Subah-e-Banaras: Too loud, too showy, too disappointing

The district magistrate of Banaras Ratnesh Varma launched a "cultural programme" called "Subah-e-Banaras" on November 24, which will take place every dawn at Malviya Ghat.

Having heard about Subah-e-Banaras a few days ago, I looked forward to waking up before dawn and doing the 15-minute stroll down to the Ganga from my house through the neighbourhood of Nagwa. I imagined a small stage set up on the riverbank, the river flowing by behind, milky and saffron-shaded, and the audience gathered on the wide, high steps on Assi Ghat, everyone drawn together by the feeling of the Ganga and the rising sun.

I also suspected that this vision would not materialise. I turned out to be right. Just like in Ganga Mahotsav, which took place between November 3 and 6, Ganga mayya hardly seemed to be the focus of an event that claimed to pay tribute to her. The stage on Malviya Ghat seemed unnecessarily large. The red carpeting was fast soiling under the feet of the listeners, who sat stiffly in plastic chairs. There was an aarti in the new, showy style with choreographed movements performed by young pandits-in-training. There were the usual speeches by this and that official. The entire event began and ended late. The sound was too loud, so that Revati Sakalkar’s rich voice sounded sharp, and there was too much "echo" mixed in, spoiling the subtle intricacies of Hariom Hari’s tabla. There were four bright halogens surrounding the audience. The sun rose magnificently but was dwarfed by the sound and light. All around this mela-like set-up, the ghat was still caked with monsoon silt that should have been cleaned up by now, and littered in the corners with plastic bags. The only thing that restored any sense of balance and beauty to the event was Devashish Dey’s relaxed, melodious Bairagi Bhairav.

Subah-e-Banaras is a very good idea, a superior version, one could say, of the classical music radio programme that is missing from Banaras. I am excited to think of the music that is in store for us all, the Banaras artists to whom we can give proper attention, and all the beautiful mornings by the river through the changing seasons. A programme like this will strengthen Banaras as an urban and artistic community, which has been and is so rich in its arts, but which is forgetting the best of its older practices while also lagging behind Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune in terms of the support and patronage available for artists.

Yet why couldn’t the event be done without an unthinking emphasis on the large and showy and instead with the modesty and sophistication that can be found in much that is Banarasi? And why should a "cultural event" such as this promote a version of Hinduism that domineers and excludes so many? Details such as the amplification, the seating and the nature of the aarti may seem small, but they in fact distanced the entire event from its purpose. It is unsurprising, but still a pity that a venture so full of promise as this demonstrated, on its first day, a fundamental aesthetic, cultural and religious insensitivity and lack of imagination on the part of the conceivers and organisers.