SOFT POWER OF BIHAR

Soft Power of Bihar

UDAY SAHAY & SHARANYA SAHAY

The fact of development can only be sustained by a feeling of development. This structure of feeling of self confidence and self pride expressed through various art and creative forms is what is known as SOFT POWER. Look at China and you will realize how they are peddling soft power – through films, music, sports, dance & drama, painting, literature etc – to establish their hegemony over the mightiest in the world. Their major positioning game in the last Beijing Olympics was to do just that and they won hands down. US was doing the same by using Hollywood for long – bombarding the world with their imageries of a higher and more prosperous life style. They actually commissioned hundreds of Hollywood films after the world got hostile to their bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki and these films were subliminally making the audience accept globally that Americans are a good lot of people who don’t fight and even when they are forced to, they do it for restoring justice, liberty, equality and freedom.

Bihar needs to take a lesson or two from this, all the more once it has taken to the path of fast development – the second fastest in India after Gujarat. In an informal chat, the current Director General of Doordarshan shared how intense and active is Chennai on hosting an average of more than 50 cultural events every day. You look at Madhya Pradesh and you have hordes of cultural happenings in Bhopal and elsewhere and the pleasant fact is that it has enjoyed the patronage of the State – irrespective of the political party in power over several decades now. Chhattisgarh has followed suit. In Kolkata, I have personally witnessed the former Chief Minister visiting the main cultural hub – Nandan near Chowrangee – almost every third day to watch a drama, a music concert or a painting exhibition. You can listen to local FM radio to see how they churn out jingles, songs, jokes and stories incessantly to create that soft power of the place. The aesthetic power of a city today is similarly judged by the number of coffee table books that it has.

On its just begun journey of development, what course of action through soft power you think the State can initiate to consolidate its gain over consciousness. The raw material of consciousness Biharis already have – just recall the linguistic structure – they use “HUM” instead of chaste “MAIN”. I have seen them preferring to die selling eggs or fruits than beg on the streets of Delhi – thanks to their deep rooted sense of HONOUR & SELF PRIDE. 

Other raw materials for soft power are Dhrupad of Mullik fame, Darbhanga and Bettiah Gharanas of Gayaki, Fagua of Holi and Birha of migration, Sugva of Chhath, Bidesia, Reshma-Chuharmal, Bihula-Bisahari, Bahura-Gorin, Raja Salhesh, Sama Chakeva, and Dom Kach theatre style originating out of Anga Pradesh, Patna school of painting called Patna Qalaam, Madhubani painting, Manjusha Kala or Angika Art, pillars of Ashoka, Didarganj Yakshi, Sultanganj Buddha, crafts such as special container woven out of sikki grass in the north, the "pauti", cotton dhurries and curtains, tussah or tussar silk, Tilba and Chewda of Katarni rice, Bhojpuri cinemas and songs, delicious eatables such as Litti & Chokha, Sattu, Thekua, Khamauni, Bhura, Pitthow, Khaja, Danauri, Tisauri, Anarsa, Khubi ki Lai, Malpua, Makhana among others. Folk dances similarly are several such as dhobi nach, jhumarnach, manjhi, gondnach, jitiyanach, more morni, dom-domin, bhuiababa, rah baba, kathghorwa nach, jat jatin, launda nach, bamar nach, jharni, jhijhia, natua nach, bidapad nach, sohrai nach, and gond nach.

Of the most important component of soft power – literature and poetry - Bihar has produced a number of writers of Hindi, including Raja Radhika Raman Singh, Shiva Pujan Sahay, Divakar Prasad Vidyarthy, Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar', Ram Briksh Benipuri, Phanishwar Nath 'Renu', Gopal Singh "Nepali" and Baba Nagarjun. Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan, the great writer and Buddhist scholar, was born in Uttar Pradesh but spent his life in the land of Lord Buddha, i.e., Bihar. Hrishikesh Sulabh is the prominent writer of the new generation. He is short story writer, playwright and theatre critic. Arun Kamal and Aalok Dhanwa are the well-known poets. Different regional languages also have produced some prominent poets and authors. Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay, who is among the greatest writers in Bangla, resided for some time in Bihar. Of late, the latest Indian writer in English, Upamanyu Chatterjee also hails from Patna in Bihar. Devaki Nandan Khatri, who rose to fame at the beginning of the 20th century on account of his novels such asChandrakanta and Chandrakanta Santati, was born in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. Vidyapati Thakur is the most renowned poet of Maithili (c. 14–15th century). Bihar has also produced a number of scholars, writers & poets of Urdu, including Shaad Azimabadi, Jamil Mazhari, Bismil Azimabadi (Poet of famous Patriotic ghazal 'Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hai'), Maulana Shabnam Kamali (Great Scholar, teacher, writer & poet), Kaif Azimabadi, etc.

What you think the State of Bihar can do to channelize and ignite that fire and feeling of worthiness in Biharis in and out?

Give your views; share your feelings….