A world renowned artist whose performance was stopped midway for being “unsuitable” for Lucknow found no place in Friday's UP Diwas celebrations, despite an assurance from the government.
Manjari Chaturvedi, a Kathak dancer, has created a unique form of the art in ‘Sufi Kathak’ which her official Facebook page describes as a combination of ‘the mysticism of Sufi traditions with classical Indian dance’.
On January 15, she was performing in Lucknow at a programme organised by the state’s cultural department when the music was switched off abruptly and the next performance announced. Chaturvedi said she was told that Qawwalis (a form of Sufi devotional music) could not be played as part of the programme.
Chaturvedi, who now stays in Delhi, was born and brought up in Lucknow. Her father was a renowned space scientist and the director of the Remote Sensing Applications Centre.
The government’s culture department clarified that Chaturvedi’s performance had been cut short as the programme was running late and that she would be invited to perform at the UP Diwas celebrations. It also said Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath himself would be the chief patron of the programme.
However, Chaturvedi’s name was missing from Friday's list of performers which included Bhojpuri film stars Ravi Kishan (Now MP from Gorakhpur), Dinesh Lal Nirahua (who was pitted against Akhilesh Yadav on a BJP ticket in Azamgarh) and singer Kailash Kher.
Chaturvedi told THE WEEK that she had been asked for free dates and her availability over the phone after the January 15 fiasco. She added that she would not like to take any names to make the matter linger.
After much coaxing, she told THE WEEK, “I cannot find the right words to express. The thoughts are too intense. It seems a loss of complete culture (of) the Lucknow that I knew of. I always take pride in saying that in Lucknow secularism is not taught in text books but people live it daily. I have myself lived it. The layers of culture are not black or white, there are many hues of greys in between and we cannot remove that. The culture lives on and on”.
Since Adityanath was anointed UP’s chief minister, a distinct agenda—which includes renaming cities (for example Allahabad is now Prayagraj) and a ‘Ganga Yatra’, currently underway with one aim to hoist saffron flags on the houses of the villages it passes through—has been aggressively promoted.
