Reviving the Parsee Punch with new pickings

Humour has been the golden lining of India’s realpolitik for as long as one can remember. The early kings hired jesters; Mughal emperor Akbar had Birbal and, in the 19th century, quick-witted Indian writers picked up from the British bible of humour, Punch, to laugh like the white “babus”.

By the end of the 19th century, at least 70 Indian-style Punchlike papers and magazines had appeared in over a dozen cities of the country.

“Humour unfortunately is now on the decline in public life. The composition of political clans has changed so dramatically that their appreciation for humour is diminishing. Public life has become very combative and politics competitive. The ability to laugh is becoming more of a rarity,” historian and anthologist Mushirul Hasan, the director of the National Archives of India, says.

Hasan’s new humour compendium, Wit and Wisdom: Pickings from the Parsee Punch (Niyogi Books) published last month, has reproduced some of the best caricatures from the illustrated Parsee comic weekly paper published for over seven decades from 1854.

The cartoons mirror the social and political situation of Bombay and the western provinces of the country in the light of world events

There are also academic accounts of the history of the Parsee community in India and how politics, religion, reforms, identity and foreign affairs affected their lives.

The Parsee Punch, like the London Punch, contained 20-36 pages of funny illustrations. The weekly’s name was later changed to Hindi Punch for a more panIndian identity and continued to be published till 1930.

“You can’t conceive a human society without humour. Modern India had several great humorists like Mahatma Gandhi, Sarojini Naidu and Jawaharlal Nehru.

Shankar was everybody’s favourite and with Laxman, the common man became a symbol. There was a lot of homour in Urdu writing before and after Independence,” Hasan said.

The cartoons have a nationalist colour. A late 19th century Parsee Punch illustration, “A Loving Pair”, makes a political comments about a cross-cultural love.

It reads thus: Fergusson (to a native sari-clad lady, whom he hugs): “Yes, my dear, I shall always try to make you happy!”

Miss Poona Bai: “I am so happy, so joyful for your kind and sincere attention towards me, my dear Fergusson, that I am unable to express my feelings in words...”

(Sir James Fergusson had made an important concession for establishing a native girls’ high school at Poona.)

“The remarkable thing is that even though the Indian Punch writers were critical of the ruling British government and its policies, the British never proscribed any of the issues. There was a certain level of acceptance of the humour,” Hasan said.

The Indian avatars of Punch brought about an acknowledgement by the erstwhile British rulers that “Indians had a sense of humour”, Hasan said.

“They realised that humour will be appreciated by the educated elites. They would read, laugh and forget about it,” Hasan said.

The Parsee Punch is the second in the series of Punch anthology by Hasan.

The first volume consisted of pickings from the Awadh Punch, published from Lucknow from January 1877 to 1936.

“The Awadh Punch, edited and published by Munshi Sajjad Husain, was a household name hosting writers like Akbar Allahabadi, Ratan Nath Sarshar and Mirza Began,” Hasan said.

The character sketches in the magazine were described by critics as the “precursor of the modern

Indian short story”.

The Awadh anthology caricatured the Raj, defended Indian tradition and wrote political satires of early 20th century India with sketches of comical stereotypes such as “the patwari, chawkidar, revenue agent, honorary magistrate, the Englandreturned and the title-hunting associations of noisy zee-huzoors”.

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Around the 11th century, gypsies (gitanes) moved from India in arduous journeys in caravans. They migrated to the Middle East where they split into two bands, one going northwards to Eastern Europe. Hungarian gypsy music became famous through the Hungarian Gypsy Dances by Johannes Brahms. Another band went via Egypt to Morocco and thence to Spain, arriving in the 15th century. They suffered persecution in Europe along with other minorities such as Jews and Muslims, even as late as in the Second World War.

The late Mario Maya, director of the Centre for Flamenco Performance Studies who came from a renowned flamenco family of Granada said, “The subconscious influences which we brought with us date back to India because we emigrated from there centuries ago and although we’ve lived here for 500 years its still possible to see Hindu influences... the way we move our hands... the sounds we make.... the way our feet are deeply rooted in the earth.... always touching the ground like the Indian kathak....”

Official recognition for flamenco’s Indian origins has come from the Spanish Government which has decided to establish a flamenco institute in Jodhpur. Jodhpur lies in the original heartland of the gypsies.

Small dedicated dance groups keep kathak dancing, flamenco and their fusion alive. Ruchi Sanghi has taught dancing to

Australia awards show in 2004. Since then they have collaborated regularly for a number of shows.

The other instance where Spain and India meet in dance and music is in Goa, where during Portuguese rule, the missionaries were Spanish and amongst the things that they brought, besides food and dress, was their folk music which integrated with local rhythms and the Konkani language.

This writer, when visiting the Basque region in northern Spain in 1962, was astounded to hear the music sounding so Goan! The Jesuit missionaries, including the famous St. Francis Xavier, came from the Basque region.

The Franciscan missionaries were the other Spanish order which operated in Goa. Surprises continued in southern Spain where the music of the Baleares Islands (Mallorca and Menorca) had pieces which were identical to well-known Goan folk songs!

On returning to Goa, this connection was expounded by me in The Navhind Times. Spanish folksong recordings astounded connoisseurs of Goan folk music.

In recent years there has been a resurgence of Goan folk music, including adaptations by foreign bands visiting the state. Goan folk music can readily be converted to European-style classical music.

Goan folk music has been incorporated in numerous Bollywood songs because for many decades, Goan musicians had played for renowned music directors such as C Ramachandra, SD Burman, Shankar Jaikishen pubs, singing the thrilling flamenco to the ecstatic rhythm of the Spanish guitar. They said that their people had come from India. This was not surprising by the way they moved their hands and created rhythm with their feet.

The gypsies of Spain became famous in the 19th century through Gustave Dore’s art. In a democratic Spain, flamenco has flourished through successful groups like the Gypsy Kings which have modernised and energised flamenco. The actress Brigitte Bardot popularised flamenco and this dance form has become the foremost of Spanish folk music and dance.

Flamenco singers are storytellers like the kathaks. Kathak is a northern Indian creation which flourished during the Moghul period. Kathak dancers entertained at royal courts resulting in the emergence of several gharanas or schools of the art form. The British despised the art as being a decadent practice by nautch girls.

Kathak needs to be promoted at the school level in groups like those run by Ruchi Sanghi and the flamenco teacher Sussana Menotte. Amongst the prominent shows which they organised were at the Fire Water festival at the Rocks in Sydney, at the Parramasala festival in Paramatta and at the closing of the Goddess exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW. Two major combined productions Namaste and Nine Flavours involved over 80 dancers and 8 musicians from both forms.

Such shows are spectacular for costumes, accompanying music and instrumental and feet rhythm. Ruchi Sanghi says, “I am truly passionate about bringing the lesser known kathak to the mainstream, as it is one of the most dynamic of theatre art forms. It has gained wide recognition in the US and UK, but we are yet to find that status for kathak in Australia.” had pieces which

2012: Why it’s not our last

Once again, worriers across the globe garner their forces to find out whether this year will be the world’s last

By RITAM MITRA

Social media has been rampant over the last year or two, perpetuating the belief that the world is going to meet a catastrophic end this year. It could be simply put aside as a bit of fun and games due to conjecture – if it wasn’t for the fact that there have now been several cases of people committing suicide so as to avoid living through the “end of the world”.

As is typical of stealth marketing, the campaign for 2012 made no mention of the movie itself, and as a result, many unknowing viewers went as far as to contact astronomers in panic.

The recent hype around 2012 began primarily with the release of the 2009 blockbuster film 2012. The movie was advertised using stealth marketing, which, while hugely successful, involved websites and TV advertisements from the fictional “Institute for Human Continuity”, calling on people to prepare for the end of the world. As is typical of stealth marketing, the campaign for 2012 made no mention of the movie itself, and as a result, many unknowing viewers went as far as to contact astronomers in panic.

The belief in the 2012 myth, however, has its roots in the ancient Mayan “Long Count” calendar, upon which the film was based. The Mayans called the current period the “Great Cycle”, a cycle which will end on the winter solstice this year – the longest night of the year. For the Northern Hemisphere, this falls on December 21. It is not, as many believe, the end of the Mayan calendar – it is simply the end of one of its cycles.

This will supposedly be the trigger for a series of catastrophic and unpredictable events – cities being thrown into the sea as a result of a sudden shift in the Earth’s mantle and crust; a reversal of the magnetisation of our poles, and even a collision with the planet ‘Nibiru’. It must be noted that Nibiru has never been seen or proven to exist – believers refer to it as an invisible planet.

However, the ancient Mayans actually believed it was a cause for huge celebration to have reached the end of a whole cycle. In the same way modern civilisations celebrate the end of the year and the ushering in of a new one on December 31, so too did Mayans believe reaching the end of a cycle was a great occasion – it is just that this cycle began on August 11, 3114 BC.

civilisation that believed the year 2012 would be a momentous one. In 1998, Kalki Bhagavan, the Indian guru, spoke about the year 2012 as a ‘deadline’ bringing about the end of ‘Kali Yuga’, or the last of the four stages (the previous three being Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga and Dvapara Yuga) that the world goes through, according to early Hindu texts. Kali Yuga is said to be a phase of spiritual degeneration in humanity, and is referred to as the “Dark Age”. However, even here there is conjecture – some religious figures believe Kali Yuga is already over, while others believe it is yet to begin.

Scientists have been inundated with queries on the subject for the last five years. Since 2007, NASA’s ‘Ask an Astrobiologist’ public outreach website has been asked over 5000 questions on the subject, including some from people asking whether they should kill themselves, their children or their pets. Sales of underground blast shelters have grown rapidly since 2009, and the mayor of the Brazilian city São Francisco de Paula mobilised his city to prepare for the date by stocking up on food and water. Similarly, in Corguinho, another Brazilian city, a colony is supposedly being built for survivors of the apocalypse.

Closer to home, one in ten Australians believe the world will end this year, with believers said to fall into two camps – one camp is full of catastrophists, who believe comets will rain down on the Earth in a brutal end to humanity. However, it is interesting that the larger group of Australian believers see it as the end of the world “as we know it” – the ushering in of a new age of enlightenment, a shift in human consciousness and perhaps a more tolerant, peaceful society. The poll was commissioned by Reuters, and involved 16,000 people in 21 countries. 20% of the Chinese and Turkish respondents believed the world would end, but only 4% of Indonesian respondents agreed.

Closer to home, one in ten Australians believe the world will end this year, with believers said to fall into two camps – one camp is full of catastrophists, who believe comets will rain down on the Earth in a brutal end to humanity.

Humanity has been perennially fascinated by the concept of predictions and prophecies. There were 42 failed doomsday predictions regarding the year 2000 alone, and Harold Camping recently made headlines for his several failed predictions regarding the end of the world, through which he generated massive revenue for his radio station in California. The only thing that has been proven certain is that we are uncertain about the future.

It was not just the ancient Mayan

So what will happen on December 21, 2012? Probably not much!