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ArtConnect: The IFA Magazine, Volume 6, Number 1
It is written into the processes of nation-building that
the ruling culture of the state is more comfortable
with the classical and the canonical.
boisterous democracy as opposed to a
quiet, disciplined meritocracy. Even
the rulers of democracies that are
large, diverse and unruly like to have
despotic regimes around their borders;
they are easier to manage or
manipulate. Democracy is a dirty,
messy affair that involves coping with
a whole range of political forces, many
of them unmanageable. Epics and
their myriad variations represent that
diversity, chaos and resistance to the
ambitious projects of the state. No
regime, however deeply committed to
multiculturalism, likes to further
complicate matters for itself by
entering the domain of popular
culture and dealing with the inner
diversity of religions, castes and the
countless customary practices with
their tacit normative frames
(lokachara).
In sum, it is written into the processes
of state formation and nation-building
that the ruling culture of the state is
more comfortable with the classical
and the canonical. Accepting the
plural, the decentralised, and the local
is to negotiate the non-negotiable.
Hence the frantic attempts in India,
too, to locate the source of Indian
identity and unity in the Vedas and
Upanishads, despite what the two
tallest Indians of our times insisted:
namely, that the unifying principle of
Indianness can be found in the Bhakti
and Sufi movements of medieval
India. Hence also the struggle to
disown the awareness that, unlike in
Europe, the medieval period has been
culturally and spiritually one of the
most creative in our past.
Here, I am not supplying a critique of
the classics but situating them in the
contemporary politics of culture.
Sourcing the cultural unity of India
from its medieval traditions—from
the multi-vocal spiritual figures,
mystics, theologians, poets, musicians
and composers—becomes a clumsy
affair and demands a different set of
political skills. This strand of tradition