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On a name dropping spree
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This Saturday, Pracheen Kala Kendra invites artistes to debate on renaming the gharanas of classical music and dance. ANJANA RAJAN checks out the buzz
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The question has become a cliché. Its answer, though, can never be clichéd, since there are as many opinions as there may be reasons for asking `What's in a name?' The latest to provide a forceful answer is M.L. Koser, founder-secretary of the Pracheen Kala Kendra, a 50-year-old cultural organisation with its headquarters in Chandigarh. Koser is in town organising a seminar on the renaming of gharanas (schools or sub-styles) of Indian classical music and dance. Due to take place at New Delhi's Triveni Kala Sangam this coming Saturday from 11 a.m., the event is part of Koser's mission to engender debate and discussion on a topic that has been taken for granted for centuries.
"They talk of Jaipur gharana, Gwalior gharana, Patiala gharana," says the indefatigable Koser, who has already organised four such seminars in Agra, Jammu, Kolkata and Bhubaneswar. "But I ask you, do these towns dance and sing? No, the gharanas that are named after them were founded by great practitioners who lived there." Kings and feudal rulers who patronised the arts wanted to make sure the artistes didn't get too big for their boots, and that is why they discouraged them from attaching their names to the styles they founded, he feels.
However, to trace the source of a gharana back to a single source might not only be an arduous task, but also meet with resistance, as there may be disagreement as to which one individual should be given the credit for `founding' that particular school. A style of performance art, incidentally, qualifies to be called a gharana or school when an identifiable tradition is seen to be passed on from guru to disciples over at least three successive generations. While Koser feels he is equipped to find a single individual who could be called the founder in the case of all gharanas, not everyone would agree. But that is where the art community is invited to step in and "discuss the issue threadbare".
The convener of the Delhi seminar is Dr. Haricharan Verma, a noted vocalist and Deputy Director General, All India Radio. The coordinator is renowned vocalist Pandit Tejpal Singh of the famed Singh Bandhu duo. Eminent speakers include vocalists Shanno Khurana, Krishna Bisht, Keshav Talegaonkar and others. While the morning will be taken up with discussions, the evening is devoted to exchange of a different kind, as Kathak exponent Shobha Koser and Bharatanatyam dancer Suchitra Mitra perform a jugalbandi and Pandit Haricharan Verma gives a vocal recital.
The world of the traditional arts, especially Indian classical music and dance, is better known for a rock solid continuity than upheavals that bring about changes in approach and technique.
It is also, unfortunately, better known for scandals that momentarily disturb the peace than for constructive debate that might actually stir the intellectual faculties of its practitioners. With this series of seminars, Koser, whose Kendra will be opening its Delhi office behind Shankar Road shortly, has forced artistes and scholars to analyse their approach to their tradition. He promises to continue rocking the boat with a seminar on issues relating to the guru-shishya tradition and one on the high prices commanded by some performers.
Shanno Khurana, busy putting her thoughts together for Saturday's sessions, remarks, "It's a thought-provoking topic. We must have an analytical approach. We may disagree on so many things, but that is the idea. We must have a debate."
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