This demands us to possess not only the linguistic skills but also an open or democratic mindset so that we can make adventures into the aesthetic spheres that are being nurtured by the artists, writers and the locals belonging to various ethnic communities. We need to be proud of the writers, intellectuals and artists who are the principal creators of expressions in their mother tongues as well as in the national language. Writers who can reach out to the greater number of linguistic and cultural communities are the leaders of the performing arts and cultures of a federal Nepal.
The call for redrawing the boundaries from within the Maithili community gives us an impression that Nepali nationalism is going to cover diverse spheres in the coming days.
Dhirendra Premarshi, a well-known Maithili writer, artist and intellectual is famous for articulating feelings and thoughts through songs and poems, voices and visions in both the Maithili and the Nepali languages. His recent musical album titled Dega (a step forward) contains songs and music that express visions, and echoes the nature of the performance culture of a future Nepal. Songs collected in the album evoke the sky, the soil and the rivers that one comes across in the Mithila Pradesh.
Sung in Maithili, these songs represent the imaginaire of the Nepalis living in a nation that is in a state of political transformation. Youths, the protagonists in the songs, are “as free as birds in the sky”. They fly into the socio-political zones stretched all over Nepal of the present times. Personas we come across in these songs are the youths who participated in the task of demolishing the older regime in this nation. They in their ecstatic moods and intrepid voice define themselves as the source of power to build a new nation. They defy being identified in terms of a particular caste, religion and popular political propaganda. One of the recurring visions that they articulate or sing out is that they want to redraw the boundaries that have separated the Madhesis (those from the Tarai) from the Pahadis (those who come from the Hills). This call for redrawing the boundaries from within the Maithili community gives us an impression that Nepali nationalism is going to cover diverse spheres in the coming days.
The protagonists of the songs rooted to their communities are aware of the social ills that have consumed their fellow friends and they aspire to lead not only the community of the friends but also the entire nation. They are not one-dimensional characters overburdened with fixed political ideology of a certain party. They are the protagonists of an epic grandeur who live with some genuine sense of national aspirations. They overshadow the high-sounding nationalistic characters that we would come across in songs or lyrics sung out by the national media in the past. Similarly, they overshadow the characters that one comes across in several so-called revolutionary or progressives songs and lyrics that are bandied about these days in Nepal. They hold poetic attributes as they evoke greater creative power that the youths of the present times do possess.
As musician Premarshi points out: The music in this album makes some departures from the traditional rhythmic patterns of the Maithili music to reach out to the youths to address the new aspirations and sentiments of the present times. This deliberate intervention made on the musical scales seems to have followed a poetics that expects some improvisations in the steps and bodily movements on the part of the dancers as well as listeners who are the dreamers of a new age, culture and nation. This shows some creative challenges that artists and writers belonging to different ethnic communities need to meet in the present times. They cannot afford to remain communal nor can they remain status quoists as they have to reach out to the listeners and the readers of the new generation who want to redefine the social and political cultures. Metaphorically speaking, they got to learn to play a “double reed” flute. With one reed, they need to articulate the local tunes, their selves and the main aspirations and with another they need to articulate the national imaginaire in the changed social and political contexts.
This musical album can be taken as an example of how the writers and the artists in this nation have been trying their best to free the youths from the clutches of conventional as well as the propagandist political modalities. At a time when rumors about groups pandering with aggressive pockets in Bihar involving political leaders there have been circulating in the Tarai region, this musical album has come with a different power that dispels all these misapprehensions. And it makes us, both from Tarai as well as outside, realize that some strong indigenous creative power is undulating across the cultural communities of Nepal. Like the title of the album, we take a forward step towards a common horizon that we share in this nation as we listen to the songs and appreciate the power of poetry.
At a time when the major political parties are trying their best to manipulate the youths into their propagandist mode of war and violence across the nation, writers and artists like Premarshi are singing songs of a prosperous and happy future of a nation. Their ‘songs’ make us realize what an important phase of creativity that we are living in at the present times. Moreover, writers and artists who hold ethics and aesthetics of both the ethnic as well as national aspirations are the true leaders of arts and cultures of future Nepal. This reality demands upon us to free ourselves from the mono-aesthetic, mono-linguistic and autocratic ideologies. Songs of future Nepal have already started to undulate here and there but do we possess enough talent to understand them? Listeners and audiences of songs of federal Nepal know how to appreciate arts and ideas that make them dance in newer and improvised manners as they make some special Degas towards a common horizon that is extremely inspiring and bright.
rijalshiva@gmail.com
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