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April 20, 1998
SPECIALS
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How readers reacted to Pritish Nandy's last column
Date sent: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 01:27:44 +0530 Believe it or not, I agree one hundred per cent with Pritish Nandy. Pramod Navalkar and his ilk should be gagged, bound, put away, and forgotten about, in some underground cellar. Varsha Bhosle
Date sent: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 00:51:18 -0400 Mr Nandy's concept of freedom is indeed amazing. All my questions over the years as to how India became the country it is today are being answered by him. His previous columns on swadeshi bashing where he comes across as a totally ignorant person who doesn't know the ABC of economics and national welfare have cleared all my doubts. His columns are as enlightening as a South Bombay college's yuppie who says MAN, TATAS ARE REALLY COOL! Has Mr Nandy ever been to the Independence Rock at Rang Bhavan? Does he know or understand, or even bother to understand, as to the percentage of serious music lovers compared to the junkies who frequent such concerts? Yes, rock is good but along with it comes things like drugs, alcohol, senseless rebellion etc. It is really very surprising that the man chooses to comment on each and every thing that goes on. Are we seeing a modern day Socrates? Lastly, I wish people like him would exercise a little more responsibility as journalists. What they write is read by the lifeblood of the nation, the youth. Don't pseudopsyche them. It isn't doing any good for the country. Jai K.Sampat
Date sent: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 08:23:30 +0800 If that stupid minister for cultural affairs enforces this law of his, I am not coming back to India. Thanks, Pritish, for speaking for us 'Firangs'. Music is not only a means of entertainment, it's also a form of expression. And that can't be guided by a 65-year-old chachaji who doesn't even know what free expression is all about. Sanjeev
Date sent: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 15:57:00 -0500 The Maharashtra government has nothing to do with Sukh Ram and Buta Singh. Sukh Ram and Buta Singh have nothing to do with allowing a rock concert in Bombay. Instead of telling some one else to go to hell, should we tell you to go to hell?
Date sent: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 10:08:44 +0530 Well, Mr Nandy has put together a nice piece on how rock is anti-establishment and how it is alright to be so. He says how rock is seen as sex, violence and vulgar noise. But he doesn't say that it is not so. It definitely isn't. For me and several others like me, rock music helps one discover oneself. It is a medium for channeling raw youth energy into entertainment. Not saying Up Yours to the state. And even if rockers want to say Up Yours to the state, it is better to say it thru music than through looting and rioting. Rock is about a variety of subjects. For me, it is sickening to listen to film music or pop music that goes on crooning about a warped idea of love. Nobody talks about a mother and her child like in Pearl Jam's Alive. Nobody sings about Time like Pink Floyd. Maybe rock scares some people because they can't digest the idea of music that is more than music. They are nervous because they cannot comprehend what the music is trying to say. It is saying "It's alright to be the way we are". Well, maybe some rock is sex, violence and vulgar noise. But then, so is politics. It becomes very difficult to take a portly neta seriously as he tries to dictate what is good and what is not. Mr Nandy is right about one thing. Youth detest being talked down to. Patronising doesn't go well with them. So if people like Mr Navalkar want to denounce rock, they have to get off their pyjamaed butts and take the trouble to understand it. Vulgar lyrics are OK in Dada Kondke's films, are they? That is Indian culture, isn't it? Indian culture is what Indians do. And if Indians wanna rock, so be it. Perhaps if the organisers of rock shows are willing to contribute to the Shiv Udyog Sena (if they can find it), rock would cease to be a corrupting influence on the minds of youth. And please, Mr Nandy, Techno is not rock.
Shariq Siddiqui
Date sent: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 11:56:40 +0900 There is absolutely no need to go in for such lengthy explanations of what rock was/is. This is over-reacting. By doing so, you are putting yourself at the same level as those whom you accuse to be 'so-and-so.' Then what is the difference? If you have complaints, just go to the court. The courts always do justice. May I remind you of the Yanni concert? If they intend to donate the proceedings to a decent cause, there is no problem. Let the rich (or in your words, music lovers/freedom-lovers) waste their money, I do not care. At least some black money comes out. Uday
Date sent: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 19:30:30 -0700 We youth put up with too much crap! How else can you explain the government trying to stop the Independence rock concert? Hinduism has never been dogmatic, so what is the BJP's problem now? Does this mean that the BJP's grand concept of Hindutva does not include something as basic as respect for people's individual liberties? It's shameful that the Hindu banner is being hijacked by these fascists. If this was truly Hindutva we'd be more accommodative of all people, irrespective of their religion, the language they speak or the music they listen to. Sujeeth
Date sent: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 18:22:59 -0400 Tell these self-appointed messiahs to go to hell.
Date sent: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 20:47:00 -0400 Supporting rock for what it stands for is all very well. But don't you think it is a little hypocritical to claim to like rock, acid-rock, heavy metal, blah... not for its aesthetic value (or lack thereof ) but only for driving home the message -- up yours mom and dad?
Date sent: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 14:25:09 -0500 Good punch, Mr Nandy. It's a great article. Keep it up. Thanks Selva
Date sent: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 11:49:26 -0700 Ha, ha... that was funny. Why is Pritish Nandy shooting off like this on Rediff? I feel strongly with the underlying thrust of his article -- indiscriminate censorship is harmful. However, the article was thoroughly contrived and nauseating. Pradeep
Date sent: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 14:49:38 PDT It's hightime I saw something sensible in Pritish Nandy's columns. I just can't understand what this man wants to convey. It is ridiculous to see him worrying about rock music when India has lots of serious problems: population, corruption, poverty,unemployment... Don't waste Rediff's valuable space by publishing these kind of wayward articles on pointless and petty issues.
Kiran Pillarisetty
Date sent: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 11:04:42 PDT Mr Nandy, How is it that none of your corruption articles refer to the Bofors loot? Is it corruption only if Indians do it and is it "O Tempora O Mores" if a foreigner does it? Read the New York Times or Washington Post where a recent article where two 11-year-old kids went on a shooting spree in their school which left 4 students and a teacher dead! DEAD! Many here believe that this is attributed to the popular adult cartoon serial on television South Park where a character dies in the end always, very brutally. Anamika
Date sent: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 23:41:30 -0500 Dear Mr Nandy, You just don't seem to have learned your lesson after your butt was kicked of DD when you opened your big mouth. Have you been to the US lately -- you are just like the guests on the JERRY SPRINGER SHOW who come on the national television to bitch and fight with one another. I was never a big fan of yours and, believe me, I never will be one. Because what you write is pure trash. You always seems to write something controversial and radically against general public sentiment, maybe to hog some limelight. Talking about rock and that too, now! Looks like you had too much time one lazy Sunday afternoon. Comparing the rock of the 60s and the Naxalite Gaddar's ballad's is pure crap. The rock of the sixties centered around the human rights movement. Probably you could not hide your commie feeling, that you felt like equating Gaddar and the 60s rock. Gaddar supports a stupid ideology that believes in distributing poverty equally among the people. I think it is high time you take retirement and go back to your village. Prasanna
Date sent: Sat, 18 Apr 1998 09:33:45 +0530 It is heartening to read, finally, a coherent and supportive statement in favour of rock music. Mr Nandy has served as an inspiration for other unbiased "grown-ups" to come out and speak. What I would add, though, is that the core issue is greater. The crackdown on rock lies beyond a mere suppression of youthful exuberance. There is a two-pronged enemy here: the establishment assuming upon itself the power to regulate "morality" and to restrict freedom of expression for anyone who does not conform to its narrow definition of this "morality". The other is this resurgence of "anti-Western" sentiment in the name of "corrupting influences". So rock is the first target because it is the most visible, the most energetic and the least "conformist" of the so-called "Western" cultural forms (regardless of the fact that the music is going to be as Indian as the people who perform ). However, will the establishment stop with this? What if tomorrow they decide to control contemporary Western classical music, or jazz, because its abstract tonality may be a disruptive influence on youth (no, I am not joking: this happened to the noted Brazilian composer Heremito Paschoal because of his instrumental music: he had to actually serve time!). We need urgently more liberal and socially eminent "grown-ups" to speak up.
Jayant S
Date sent: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 20:50:21 -0700 Many of us will agree with Mr Nandy's article. Rock music provides the euphoric sense of freedom, as it relates to the protest against establishments in the US. However, I wonder why Mr Nandy has to resort to Western rock to articulate his sentiments against traditional long-standing institutions. Is the US more successful in marketing its "alternative/Generation-X" cultural expressions, or is there a void of anti-establishment protests in Indian music, literature, poetry ? A closer study of the history of rap music, as compared to rock (which Mr Nandy suggests) reveals how Urban Black has viewed both rock music and other American institutions. I would very much like Mr Nandy to explore more indigenous mode of alternative expressions. Please illuminate us!
Date sent: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 16:12:20 -0700 Whether Pritish is biased or not, I wonder what percentage of people responding to his columns are presently living in India. If you look at most of the replies they seem to be originating from the US. The more far away one is from home, the more one seems to be interested about what goes on there. Such readers also seem to be pouring all ideological frustrations they went through in their teens & later into their responses. They also seem to understand the US much better than they have understood India -- a place where they lived for 20 years.
Date sent: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 18:14:18 -0000 Mr Pritish (Leftist) Nandy, You said: "Societies grow, mature, discover themselves when they allow every voice within themselves to be heard. No government has the right to bludgeon anyone into silence, under whatever pretext. If you silence a rocker today, you will silence a poet tomorrow. After all, is Gaddar less dangerous than Guns 'n Roses? " Where were you when the Kerala government took charge of temples while leaving the management of mosques & churches to the respective religious groups?? What superlatives do you have for the West Bengal government's misadventure in giving voting rights to Bangla refugees?? Why do you refuse to hear the loud cries about a ledger scam in West Bengal?? What do you say about the CPI/CPI-M protesting against the beauty pageantry last time when ABCL brought it to India -- saying it pollutes Indian culture -- (one CPI-M activist immolated in Madurai), now that you want a rocker be greeted?? Why do you conveniently refuse to notice the resignation of Muthaiah?? Why don't you take note of the dirty fate of Commies in the USSR/China/N Korea?? (Pl note that the Commies have proved more than once that they're good at "BLUDGEONING EVERYONE INTO SUPER SILENCE") Why do you refuse to see sabotage when the Indian Commies call the Congress enemy before the election and then forge an alliance with the same enemies after the election?? The readers do have a right to know your true inclinations & colours. You (and journos of your kind) have fooled too many Indians already! You write stories that for a novice looks like a gem of an article. They fall prey 'cause many such persons are not well-versed in Indian politics. You hide the truth many times, show only one face, like the way the DD showed the UP affair when Kalyan Singh proved his majority on the floor. If morality in India is declining, the responsibility lies even on crafty journalists who misuse the opportunity of being read widely. Your articles often showed me the pitfalls of journalism and made me think 'are these people really in places where they deserve?' Rearrangement of words can make a truth sound like a lie. I have noticed you as a master of this art. Raviraj Rao. |
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