The first volume of the Anamika Kala Sangam anthology on the performing arts in India attempts to analyse and explain the development of the different forms of music and dance in the last twenty-five years. The articles combine to offer a holistic view of the Changing patterns and in the process Provides an equation of the respective Values of Tradition and the Individual Talent. Musical and dance systems, the circumstantial forces that made changes necessary and possible, the formidable influences of the media, the gradual education of the audiences, the emergence of corporate patronship and the new responsibilities falling on the shoulders of performing arts - all these have been duly discussed. Artistes, critics and experts have, so to speak, participated in a kind of colloquy on the art forms. And not merely the classical forms, different styles of much lesser antiquity have also been accommodated. What the reader may find interesting is a complexity of response, reflected in the articles.
This is a necessary guide, both to the common and the serious reader, to the present status and structure of music and dance in India.
Professor Pabitra Sarkar (b. 1937) is the Vice Chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University and can be broadly described as a 'person in culture', although linguistics and theatre are his two major areas of interest. He has written more than twenty books and edited about ten. His own books range from scholarly treatises to children's rhymes. He is a highly respected personality on the Calcutta cultural scene.
I have always been hearing about the interaction amongst different arts. So much so that now it sounds a trifle like a slogan. I am also hearing a lot about national integrity over the past few years, and had not seen much to bear with those high sounding words. But I am not cynical and I have not yet lost faith in words because I believe in music. I have played my Sitar for peace and love and I never had any problem in relating to, and bringing people together not only in this vast country of ours with its different languages and cultures but in almost all the different countries on this planet during my musical career for the last 56 years!
I am happy that at last a book like this has come out with a definite perception of certain goals-the chief of it being national integrity. Music, Dance, Theatre and the Cinema-all these are forms I have been associated with in the past sixty and more years. All these forms to be discussed between two covers, and that too by legitimate experts, is a very welcome experience. It's always necessary to watch artistic developments, is necessary to criticise it with constructive motives and make room for reforms so that art may thrive. This anthology is an assessment of what has been achieved in the last 25 years -I myself am dying to know what really has been achieved or lost. This, I may suggest, is a transition period and all transition eras are as important as settled periods. Anamika Kala Sangam, the high-profile cultural organisation of Calcutta for whom I have performed myself has taken it upon themselves to produce this precious Anthology 1 bless this book with all my heart and hope that it reaches its most desired readership - that it be studied and treasured as an important body of reflection on what we artistes have been doing for the past few decades.
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