce two friends living in Madrid to each other as well as two friends living in San Francisco.
Obhi & Tui – via Rain
Obhi & cake – via Sara
Obhi & Tui – via Enrique
Obhi & Tui – via Amy
The view from the other side With thanks to Rain (South Africa), Sara (Brussels), Enrique (Madrid) & Amy (San Francisco)
So … for the next time:
Preparation
Make sure you have a stable internet connection wherever you will be at the time of your party.
Get a Zoom licence (the minimum is for 1 month), which allows up to 100 participants. There are other video-conferencing options but you will need the possibility to create ‘breakout rooms’. This requires a more specialised, ‘virtual classroom’ platform than most ‘video meetings’ platforms offer.
You will need a desktop/laptop from which to manage the session and hear the ‘doorbell’ as each new guest arrives in your virtual waiting room. Then you can check that you recognise them before you ‘admit’ them to the party.
You will also need to join the session from a smartphone or a tablet which will allow you to move around freely. Check that your internet connection is strong enough to support your desktop/laptop and your smartphone(s)/tablet(s) connecting at the same time to the session.
Make sure you have read the latest guidance to secure video conference sessions, eg for Zoom.
Create the Zoom session for the party.
Invitation
Identify a period in your time zone which you can manage to be there yourself for the whole time and which allows everyone you wish to invite an opportunity to connect at a reasonable time in their time zones. For this virtual birthday party, I had invited people to join between 16:30 and 23:00 Central European Summer Time. Those in the Far East could join in the first part of that period. Those in the Americas could join the last part of that.
Send the connection details through a secure medium, such as Signal. In the absence of other options, send them in individual e-mails. Do not publish them in social networks such as Twitter/Facebook, otherwise you are likely to have unexpected guests.
Ideally, send invitations 2-3 weeks in advance. Explain that those joining online should join the party with their preferred food/drink to hand.You could also mention the advantage of not having to worry about how to get home after the party ;-).
Like last year, I wrote individual messages to the friends I was inviting but this does take time. As I only had the idea a few days before my birthday (again), I did not manage to invite everyone I had intended to.
Send a reminder 2-3 days in advance to those who have confirmed that they will participate and to those who have not replied.
The day of the party
Test your technical setup (audio, video and internet connection) at least 1 hour before the first guests are due to join.
Prepare breakout rooms called ‘Living room’, ‘Dining room’, ‘Kitchen’ into which you could ‘Assign’ your guests during the party, if there are more than 4 or 5 guests online at the same time. You may need to create additional rooms for separate language groups among your guests.
Ideally, nominate at least one other co-host so that you and your co-hosts can mingle with your guests in the different virtual groups you have created, while also keeping an ear open for new arrivals.
Avoid tantalising your online guests with the food and drinks you are having at your physical venue (without skipping food and drinks!).
My thanks to all the friends and relatives who joined my virtual birthday party last week, most of whom connected for over an hour. Some were connected for several hours – special mention to Thomas!
Thanks also for all the positive feedback. With more practice, it seems to be feasible to replicate the atmosphere and dynamics of a physical party online, even when all the guests are in lockdown in different places around the world.
Traditional birthday payesh (rice pudding) prepared by Kaberi
Our film versions of Rabindranath Tagore’s three dance-dramas (Chitrangada, Chandalika, & Shyama) are now available to rent or buy ‘on demand’ through Vimeo. The films are in the original Bengali with English subtitles – we hope to make the other language versions available soon.
Many of us around the world are in ‘lockdown’ at the moment due to the coronavirus pandemic. So Kaberi and I thought we should share some of Tagore’s humanity and help people celebrate the Bengali New Year (on April 14) at home by making these films available for free this weekend.
Click on the following links (or use the promotional code ‘BNY20’) before midnight on Tuesday, April 14, to watch each film for free:
Chitrangada (89 minutes) – Princess Chitrangada, who has been brought up as a man to inherit the throne of Manipur, falls in love with Arjun, the warrior prince. Tagore create this dance-drama in 1936 as part of his campaign for women’s emancipation.
Chandalika (73 minutes) – Prokrithi, an untouchable girl who is shunned by other villagers because of her caste, discovers a new life when Anondo, a Buddhist monk, asks her for water and tells her that she is no less a human than he is. Originally written in 1933 as a play, Tagore developed Chandalika into a dance-drama in 1938 as part of his campaign to raise awareness of the plight of the ‘untouchables’ and the unfairness of the caste system.
Shyama (90 minutes) – A court dancer, Shyama, falls in love with Bojroshen, a foreign merchant, who is falsely imprisoned and faces execution … unless Shyama accepts the offer of an admirer, Uttiyo, to take Bojroshen’s place. Tagore created this dance-drama in 1939 as an artistic critique of repressive regimes, in reaction to the growing tensions of pre-Independence India and the rise of nationalism in Europe.
After you click on the link, you will have 48 hours to watch the film.
We hope you enjoy the films. Please feel free to spread the word.
To paraphrase Marcellus’ observation in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Something is rotten in the town of Santiniketan.
Stray dogs insist on attending the Poush Upasana at Chhatim Tala, Santiniketan (24 December 2019)
The Vice-Chancellor of Visva-Bharati University, Professor Bidyut Chakraborty, used the Upasana (traditionally a Brahmo ceremony to celebrate the day when Maharishi Debendranath Tagore and twenty others became Brahmo in 1843 – the 7th day of the Poush month in 1250, according to the Bengali calendar) to highlight his frustration with the state of affairs he has found himself dealing with in Santiniketan. He particularly pointed to the politics he has encountered since his appointment a year ago. You can hear his full remarks (in Bengali) below.
Live recording of the Upasana ceremony on 7th Pous (24 December 2019)
Professor Chakraborty also spoke that afternoon at the annual programme of the Santiniketan Asramik Sangha (organised by current/former students and teachers at Visva-Bharati). Alo Roy, now in her eighties, began by recalling a story from her time as a student at Visva-Bharati. She concluded by referring to the comments of Professor Chakraborty at the Upasana.
Alo Roy (left) speaking at the Asramik Sangha event with Visva-Bharati Vice-Chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty seated next to her (24 December 2019)
She observed that a lot had changed since her student days in the late 1940s, such as rules and the sense of community. She noted that the Upasana ceremony that morning had been more about problems than Upasana.
She added that she agreed with Professor Chakraborty that Tagore had said that changes to tradition were inevitable. However, she underlined that these changes needed to match the creative endeavour of the original. Only then would the changes be justified.
She agreed with the Vice-Chancellor that politics had harmed Santiniketan. She suggested that 15-20 years of politics had been leading Santiniketan to the edge of disaster. This is why the Vice-Chancellor’s call for the politics to be brought under control was understandable.
In his speech, the Vice-Chancellor said that he had spoken from the heart in the morning and that his interest in attending the Asramik Sangha event was that he wanted to seek the blessing and support of its senior members to help him use the remaining four years of his mandate to restore Santiniketan to its former glory. When he had been appointed as Vice-Chancellor, former President Pronob Mukherjee had told him that it was no longer Visva-Bharati (a global village providing an education that was deeply rooted in its immediate surroundings but connected to the cultures of the wider world, for which Tagore had chosen the Sanskrit motto Yatra visvam bhavatyekanidam – “where the whole world can find a nest”) but Bhubandanga-Bharati (Bhubandanga being the former name of the area, after a robber called Bhuban Dakat).
The Poush Mela itself became the subject of controversy earlier this year. The paper The endangered status of traditional Poush Mela in Santiniketanby Srija Mandal (which was published in Endangered Cultures and Languages in India in 2015) highlighted the cultural significance of the Poush Mela and noted that its original focus on rural arts and crafts has been overtaken by the presence of commercial stalls.
In June 2019, Visva-Bharati announced that it could not take responsibility for the Poush Mela and that it would not be held this year. In particular, the Vice-Chancellor had responded to criticism from the National Green Tribunal for failing to ensure that the Mela ended after four days and had not cleaned up the litter left behind after the Mela. The situation was only resolved in November after the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is the Chancellor of Visva-Bharati.
The Poush Mela was first held in Santiniketan in 1894, as part of the fourth annual celebration of a Brahmo mandir being established in Santiniketan on the 7th day of Poush. The underlying philosophy of this mela, according to Debendranath Tagore and Rabindranath Tagore, was to create a platform for the rural community to interact with the predominantly well-educated followers of Brahmoism and people of all religions.
In the first Poush Mela, Rabindranath Tagore sang the mangal geet (welfare song) while walking around the Mandir. Food and clothes were distributed to the poor and needy after the main upasana (prayer) on the first day of Poush Mela. Rural people were allowed to sell their products and the Mela authorities provided entertainment in the form of fireworks. Jatra Palas (open air theatre) and folk music were performed, bringing together the rural community and tribal people from the area around Santiniketan.
Originally, the Poush Mela was held in the field to the North of the Brahmo mandir. As it grew in size, it was moved to a field in Purbapalli in 1962, where it is held today.
In recent years, the Poush Mela has increased considerably in size, attracting arts and crafts stalls from far and wide, rather than the immediate vicinity of Santiniketan. Tens of thousands descend on Santiniketan to visit the Mela.
One of the few stalls at the Poush Mela selling local arts and crafts
Unfortunately, the changes made to the organisation of the Mela (including insisting on online registration by stallholders and increasing the rental from Rs500 per day to Rs10,000 per day) seem to have changed the character of the Mela. We saw fewer local arts and crafts than in previous years while traffic controls prevented the “totos” (electric rickshaws) and cycle rickshaws from getting close to the Mela or to local shops.
While this reduced congestion and encouraged walking, the strong police and army presence changed the atmosphere. The repeated announcements on the public address system on the last day of the Mela threatening to withhold the security deposits of stallholders who overstay did not help.
Another traditional event during the Poush Mela is the Christo Utsav (Festival of Christ), which is held on Christmas Day in the Brahmo mandir. This year, it became a solo performance by the Bengali singer Srikanto Acharya (who moved one of the Brahmo lecterns to make room for his two harmoniums) with some Christmas carols and rousing Tagore songs at the end. Tagore’s reason for launching this annual ceremony seems to have been forgotten.
Awaiting the start of the Christo Utsav on the terrace of the Brahmo mandir, Santiniketan (25 December 2019)
Fortunately, the author Basumitra Majumdar (one of my cousins) was prompted to research Tagore’s thoughts on Christianity after attending the Christo Utsav a couple of years ago. He wondered why Tagore had wanted to celebrate Christmas in Santiniketan, especially in the Brahmo mandir, which is a temple for worship. He has kindly given me permission to reproduce the paper he had written (in Bengali) based on his research.
In 1909, Tagore had decided that there should be a celebration in Santiniketan of the birth or death of the “High Priest” of each major religion. The purpose was to capture the humanity in their character and in their advice.
The Christo Utsav was the first of these. There were also festivals of Shri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (chief proponent of the Gaudiya Vaishnavism tradition within Hinduism) and Kabir (the 15th century mystic poet and saint, who was brought up by a Muslim family, studied Hinduism under Ramananda and whose verses are found in Sikhism’s scripture, Guru Granth Sahib). These festivals were created by Tagore with the intention that people should know and understand the humanity of these great men.
Rabindanath Tagore appears to have planned these festivals since the partition of Bengal along religious lines in 1905 by Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India. Tagore himself took part in the protests against partition and his song Amar sonar Bangla (My golden Bengal) became a rallying cry for those opposed to partition of Bengal.
The partition of Bengal was eventually reversed in 1911 by the British Raj, which moved its administrative capital from Kolkata to Delhi.
In view of all this, it would appear that the original intentions behind the Upsana, Poush Mela, Christo Utsav and indeed Visva-Bharati itself have been forgotten. Similarly, our own experience of the dance form created by Tagore has been that it too is in danger of being forgotten, in favour of contemporary or purely classical interpretations.
Tagore had created Visva-Bharati as a pioneering educational establishment. Sadly, precisely at a time when educational experts all over the world are looking for a holistic approach to education, entrusting Visva-Bharati to the University Grants Commission has proved to be a mixed blessing. On one hand, Visva-Bharati staff are now properly remunerated. On the other, the tradition of passing skills and knowledge from teachers to students, who in turn become teachers, has been disrupted.
Instead of learning from the educational model developed by Tagore at Visva-Bharati, it seems that Visva-Bharati is well on its way to being turned by the University Grants Committee into a run-of-the-mill university of precisely the type which Tagore rejected. At a wider level, the increasing prevalence of the discredited STEM approach to education has a negative impact on businesses, the values of society and democracy.
If the world class reputation of Santiniketan, Visva-Bharati and Tagore are to be restored, the Vice-Chancellor could take inspiration from the governance model of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust – the independent charity established by an Act of Parliament to care for “the world’s greatest Shakespeare heritage sites in Stratford-upon-Avon [UK], and promotes the enjoyment and understanding of his works, life and times all over the world.”
Following a review by the UK Charities Commission, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust set up a consultative Council (of which I was honoured to become a member earlier this year). The aim of the Council is “to contribute to the organisation’s long term vision.
“The Council will complement, support and challenge the Board, and provide a forum for, and act as sounding board for, discussion of high-level strategy. Council members with relevant skills/expertise/experience may be asked to join SBT committees/working groups as co-opted members or to act as SBT ambassadors/spokespeople on specific matters.”
Since the Vice-Chancellor was asking members of the Asramik Sangha to “take ownership” of restoring the fortunes of Santiniketan, perhaps the creation of a similar consultative council could help guide the Trustees of the Santiniketan Trust (which organises the Poush Mela) and the Visva-Bharati administration. This could draw from the experience of former students, teachers and others to restore the traditions of Santiniketan with appropriate adaptation to the modern era.
At least the tradition of decorating Chhatim Tala with candles on the evening of the 7th day of Poush remains intact.
Chhatim Tala, Santiniketan, decorated by candles on the evening of the 7th day of Poush (24 December 2019)
Kaberi in front of the Ivan Vasov National Theatre in Sofia, Bulgaria
Last week, Kaberi and I visited Bulgaria with a group of friends. While we were in Sofia, we took the opportunity to explore the two theatres where Rabindranath Tagore had made speeches during his visit in 1926.
There are limited details of this visit in English but several websites in Bulgarian, such as this one, described what happened. Between them, I have pieced together the story of his visit and we were able to retrace his steps.
In 1926, Rabindranath Tagore had started his tour of Europe in Sweden. However, he fell ill while visiting Budapest and spent three weeks at the heart hospital in Balatonfüred in Hungary. Afterwards, on his way back to Kolkata, he needed to travel overland through warmer countries.
According to an article in Politika.bg, on hearing about his change of route, members of the Bulgarian PEN Club invited Tagore to visit Bulgaria on behalf of the House of Arts and Press, which had been established three years earlier.
In the summer of 1923, in order to coordinate activities in different cultural spheres, to promote philanthropy, and in order to create a lasting interest in the arts, a group of artists, intellectuals and public figures decided to create a House of Arts and Press in a prominent city. The founders included almost all prominent representatives of Plovdiv’s artistic circles: composers and conductors Angel Bucharest, Anton Tyner, Hristo Manolov, opera singer Subcho Sabev, musicians Dr. Pavel Nedkov, Spas Sofaliyev, Anton Tsarigradski, Aglaya Barzova, Gidali Gidaliev, Philip Slavov, Minya Katsarov, journalists Vasil Pavurdzhiev, Dr. Alexander Peev, artists Tsanko Lavrenov, Hristo Stanchev, Simeon Velkov, lawyer Stoyan Atanasov and others. The writer Nikolay Raynov, at that time chief librarian of the National Library in Plovdiv, was elected chairman of the House of Arts, and Peter Karadzhiev, one of the founders of the Plovdiv School of Music and the Plovdiv Municipal Opera, was the vice-chairman.
Tagore accepted the invitation and Dimo Kazasov, chairman of the Union of Journalists, took charge of organising the visit. Tagore was travelling by train from Belgrade and Kazasov arranged for them to meet the train at what is now Dimitrovgrad in Serbia.
The impatience is so great that without passports, but with the permission of the Yugoslav authorities, our delegation goes on November 17, 1926 to meet Tagore in Constantinople (now Dimitrovgrad). Its members include Prof. Ivan D. Shishmanov (Chairman of the PEN Club), Prof. Minchev (Chairman of the Anglo-Bulgarian Society), writer – Anglophile Anna Kamenova and Dimo Kazasov. The short but extremely straight-forward journalist lightly outstrips everyone and first enters Tagore’s wagon to wish him welcome. There is nothing left for the others to do than to present magnificent bouquets to Tagore’s daughter-in-law [Pratima] Devi, to her young daughter [Nandini], and to Ms Mahalanobish, who is accompanying them. In the wagon is Rathindranath, the son of the poet, as well as Mr Mahalanobish.
After a short breakfast, the train set off from Dimitrovgrad in Serbia for Sofia. Its first stop in Bulgaria was in Dragoman. The station was crowded with people who wanted to greet him.
The schools and the university in Sofia were closed in honour of Tagore’s visit. As a result, several thousand students met Tagore when his train arrived at Sofia station on 17 November 1926.
As soon as the train arrives at 1.30 pm, the wagons are literally besieged by a crowd of thousands who even roam the roof and meet Tagore with the frenetic “Hooray!”. The author of Gitanjali is astonished and scared – even in China they have not met him so. At this time, the news that the guest had arrived brought the entire population of the capital to the streets, except for the “lumps and diapers”, according to the press. The area from the train station to the city center is crowded with eager greeters.
About 100,000 Sofia residents (from the entire quarter-million population of the capital) are trodden and pushed to take a more advantageous position on the Tagore road to Imperial Hotel (2 Lege Street), where it is known that it will stay. At the station, the elite of the intelligentsia bows to the sage Tagore, who along with Tolstoy, Hamsun, Nietzsche and Dostoevsky is the idol of the most prominent Bulgarian minds. Two girls in Macedonian costumes bundle the guest with bouquets of white chrysanthemums.
“The journalists somehow masterfully obsessed, received and accommodated Tagore, and we remained in the background,” complains the secretary of the PEN Club Vladimir Polyanov.
The human anthill finally goes mad when the car with Tagore reaches Maria Louise Blvd. The crowd breaks the line. Each of the welcomers tries to touch the startled guest. Horse cops barely save him from being crushed. Until then, Sofia had never seen such a psychosis with a car moving on a carpet of flowers and a crowd of thousands running after it.
Tagore eventually arrives unharmed at the crowded hotel. People do not move away after Tagore welcomes the crowd from his apartment balcony. His appearance was met with endless applause and a forest of hands.
The former Imperial Hotel on Lege Street, Sofia (Photo: Google Street View)
The reception that the Bulgarian society gave to the Hindu philosopher-poet was magnificent!The streets of Sofia were congested with people, and at the station, young students, musicians, leaders and thousands of people, gave their deep words of respect and kind attention in welcoming speeches. The picture was touching: the Bulgarian student body presented Tagore with white lilies, perhaps selected by them as the poet’s favorite flowers.
Rabindranath Tagore on his way from Sofia Central Station to the Imperial Hotel on 17 November 1926
That evening, he gave a public speech about Contemporary Art at the Free Theatre (now the Musical Theatre).
Entrance to the Musical Theatre (formerly the Free Theatre) in Sofia
Apartments have been built over the entrance to the Musical Theatre
Bulgarian politician and journalist Dimo Kazasov (1886-1980) described the reaction to Tagore’s appearance:
A public meeting with high-priced tickets was held at the then Free Theater (today’s Musical Theater on Vasil Levski Street).Tickets were looted and visitors could hardly make their way among the crowd that blocked the street outside the theatre.When Rabindranath Tagore appeared on stage, the theatre’s showroom lounge shook with a stormy and prolonged standing ovation.
In a few words, I opened the meeting, recalling the following speaker’s statement to the European press: “Europe is a madhouse in which people dance over their sons’ graves.”
In his speech, Rabindranath Tagore said: “I am still under the impression of the touching welcome I found here.I would like to be a musical instrument because only music can express human feelings.
“I traveled all over Europe from the north of Sweden to your south and saw a lot.I am thinking and trying to guess the secret that has been brought to you here, and I come to the conclusion that you are a young people with a simple soul who has not yet been corrupted by Western civilization.I was in countries where the physical and material were valued, I was among the circus of brute force.And you are a young people who want to join the spiritual beginning.You are a people who believe in the ideals of the future.
“I do not come to you as a poet and philosopher, but as a poet I want to say that I am your man, because the poet sings about the love that he feels and that I feel overwhelms your souls.I come to emphasize what will revive humanity and serve it fully – love between nations.
“I belong to a nation that has young literature that is unaffected by the atmosphere of Western literature that poisons the reader.I come from a country where we are closer to nature, to man and to the people, and where we more clearly and fully understand the desires and aspirations of the world.
“Our literature is not afraid of criticism, which often uses abducted things.We value the works of the most invested in them.We are simple, we do not know advertising and we are indifferent to its methods.Our folk songs and our lyrics are dear to us.In them we find values that are alien to the complex and rich European literature.
“In my country, there was a tendency to emulate everything that came from the West.This imitation leads to falsehood and blunting.My father and I have always been alien to any grafted thing.What I have created is deeply my own.It is sincere and I believe it to be true.
“Our critics did not know whether to accept me or to deny me.Their denial does not despair me.On the contrary, strengthen my spirit.When I wrote my works on the banks of the Ganges, I didn’t think I was writing for others, I thought I was writing for myself.As a child, I didn’t like school and my educators.I was disobedient.Disobedient because I sought freedom.
“It was not until my fifties that I felt the need to get to know the outside world and one day I found myself in London with the Gitanjali manuscript.In an intimate circle, I read something from my works, but did not notice the reader’s interest in the readings.I felt humiliated.I wanted to escape.But the following day praiseworthy reviews came out and I became known to Western readers.However, I am an Eastern man and remain an Eastern poet.
“I believe that you too have great literature and rich folk poetry.I am sure that you are not yet infected by the false vicious practices of the West and its schools.You are not like artificial flowers: seemingly fresh and fragrant, but actually dry and without any scent.
“Our two peoples have in common that they are young so I believe that I will be understood by you.I believe in the great foundations that lie in your people and I wish from your heart to be happy. ”
Dimo Kazasov, Traces of past days – 1971
After the end of Tagore’s first speech, police had to be called so that he could get out of the hall and into the car.
Having barely taken his place in the car, Tagore was attacked from all sides. The crowd pushes out the guards, squeezes the car and does not overturn it. Casasov then sees a helpless horror written on the poet’s face. Eventually, the police support the car as it gets back on its wheels and escort it to the hotel.
One of the teachers who joined the crowd outside the theatre later wrote this:
On November 17, 1926, Tagore came to Bulgaria. The people greeted him with enthusiasm and brotherly warmth. That day, all the streets around this theatre were jam-packed with people, eager to see and greet the eminent guest most cordially in our country, and only those who could hear and listen to him in the hall, who had special invitations. I was one of the many visitors there around the theatre and just from afar, I could see a person with the halo of Wisdom and Kindness. This event naturally reflected and excited the Sunrise. We commented vividly in the most favorable light of the event. shining in an expression of reverence before this envoy of light, he came to show the peoples of Europe the path of salvation from the looming monstrosity.
The following day, he had lunch at the Bulgarian restaurant of the House of Arts and Press. At his request, opera artists sang Bulgarian folk songs.
Ivan Vasov National Theatre, Sofia
Later, he gave another speech at the Ivan Vasov National Theatre – across the City Garden from his hotel. This time, he was asked to speak about his poetry in the collections Gitanjali and The Gardener. At the end, he said “The sympathy with which I am surrounded makes me believe that you consider me a poet, and I feel Bulgarian.”
Again a crowd of fans accompanied him to the station, from where he set off for Ruse at 21:55. At Ruse, a military boat took him across the Danube into Romania. Unfortunately, his arrival in Romania was rather more subdued: there was a lone man waiting to meet his boat!
In his paper ‘Tagore in Bulgaria‘, Nikolay Nikolaev suggests a darker explanation for Tagore’s popularity among Bulgarian people. Tagore’s works inspired a broad cross-section of people. However, in addition, his visit followed a fascist coup in 1923, since when “the authorities had not allowed entry into the country any foreign representatives of progressive thought”.
As a result, Tagore refused to be seen as a guest of the Bulgarian Government but rather of the Bulgarian people. The title of his novel Gora was translated as The Rebel Gora and seen as a “manifesto of the freedom of the spirit”. He was seen as an “exponent of democratic ideas” and was opposed to nationalism.
Bearing in mind the situation in the country, many eminent figures in Bulgaria, including some of Tagore’s interpreters, wanted to give the impression to their readers that Tagore was an active revolutionary. The students and the ordinary people were in need of following a colossal figure, such as Tagore. They transferred all their hopes onto this great poet, writer, playwright, composer, artist, thinker, philosopher and humanist.
Tagore clearly left a lasting impression on those who heard him speak in Sofia. Prof. Assen Zlatarov wrote: “Tagore is gone. But his image will remain sealed in our souls for a long time. Sofia lived for two days on a spiritual holiday: we did not have such a stir in all the years … Our wisdom and beauty were hosted and made us remember that we are human”.
Wherever he went, he was received very warmly. At the end of his visit, he addressed all Bulgarians with the words: “You are a people who believe in the spiritual beginning and in the ideals of the future.”
In my previous post, I outlined how to recognise fascism based on Umberto Eco’s 14 indicators of fascism. In his original paper, he described his first experience of liberation from Mussolini’s rule in 1945. Up until then, his only source of uncensored news was listening to Voice of London secretly on the radio.
In May we heard that the war was over. Peace gave me a curious sensation. I had been told that permanent warfare was the normal condition for a young Italian. In the following months I discovered that the Resistance was not only a local phenomenon but a European one. I learned new, exciting words like réseau, maquis, armée secrète, Rote Kapelle, Warsaw ghetto. I saw the first photographs of the Holocaust, thus understanding the meaning before knowing the word. I realized what we were liberated from.
Umberto Eco, Ur-Fascism, 22 June 1995
The absence of news coverage reminded me of my visit to Tahrir Square with Enrique Nicanor just before the first anniversary of the Arab Spring. We were in Cairo because Kaberi and her team were performing Shyama in Egypt, starting with the Cairo Opera House and continuing to four other large theatres, includnig the Alexandria Opera House. The Arab Spring had been triggered by a mass movement started on Facebook – an uncensored alternative to the official sources of news in Egypt.
In Fascist Italy, social and political pressures—and the resultant self-policing by the media—were at least as important as actual legal proscriptions, probably much more important.
Yesterday’s march was obviously inconvenient for the cult of Brexit and the official UK Government narrative that Brexit is the “Will of the People”. Certain politicians have fanned the fumes of populism by making journalists, politicians and even judges targets of abuse and violence from pro-Brexiters, claiming that “disagreement is treason” or even “undemocratic”.
So, before yesterday’s march is forgotten completely, I am sharing my impressions in this post, together with some of the photos and videos Kaberi and I took.
I had first heard about the march through one of the people I follow on Twitter since the two previous ‘People’s Vote’ marches. I gathered that coaches were being organised to allow people from all over the UK to join the march. In the absence of any news coverage (and having abandoned Facebook since the Cambridge Analytica scandal), it was only by checking the hashtag #MarchforChange yesterday morning that I could confirm that other people really were on their way to join the march.
When we reached Hyde Park Corner a little after midday, there seemed to be fewer people than the previous march on 23 March 2019 or the first march we took part in in October 2018. However, as we crossed over to the reach the Hilton, we discovered thousands of people waiting patiently for the all clear to start the march. We could not go any further because there were so many people.
As we were right at the front, we saw foreign TV crews interviewing organisers, against the backdrop of those at the front of the march.
Japanese TV crew interview a march organiser
Another TV crew interview a march organiser
Steven Bray, who has been camped across the road from Parliament every day to Stop Brexit, was greeted enthusiastically when he arrived in his distinctive hat and cape. We also saw the puppets of Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt having their strings pulled by Nigel Farage.
EU flags were the latest fashion statement
A Nigel Farage on stilts manipulates (youthful) Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt puppets
As in the previous marches, there were people of all ages and I was impressed by the originality and humour of the posters people were carrying. Many were also dressed in blue and yellow. We stood to one side as the march set off, allowing us to see the variety.
“Girls just want to have fun(damental rights) – Stop Brexit, Save Britain”
Man with face painted with EU flag
Warwick District 4 Europe & Stratford 4 Europe
Dressed in blue & yellow to carry the EU flag
Quite Angry … Also Angry
“Stop! this Humiliation:- 1 Take back control:- Revoke Article 50; 2 Build national unity and re-plan Brexit; 3 Leave when/if we are ready”
“No more normalisation of racism”
“We reject Far-Right Brexit”
“EU feast or Trump begging bowl?”
“England=Lemmingland: Sleepwalking over the White Cliffs of Dover Favouring pain over Remain”
“Marching for my childrens’ future”
“Embarrassed Brit, Proud European”
“Not part of the 0.25% but 100% sure I don’t want Boris or Hunt!”
“EU are my sunshine … please don’t take my sunshine away” – Eastbourne wants to stay with EU”
“This is how I want my Passport to look!!!! Yes to Europe! Yes to Freedom of Movement! No to Boris! No to Brexit!”
“Brexit has cost the UK at least £66 billion so far – That’s £423 million a week that could have funded the NHS instead – Bollocks to Brexit”
“Your vote – my future” carried by a girl under-18
As the march moved forward past us, we spotted the front of the extensive Lib Dem section. I recognised Tom Brake MP and Ed Davey MP. The Lib Dem MEPs were wearing the bright yellow Stop Brexit / Bollocks to Brexit T-shirts they had worn on the first day of the new European Parliament. Later, I spotted Dutch “Renew Europe” MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld in the march as well.
Tom Brake MP, Ed Davey MP, Luisa Porritt MEP & Irina von Weise MEP were among those leading the Lib Dem section
As in the previous marches, the atmosphere was very relaxed – fun almost! I also recognised James from Bolton, whose dancing videos in response to political news have been going viral. I see he was dancing with Ed Davey MP and Steve Bray.
Viral social media dancer James (@DaleksGamertag) with the Lib Dem section
Who knows why BBC News and Sky News were noticeably missing in action. Perhaps the BBC News felt that Thursday evening’s Panorama exposé of Britain’s Brexit Crisis had exceeded this month’s quota for covering bad news related to Brexit? A footnote to the BBC’s guidelines for impartiality mentions that “The Framework Agreement accompanying the BBC Charter requires us to observe the impartiality requirements of the Broadcasting Code; however, by applying ‘due impartiality’ to all output, we exceed that requirement.”
Fortunately, some UK media did cover it, as did international media. Such as the Guardian, London’s Evening Standard, the Independent , Deutsche Welle and the New European. Please let me know in the comments if there was any other media coverage I should add here. It would help confirm that Kaberi and I did not just dream about the march yesterday … .
To be fair, after everyone had gone home, the BBC did publish a low profile article about the march but it had disappeared from the Top stories within a few hours, just as with the previous marches – including the largest ever march in London a few months ago.
Kaberi between a Union Jack and an EU flag during the march
London Mayor Sadiq Khan caused controversy recently by likening US President Donald Trump to the “fascists of the 20th century”. Far right leaders in different EU countries have similarly been accused of being fascists. But how can you tell if the accusations are justified, or simply tasteless name-calling?
Italian writer Umberto Eco was born in 1932, 10 years after Mussolini came to power in Italy. grew up under a fascist regime. In 1995, he wrote an essay for the New York Review of Books with the title Ur-Fascism or Eternal Fascism. After describing his own experience, he noted that there is some ‘fuzziness’ about what fascism actually is.
Nonetheless, he proposed 14 typical indicators of Ur-fascism. In whichever country you live, you may wish to keep these indicators in mind to be able to recognise when political leaders are drifting towards fascism. As he noted when introducing them, “it is enough that one of them be present to allow fascism to coagulate around it.”
Ur-Fascism is still around us, sometimes in plainclothes. It would be so much easier if there appeared on the world scene somebody saying, “I want to reopen Auschwitz, I want the Blackshirts to parade again in the Italian squares.” Life is not that simple. Ur-Fascism can come back under the most innocent of disguises. Our duty is to uncover it and to point our finger at any of its new instances – every day, in every part of the world.
Umberto Eco, 1995
1) The cult of tradition
According to Umberto Eco, this new culture had to be ‘syncretistic’ – not only the combination of different forms of belief or practice but also tolerant of contradictions. “Each of the original messages contains a sliver of wisdom, and whenever they seem to say different or incompatible things it is only because all are alluding, allegorically, to the same primeval truth.”
“As a consequence, there can be no advancement of learning. Truth has been already spelled out once and for all, and we can only keep interpreting its obscure message.”
2) Rejection of modernism
In more recent times, we have seen various political figures around the world campaigning against globalisation. At the time Umberto Eco was writing, it’s effects were less obvious and the internet had yet to be widely used. For him, “the rejection of the modern world was disguised as a rebuttal of the capitalistic way of life, but it mainly concerned the rejection of the Spirit of [the French Revolution in] 1789 (and of [US Independence in] 1776, of course). The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity.”
3) Action for action’s sake
“Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. … culture is suspect insofar as it is identified with critical attitudes. Distrust of the intellectual world has always been a symptom of Ur-Fascism … .” So if you hear political leaders pouring scorn on experts, the intelligentsia, the establishment or modern culture for “having betrayed traditional values”, these are an indicator of fascism.
4) Disagreement is treason
“No syncretistic faith can withstand analytical criticism. The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism. In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge. For Ur-Fascism, disagreement is treason.” If you see people being harassed or accused of ‘treason’ or ‘betrayal’ for criticising or disagreeing with ‘the truth’, this is an indicator of fascism.
5) Fear of difference
“The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur- Fascism is racist by definition.” Across Europe, various political leaders have played on public fears of immigrants for, for example, taking jobs, living off public services, etc. This too is an indicator of fascism.
After a weekend in which London Mayor Sadiq Khan highlighted the stabbing of two teenagers, President Trump criticised him, retweeting an apparently Islamophobic tweet by far right personality Katie Hopkins.
LONDON needs a new mayor ASAP. Khan is a disaster – will only get worse! https://t.co/n7qKI3BbD2
According to Umberto Eco, the presence of “a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation” provides ripe territory for fascism. In such a context, it may not be long before a political leader appears and attracts popular attention by promising to take quick and radical action (whether or not that action will address the crisis or humiliation).
To take the example of the UK, Politics Home took a look recently Inside the meteoric rise of the Brexit Party. It concluded that the Brexit Party’s appeal is based on the “frustration” with “the establishment” for having failed to deliver Brexit following the 2016 EU Referendum (a poll in which it was unclear what voters voted for). That result, in turn, reflected the frustration of many ordinary people with the lives they were obliged to lead due to poverty, inadequate funding for the NHS, etc.
7) Obsession with a plot (possibly international)
“To people who feel deprived of a clear social identity, Ur-Fascism says that their only privilege is the most common one, to be born in the same country. This is the origin of nationalism. … The followers must feel besieged. The easiest way to solve the plot is the appeal to xenophobia. But the plot must also come from the inside …”.
In previous posts, I have drawn attention to Rabindranath Tagore’s warnings about Nationalism. Political leaders sounding the alarm about a plot or conspiracy by foreigners, or by people who are from a minority (possibly a religious one) may stir hatred or fear of these minority groups. This may be the most commonly-seen indicator of fascism.
Looking again at the example of the UK, as Ian Dunt observes in his analysis of the rise of the Brexit Party, “… almost everything [Nigel] Farage [MEP] says is a conspiracy theory. A Remain parliament stopped Brexit, he says, … . May herself is branded a Remainer, … . So either MPs are secretly pursuing a Remain plot, or the prime minister is.
“Note how both outcomes – Brexit happening and Brexit not happening – are a betrayal by some form of Remain conspiracy, either in parliament or Downing Street. We hear these lies so often we start to accept them as normal, but once you question them it is clear what they are. They’re conspiracy theory. … “
“That’s the headline conspiracy, but Farage has another one for almost every aspect of society. At one recent rally he insisted young people opposed Brexit because of the “constant bias, prejudice and brainwashing” in British universities, and then insisted educational institutions were systematically marking-down students who supported leaving the EU. … “
“Who can you trust? No-one. What information can you rely on? None at all. There’s just the party and its leader, who offer you emotional reassurance without any intellectual component for you to evaluate it. Your capacity for individual judgement is whittled away. The trust is not based on testable propositions, like policies and argument, but on feelings.”
Ian Dunt, The Brexit party is a post-politics entity – politics.co.uk (9 May 2019)
8) The enemy is both strong and weak
“The followers must feel humiliated by the ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies. … However, the followers must be convinced that they can overwhelm the enemies. Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak. Fascist governments are condemned to lose wars because they are constitutionally incapable of objectively evaluating the force of the enemy.”
In the UK, the central message of the official Brexit Party website is “Change politics for good”, with a video of a well-attended rally playing behind it (in much the style as Leni Reifenstahl’s documentary ‘Triumph of the will’ filmed at Hitler’s Nuremberg rally in 1934). If you turn on the sound, you will hear stirring, orchestral music rising to a crescendo as their Leader makes his point and people rise to their feet in slow motion to give him a standing ovation.
Its ‘About’ page begins by claiming that “Our success is the way we are turning anger into hope”, before promising “A democratic earthquake” and “A brighter future for Britain”.
9) Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy
Having identified enemies, Umberto Eco suggests that, for Ur-Fascism, life is permanent warfare and lived for struggle. As a result, pacifism is regarded as “trafficking with the enemy”.
He also notes that no fascist leader has succeeded in reconciling the contradiction that finding a “Golden Age” after defeating the enemy and controlling the world in a final battle would undermine the principle of permanent war.
Going to hazard a guess that those willing to commit to “being poorer for thirty years” are currently very comfortable, don’t really understand what poor feels like, and probably won’t be here in thirty years time.
“Every citizen belongs to the best people of the world, the members of the party are the best among the citizens, every citizen can (or ought to) become a member of the party.”
By this Umberto Eco refers to elitism as being a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology. Ur-Fascism advocates becoming members of the party – a “popular elitism”. As Umberto Eco puts it “… the Leader … knows that his force is based upon the weakness of the masses; they are so weak as to need and deserve a ruler.”
The revelations by Channel 4 that Nigel Farage received £450,000 and rent-free accommodation in Chelsea after the 2016 Referendum, while portraying himself as a man of the people, would appear to be a sign of such contempt for the weak.
11) Everybody is educated to be a hero
“In every mythology, the hero is an exceptional being, but in Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death. … .In non-fascist societies, the lay public is told that death is unpleasant but must be faced with dignity; believers are told that it is the painful way to reach a supernatural happiness. By contrast, the Ur-Fascist hero craves heroic death, advertised as the best reward for a heroic life. The Ur-Fascist hero is impatient to die. In his impatience, he more frequently sends other people to death.”
#Marr: Are you prepared to look people in the eye and say you’ve got to lose your job due to no deal #Brexit?
“Since both permanent war and heroism are difficult games to play, the Ur-Fascist transfers his will to power to sexual matters. This is the origin of machismo (which implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual8habits, from chastity to homosexuality).”
Umberto Eco also notes that “Since even sex is a difficult game to play, the Ur-Fascist hero tends to play with weapons – doing so becomes an ersatz phallic exercise.”
13) Selective populism
“In a democracy, the citizens have individual rights, but the citizens in their entirety have apolitical impact only from a quantitative point of view – one follows the decisions of the majority. For Ur-Fascism, however, individuals as individuals have no rights, and the People is conceived as a quality, a monolithic entity expressing the Common Will. Since no large quantity of human beings can have a common will, the Leader pretends to be their interpreter.”
Since deciding on her interpretation of the result of the 2016 EU Referendum in the UK, Prime Minister Theresa May has maintained that that was and remains “the will of the people“.
Umberto Eco predicted, in this paper from 1995, that “There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People. … Wherever a politician casts doubt on the legitimacy of a parliament because it no longer represents the Voice of the People, we can smell Ur-Fascism.”
Brexit: suspending parliament should not be ruled out, says Dominic Raab https://t.co/AFWF5aVDu3
“Newspeak was invented by Orwell, in 1984, as the official language of Ingsoc, English Socialism. But elements of Ur-Fascism are common to different forms of dictatorship. All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning”
For some years politicians have played on the tendency of the media to pick up on soundbites. As a result, politicians are no longer expected to make eloquent speeches. Instead, they tend to use a series of soundbites when asked to give speeches or interviews.
So perhaps we are already in the era of Newspeak. We are certainly in the era of “fake news”, in which it has become difficult to recognise what is truly fake and what is real.
Shortly after Umberto Eco’s death in February 2016, Lorraine Berry analysed Donald Trump’s campaign against Umberto Eco’s 14 indicators. As you will see, her conclusion then was that Donald Trump is a fascist, but not a Nazi.
Ian Dunt’s analysis of the rise of the Brexit Party points to a number of similar issues. The table below analyses these issues against Umberto Eco’s 14 indicators:
Contemporary UK example of each of Umberto Eco’s characteristics of fascism
As in previous years, Kaberi and I celebrated the birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore with Prantik at Shakespeare’s Birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon in the UK. Our theme this year was Tagore and the seasons: Spring.
We began our performance by recreating the dance procession each year at the Spring Festival (Basanta Utsav) in Santiniketan to the song Orai grihobashi. Our procession started from the steps of the Shakespeare Centre and wound its way around the garden of Shakespeare’s Birthplace until we reached the performance area by the house in which Shakespeare was born.
After an introduction by Emily Ireson from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, we performed various songs for Tagore’s seasonal collection (Riturongo). Kaberi also danced to the poem Shesh Modhu (Spring Finale), which Prasenjit Saha had kindly translated into rhyming English for us.
The English translations of the songs and poems were recited by Shakespeare Aloud! actor James Anderson. The singers and musicians from Prantik, apart from me, were:
Anindita Sengupta Saha (also on tanpura)
Chhaya Biswas
Farzeen Huq
Kaberi Chatterjee (who also danced)
Mousumi Basu (who also recited the poem Shesh Modhu)
Nikhilesh Das Gupta
Sudakshina Roy
Supratik Basu (also on mandira)
Tirthankar Roy (also on esraj)
We were honoured that Krishnendu Banerjee from the Indian High Commission and Brij Kumar Guhare, Deputy Director of The Nehru Centre in London, came to Stratford-upon-Avon to attend our performance. Both expressed their appreciation of our performance and the uniquely appropriate setting of the garden of Shakespeare’s Birthplace.
Liisa Miil kindly filmed the performance for us. You can watch the video above. My script for our performance is available as a free download but please note its Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Sharealike licence. If you wish to use the script for commercial purposes or plan to remix or reuse it, please contact me.
Earlier in the day, we had visited Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, on the outskirts of Stratford-upon-Avon, to see how the tree we had helped to plant in 2011 for the 150th birth anniversary. That time, Kaberi had shown students from a local drama school how to dance in the traditional tree-planting (brikkhoropon) procession established by Rabindranath Tagore.
Especially as I was going to refer to it later in my narration, I was relieved to see that the tree is doing well. You can see it in the foreground of the photo below, with Anne Hathaway’s Cottage in the background.
