We need to make a choice between freedom and fascism now: Nayantara Sahgal
Writer and activist Nayantara Sahgal, 91,
on writing about the ‘unmaking of India’, the role of fiction in politically
turbulent times and why there’s no destroying hope.
HOW DEEP is the
connection between the novels you write and the times we live in?
All my novels have
been about the times we are living in. My earlier novels have been about the
making of modern India. The last two (When the Moon Shines by Day [2017] and
The Fate of Butterflies [2019]) have been about the unmaking of modern India.
The scene unfolding now is not a continuation but a point of departure. My
novels have almost been a chronology of the times.
The quote from the
film, Follow the Fleet (1936), that you have picked as a start to this novella - ‘There may be trouble ahead/ But while there is moonlight and music and love
and romance/ Let’s face the music and dance' - is it about the elite in a
world blighted by trouble that they must respond to by dance and music?
It’s not at all about
the ‘elite’. It is a time of terrible tragedy, when the young gay man, the
dancer called Prahlad, on his wedding day — at a time when to get married to a
man is not legal — holds a private party and decides, as he is a dancer, to face
his situation bravely. And what else could be a statement about his spirit in
the face of adversity, and tragic, troubled times, but to step up and dance?
Despite being Indira Gandhi’s
cousin, you were one of the staunchest critics of the Emergency. Some people
refer to the present as an ‘undeclared Emergency’. What is the difference?
Now, whatever is
happening is happening under the cover of democracy. Between 1975 and ’77, we
knew where we were, with the Opposition jailed and the Constitution suspended.
Today, we are in a situation which is constitutionally a democracy but bears
all the hallmarks of a dictatorship. Freedom of expression is suppressed, there
is the banning of those who do not agree with the ruling party, none of the
criminals killing and lynching people are arrested or acted upon. Those who
generate hate are free and provided protection instead, by the police.
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Prof made to kneel, say sorry for FB post on Indo-Pak tension
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A message and an appeal
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A message and an appeal
Arshia Malik - A blessing or forever cursed? (February 9, 2019)
Is it worse than a
declared Emergency?
It is horrifying
because people who don’t care, say it is fine. India is famous for people
looking the other way when people die on the streets or worse. So the elite and
the educated, who know what is happening, don’t think there is anything wrong.
This is because of conspiracy theories floating around all the time — the poor,
Muslims and Dalits are being lynched while they go about their jobs.
What is the role of
fiction and writing in responding to these times?
Writing is a tool of
political activism. I am engaged in that. I am not marching on the streets now,
like I was in the days of JP (Jayaprakash Narayan) but writing is very dramatic
and very essential as we have seen, in Latin America, and in Spain, at the time
of dictatorships and the civil war. All the arts — writing, cinema and painting
— are political acts.
What is the role of
public intellectuals in such a society?
By this, I think you
mean academics who take public positions, like (historian) Romila Thapar? They
are very important as they shape young minds. Therefore, the stand they take
publicly is very important. We are at a crossroads now, we need to make a choice
between freedom and fascism. There is nothing in between. Public intellectuals
articulate that.
In January, an
invitation extended to you by a literary organisation in Maharashtra was
withdrawn, but you did go?
The invitation to the
All India Marathi Literary Meet was rescinded by the organisers. But I had no
idea the outcry there was from the Marathi writers. The support I got was
incredible. There were cultural and social organisations that read out my
speech in Maharashtra, so thousands of people heard it, who would not have done
so but for the ban! I am half-Maharashtrian, my father was a Sanskrit scholar,
a Gandhian. He had translated Kalhana’s Rajatarangini (1935). This has been
recently translated into Marathi. So they felt one of their own was slighted.
So actors, writers, all turned up in Mumbai, and while I am not into making
public speeches, I talked.
I thought I could make it more effective, as I was in
Mumbai for a function to mark Mahatma Gandhi’s
murder on January 30, to tell them about how upset I was that in the Mumbai
film industry, no prominent star/colleague of Naseeruddin Shah stood
by him when he spoke up on the environment in the country. I reminded them of
how the movies supported the national movement when there was complete
censorship. The British never allowed the mention of azaadi anywhere. So what
did the films do? They got around it by putting it into songs. In a famous
movie of that time, called Naya Sansar (1941), where Ashok Kumar played the
lead, there was a song, Ek naya sansar banaayein, aisa ek sansar, ke jisme
dharti ho azaad, ki jisme jeevan ho azad, ki jisme Bharat ho azad. And I said,
look at you today.
What is the role
that fiction plays at these times?
As far as I am
concerned, when I take a character and put her on a page, it takes a life of
its own. Most of my characters have written themselves. As William Faulkner
famously remarked, he had a hard time running after his own characters. It is
this imagination that dictators fear so much about the arts... read more:
https://indianexpress.com/article/express-sunday-eye/we-need-to-make-a-choice-between-freedom-and-fascism-now-nayantara-sahgal-5607048/