For a culture policy

A CLASSICAL DANCE performance at Narada Gana Sabha in Chennai during the "Margazhi season" in December 2009.-R. RAVINDRAN

The Ministry of Culture has drafted a policy on the funding of mega-festivals, but the initiative is without a conceptual basis.

OVER the years some arts festivals have become regular features in the cultural life of a community or region and sometimes of the country. These festivals started off under different and, often, odd circumstances, but because of the response they received from people who love the arts and from artistes across the board, they became established events and were held every year at a particular place. One such remarkable festival is held every December-January in Chennai, which art lovers call Madras Season or just Season.

During this period a host of private arts organisations, sabhas as they are known locally, have a series of performances by the finest of musicians, both vocalists and instrumentalists, and dancers. The city comes alive with music and dance every day in different locations, often on makeshift stages. Over the years, what was a major cultural event confined to artistes in and around Chennai began to attract talent from all over the country and even abroad.

A unique and most admirable feature of this cultural festival is that the organisers raise funds on their own; they get little or no support from any State or national source, that is, governmental agencies. Funds come from sponsors and from the sale of tickets. The prime factor underlying the event is the immense love for the performing arts among the people of the city, and, indeed, the State.

There is nothing quite like this event anywhere else in the country. There is the Kala Ghoda festival in Mumbai, but it is a more organised event put together by a devoted group that is from the affluent middle class; not that this by itself makes it less interesting, but it may just reflect some, perhaps unconscious, biases and prejudices in the selection of artistes. This is equally true of some of the festivals held in Kerala and in Kolkata and Delhi, though the nature of the organisers as also the scale of the show may well be quite different and depend greatly on the sponsorship available. Mumbai is oozing with money, and therefore, the organisers of a cultural event there would perhaps find it easier than those in other cities to get generous financial support.

The Ministry of Culture has drafted a policy on the funding of what it calls mega-festivals. This is, in principle, something that deserves to be supported. It is an indication of the concern at the national level about nurturing such events, and the fact that a beginning has been made to address it has to be applauded. Having said that, one must take on board the caution advocated in an editorial published in The Hindu on November 4. It said: [T]oken annual grants accompanied by cumbersome procedures will not attract, much less nurture, creativity. Nor will it make any difference to the quality of cultural festivals. A long-term guarantee of sustained funding was suggested, which, one must add, needs to be substantial enough to make a significant difference, and not remain a mere token of interest.

What should be underscored is the need pointed to in that editorial for integrating such festivals with a city's development and making them a part of the local economy. Festivals must engage with the life of a city and not remain a curious, if attractive, oddity; the citizens of the city must be involved. The Hindu referred to the report prepared for the United Kingdom Department for Culture, Media and Sports by Sir Brian McMaster, which called for a selection of 10 outstanding events, to be selected by peer review and then funded on a substantial basis for 10 years. Such initiatives presuppose a clear idea of what is considered the cultural priorities of the country.

The report by Sir Brian McMaster begins, in fact, with his basic concept, one he is not afraid to spell out:

Excellent culture takes and combines complex meanings, gives us new insights and new understandings of the world around us and is relevant to every single one of us. It is why culture is so important to societies that flourish. If culture is excellent it can help us make sense of our place in the world, ask questions we would not otherwise have asked, understand the answers in ways we couldn't otherwise have understood and appreciate things we have never before experienced. The greater its power to do these things, the more excellent the cultural experience.

The best definition of excellence I have heard is that excellence in culture occurs when an experience affects and changes an individual. An excellent cultural experience goes to the root of living.

This idea may seem abstract, but in fact it is quite concrete. We have all been to performances, which have been good technically but stopped short of being excellent. We can train artists to a degree of technical ability so that their work is of high quality. Excellence is another quality altogether. This report looks at how to create the conditions where it can happen( Supporting Excellence In The Arts a report by Sir Brian McMaster: Department for Culture, Media and Sports, Government of the U.K.).

It is on these beliefs that he has based his recommendations. Sadly, we have no such conceptual approach from the Ministry of Culture, which ought to have stated courageously what it believes is the cultural basis for its initiative. Instead, it has gone straight into the elaborate procedures to be followed to get the modest funding it seeks to provide.

The great American poet Wallace Stevens made such a statement in his definitive poem Notes Toward A Supreme Fiction by dividing it into three distinct parts It Must be Abstract', It Must Change' and It Must Give Pleasure'. That was an almost defiant declaration of belief about the nature of poetry, one with which many would and did join issue, and will continue to do so. But it was his statement.

The Ministry of Culture needs to make its own statement, one that a host of people can criticise, praise, excoriate, revise and do all manner of things to. But it will still be the Ministry's statement, and stand. Policy will flow from it, and also action. Again, attracting criticism, anger and praise. But one thing it will be assured of: a grudging respect for the statement made, the action taken. The support to mega-festivals must then form a part of it, taking such shape as the concept gives it.