1. The Sixth Congress had analysed the offensive of both globalisation and Hindutva on the cultural sphere. If the impact of globalisation has come to mean crass consumerism and a systematic onslaught on the position and representaion of women in
society, Hindutva’s campaign for cultural nationalism has assumed the form of a most barbaric and medieval kind of policing and regimentation in every corner of the cultural arena. Attacks on cultural personalities and their production have intensified. There is also a parallel move to glorify and commercialise the most sectarian, bigoted, patriarchal and Brahminical aspects in the name of upholding and celebrating the cultural roots of Indian civilisation. The same Shiv Sena which attacks Valentine’s Day celebration and the screening or shooting of films like Fire and Water, has no problem with a Michael Jackson show. The same censor board chief who takes up cudgels for the freedom to screen erotic films bans the screening of an widely acclaimed documentary like Anand Patwardhan’s War and Peace.
2. While the cultural milieu in India today is thus marked by increasingly intolerant and institutionalised attacks on the freedom of expression and conscience, challenging the very basis of a modern democratic culture, resistance to this systematic onslaught is also growing even though such resistance is still quite disorganised and sporadic. The genocide in Gujarat gave a serious jolt to broad sections of the intelligentsia and there were protests by mediapersons, artists and writers. But all these attempts still do not add up to a powerful culture of resistance that can give a fitting rebuff to the peddlers of brutality and barbarism. The glorious history of the IPTA and the anti-fascist cultural movement of the 1940s holds major lessons for the present-day cultural activists. Our comrades on the cultural front have rightly underlined the need to take on the offensive of the saffron brigade’s cultural nationalism with the banner of a modern and democratic people’s culture of resistance. The ongoing imperialist war and the combined onslaught of neo-colonial cosumerist culture and the most reactionary and sectarian communal and fundamentalist propaganda demand a spirited rebuff in the field of culture.
3. It is encouraging to note that units of the Jan Sanskriti Manch are coming up also in areas where the Party’s presence is otherwise quite limited or almost negligible. In recent periods, JSM branches have emerged in states like Maharashtra and Gujarat. By contrast, our cultural units are quite weak in many of our otherwise important and advanced areas of work in Bihar and UP. The most positive development on the cultural front has of course been the revival of Hirawal, the JSM’s song-and-drama unit in Patna. It is attracting young talents and some of its recent performances have been widely acclaimed. The cultural organisation in Jharkhand too has remained quite active. The re-launching of Samkaleen Janmat as a cultural quarterly has also been another significant development in recent months. But beyond the pages of cultural magazines and theatre halls packed with predominantly middle-class audience, the greatest emphasis on the cultural front must be laid on forging still closer and organic ties with the movement of the rural poor and the working class and on evolving new forms and producing suitable materials to aid the movement.
4. Outside of the Hindi belt, the cultural organisation in West Bengal has regained much of its lost activism. Apart from ensuring regular publication of Nabanno, the Gano Sanskriti Parishad is also organising cultural festivals and padyatras. Recently it has also held its state conference. In Assam, in spite of the presence of highly talented and dedicated culltual personalities in and around the Party, the cultural organisation does not seem to have taken a functional shape yet. For the last two years we have been organising a cultural festival of tea garden workers to counter the dominant culture of obscurantism and vulgarity. It has been able to attract and activate a number of progressive individuals and a Chah Janajati Sanskriti Parishad (tea tribe cultural council) has been formed to carry on this campaign. In Karbi Anglong, in spite of planned attacks, the renegades have not been able to divide the Karbi Cultural Society and dampen the spirit of the comrades working on this front. Comrades have successfully frustrated the reactionary campaign directed against the Vinod Mishra memorial park at Taralangso, the cultural centre at Diphu. The annual youth festival is being regularly held in every February and plans are afoot to develop a mobile theatre troupe. Punjab is another state where we have a number of singers who not only have their roots in the progressive and revolutionary cultural traditions of the state but are also engaged in the production of new materials in the context of the current agrarian crisis. But we are yet to explore the possibility of building a cultural organisation in the state. The situation is similar in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, where in spite of powerful traditions of rationalist and revolutionary cultural movement, we have not yet succeeded in making a proper beginning.
5. We have a number of comrades and close friends working in the print and electronic media and are experimenting with various modern forms of art and popular entertainment, but we have not been able to develop and maintain a system of regular interaction with these friends and benefit from their experience and ideas. Indeed, JSM and other cultural organisations have great potentials to emerge as broad-based progressive cultural platforms. Even though we are not yet in a position to form an all-India cultural organisation, we must begin efforts in this direction. Systematic cultural exchanges should be promoted between states and across languages, and workshops should be organised for various streams of art and culture. It is important to rise above political polemics and organisational divisions and attract, accommodate and activate the broadest possible sections of active cultural workers in the movement. At the same time we must preserve, nurture and deepen our strong roots in the people’s movement, our integration with the masses and their heroic struggles and sacrifices that alone can supply the energy, inputs and insight necessary for a popular democratic and progressive culture of creation and resistance. Above all, we must co-ordinate, promote and build up cultural troops which can rouse and mobilise the masses in rural areas, in slums and working people’s colonies with popular perfomances. JSM and other state-level cultural organisations should pay attention to the task of equipping performing groups at the grassroots with suitable cultural material and help them improve their standard. q