We have to arise, or the dance will still

It is the artist—folk, martial, tribal, classical and ritualistic, under the very gruelling circumstances of past and present day society and with a degree of sacrifice— who has carried the various expressions of India’s tangible and intangible arts through to the present day.

This alone has undoubtedly afforded the crucial links that modern or contemporary expression in India, has built itself upon. And it is because of their sacrifice that we can continue as a nation to boast of our great cultural traditions.

Secularists must accept the plurality and multiplicity of India’s traditions, including the multiple religious faiths that our soil is blessed with. Our traditions are precious. Not to be wiped out of educational curriculums only because they have a certain religious colouring.

I may not be Hindu by birth, but may certainly be Hindu in my expression of art, in my celebration of utsavas that mark the Indian calendar. I may not be Muslim by birth, but the Muslim arts grew unfettered on our soil and have enriched our land and people in ways unimaginable.

I am more secular, in the most universal way possible, because I have grown up under multiple influences all around me. This is possible because I am Indian. What an opportunity we have to share the languages and cultures of so many groups of people.

I accept that the assimilation of European scientific, economic and political thought contributed to the creation of a national freedom movement in India and is, therefore, one of the important elements of Indian national consciousness. Does that negate all scientific, economic, political and cultural thought that may have existed before our freedom movement and that continues to have relevance to our lives today?

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