National Anathemas - 3

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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_India

Padmabhushan Ramachandra Guha (he writes well) called the 1950s a 'special, almost an innocent decade of India'...he happened to be commenting privately (before he became a Padma) on  one of my blog posts talking about my schooling at Muthukur:

http://gpsastry.blogspot.in/2008/01/teacher-is-born-with-lesson.html

Of course he didn't have a first-hand knowledge of that decade of mine...he was an infant then. But he is a renowned historian.

The 1950s were special because there was a sort of naive post-independence patriotism in the air. Even the films were full of it. There were quite a lot of heroic anthems in those movies. I was only into Telugu movies then (the term 'Bollywood' was yet to be born, in 1976 according to Webster). And I recall the song in an obscure Telugu movie, 'Palleturu' (Village), which made the patriotic song:

Cheyyethi jai kottu telugoda

Gatamento ghana keerti kalavoda

famous, for all of us in our school. And many more of that flavor. We were living in a dreamland then...till it was shattered by the 'Chinese Invasion' in 1962 where we got the drubbing of our lives. 

Then on patriotism became contrived, enforced, and enticed. I was in my final year M Sc then and we were all suddenly asked to enroll ourselves as cadets in NCC and do drill. The sweetener was a whopping 5% of our aggregate marks which translated to all of 40 marks for us. I for one hated drill but wasn't prepared to forgo all those lusty marks. 

And after a few days of drab drilling, all of us final years bribed or threatened our junior, genuine, 'student officers', and cut those drills...reporting sick and sitting under the tree and mugging up Shrodinger Equation for the hydrogen atom. Even now I feel rather guilty about it all. Conscription would have been more honest; voluntary enrollment absolutely fine, but not this sham patriotism.

And then we heard the song 'aye mere watan ko logo' sung mournfully by our Latajee in public in front of our Nehrujee. It is indeed mournful since it is said it brought tears to Nehrujee. Most certainly it wasn't a marching song or anthem material. No way. Wiki says:

"Those who don't feel inspired by 'Aye mere watan ke logo' doesn't deserve to be called a Hindustani", said Nehru, who was visibly moved by the song. 

By that yardstick I guess I am not a Hindustani...I better be a Telangani for my own good ;)

And then there was this even more ridiculous imposition that came up soon, before it was fitfully abandoned. At the end of every movie in every theater, our national anthem, Jana Gana Mana, was played and all those who watched the movie there were asked to stand up in front of their seats for the duration of the anthem. Pretty soon it became a chore and people became restless:

Webster:

chore: a dull, unpleasant, or difficult job or experience

Soon enough, in a bid to run away before the anthem started, movie-watchers tended to rush to the gates towards the thrilling end of the movie when the hero killed the villain and secured his heroine. And the exit gates got crowded and there were stampedes. And then there was this Government Order that exits should be closed five good minutes before the climax scene. 

Of course the tamasha didn't last and faded away on its own...like Karl Marx's Communist State.

There was this laughable story told and retold many times at IIT KGP long long ago when it was young and innocent (a la Ramachandra Guha):

There was this youthful Director posted there for a couple of years. One night apparently there was a protest by some students in one of the Halls of Residence. Maybe there was no water in the taps for all of 2 days or there was a cockroach or lizard or even a scorpion in their Special Dinner Pulav. The enraged dozen odd students rushed to the Director's Bungalow (which was then not guarded by armed personnel). And asked the Diro to come out into his verandah. 

And he obliged.

And a chair was brought for him by his peon. He sat on it to listen to the complaint of his students. And then the dozen odd students started singing throatily in chorus:

Jana Gana Mana...

and the Diro stood up respectfully. And sat down at the end of the anthem. And soon the students 'restarted' singing the anthem:

  

Jana Gana Mana...

The young and innocent Diro stood up again and sat down...and again...and again...and again...

Do such protests happen nowadays? 

I wonder...

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