Responsibility of the Indian Classical Artists community in today’s world

 

Indian classical dances are an important part of the Indian cultural heritage. Not just classical, but also our innumerable folk styles play an important role in our culture. The Indian arts have seen huge degradation and then revivals during our colonial and post-colonial history.

Today, on one hand though we see a huge increase in the number of young talents taking up our art forms, we also see on the other hand, a huge ugly debate that relegates our art forms to purely a religion or caste or creed, minimizing the importance of the art in itself, without the understanding that the art and the religion are a part and parcel of our roots, and the connections are going to exist. This slowly influences the number of people looking up to our art for its spiritual and philosophical value and moving away from them. Also, though we see a huge number of youngsters taking up the art form, there is also a drop in the long run, due to focus on academics and career, or influence of external art forms, the skewed perspectives of the debates, etc.

Social media has started playing an important role today in our lives. Its influence can be both positive and negative. A lot of youngsters are taking to social media to showcase their talent. Though this is helping may of them gain fame and stay with their art, this can be very limited, and the negative impact can be two-fold. First, the media by itself cannot differentiate good vs mediocre. And for the art to survive in its purest form, its important that the good artists should gain more ground than mediocre. Secondly, the short reels are limited to trending fast paced music-based dances, focusing only on Nritta or pure body movements. Whereas our classical art forms have been meant for more than entertainment. They were also a means of conveying stories, life philosophies and engaging the audience in spiritual growth.

With all these concerns with the changing focus in our Indian arts, then it becomes more and more important that our art community work together to ensure that our core culture and heritage in the form of our innumerable art forms survive the onslaught. But what can the artists do for the same?

First and foremost, ensure the divide created by the negatively focused liberal thoughts do not affect our arts. We need to ensure we do not create another divide based on art forms in addition to the religion/caste divides. We need to come together ensure we encourage all artistes, irrespective of the style of art/caste/creed to follow their journey. As artistes, gathering for all events, bringing our family and friends to the events, supporting paid events are very important irrespective of the style of art. Help keep the extreme liberals and also the extreme religionists away from art and support our artistes openly.

Many artistes are also now active influencers on social media. We need to understand that we are also cultural ambassadors of our country. What we say really influences outsiders, of not just our art, also our country negatively, bringing down the value of our art forms too. Its important to use social media to positively influence the thought processes around art, and guide and motivate upcoming artistes.

One important factor that takes away good artistes from the field is the low possibility of making a good earning from art as a profession. Competition is important for art to grow, but unhealthy competition that does not let any good artiste into the fold, cannot be the way forward to let our culture survive. It is important to think of how the established artistes can identify and further ensure the good artistes gain more ground and provide repeated opportunities and encouragement to grow them and their art. Providing the direction to younger artistes to convert their art into their profession and providing the network within the bigger community is another important factor in this highly competitive world.

For those artistes, who have the possibility to influence governmental and non-governmental or private organizations, its important to push for policies that can help elevate art and artistes, and provide them opportunities that ensures financial and emotional security.

To keep and build our audience, we need to consider another aspect. Today’s audience may not be well versed with our literature as the old days. Also, in the fast-paced world, holding the audience for long hours is not a possibility. Art cannot grow without audience, and hence we need to mold to this audience now. We need to make the audience understand what we perform, the story, the philosophy, the thought-process to help them appreciate better. Discipline that we follow in learning and practicing needs to also reflect in the event organizing, the time we follow, and the arrangements. Long recitals may hold a culturally active audience for long, but for general audience, we need to ensure the length does not lose them out, and our final performances happen to empty seats. It’s a sad reality we must adjust to, as the audience is a strong part of the community network.

When we talk now of the network, we need a right platform that helps bring the community of artistes, service providers and the audience or the real enthusiasts together to get the best support from each other and grow together. Only when we come together can the art and our culture survive.