A Gloomy Indian Summer

FEW would knock a  festival that sets out to celebrate the culture of a diverse and fascinating country, but India Now has been a major disappointment.

I had been looking forward to 'the Mayor's India season' launched to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the country's independence, but as this Indian Summer draws to an end I can't help but feel...well..cheated.

It all just seems to have been a big marketing gimmick and a browse on the Visit London website has not allayed my suspicions. It shows that the majority of events placed within the India Now banner were either scheduled as part of other festivals (such as Manish Arora's catwalk shows at the V&A) or are existing annual events in the capital (such as the London Mela).

The few events that have been put on especially for the India Now season, have fallen way short of the mark by being too focused on Bollywood and relying on cheap publicity stunts.
From C-list Bollywood stars Amrita Arora and Celina Jaitley being flown in (first class of course) to show their faces on Regent Street to a woefully unspectacular replica of the Taj Mahal plonked on the Thames, India Now has paled in comparison to the festival that inspired it.

Last October, the French city of Lille held its own three-month long festival called Bombaysers de Lille (Bombay kisses from Lille) - celebrating the culture and arts of India's most vibrant city.

I was lucky enough to be invited for the launch weekend and what I saw was an entire city made up of almost exclusively white inhabitants unite to learn more about Indian culture and celebrate it together in a show of civic pride which was truly inspiring. (If you want to see what a real celebration looks like go to You Tube and type in 'Lille 3000').

After the launch weekend , which was widely covered by the French media, Bombaysers de Lille continued and thrived throughout the winter.

Indian artists from Chandigarh to Bangalore proudly displayed their work to enthused locals and exhibitions ran in museums displaying the very best of Indian art, culture, architecture and innovation. The city used historical buildings, such as an historic church and the central sorting office of the postal service to display modern and contemporary Indian art to dramatic effect.

If you compare the two festivals,  London has been trounced by Lille - the 2004 European city of culture  -  in a multitude of ways.

Lille had twelve 20ft tall fibreglass elephants (designed by the noted Bollywood set designer Nitin Desai) and the city's main train station was decorated to look like an Indian palace  - both of which provided a stunning focal point for the ensuing festivities.
London allowed the festival to take over Regent Street for one day.

Lille had 1,500  residents dressed up in Indian costume and 25,000 revellers partying to Bollywood music in two main squares until 4 am  - in October!

London had  'dancers' going up and down ropes for a few hours each evening for a week on Trafalgar Square watched by a few hundred people - in August.

Lille had screenings of over 500 Bollywood movies but also placed special emphasis on a season celebrating the work of the heavily censored Indian film-maker Anand Patwardhan and innovative directors such as Mira Nair and Guru Dutt.

London chose the universally-panned Mighty Ducks rip off 'Chak De India' for the showpiece screening of an Indian film in the courtyard of Somerset House, probably for the 'star power' of actor Shah Rukh Khan.

So why did London get it so wrong? I offer many reasons.

Some of the partner organisations selected for India Now have raised eyebrows.
Why is the official media partner the BBC Asian Network - a station which is only available on DAB in London and therefore has more listeners concentrated in the Midlands?
The BBC's involvement has also been at the behest of London's 'grass roots' community stations such as Punjab Radio, Club Asia and Sunrise - who have been banned from broadcasting from events such as the London Mela in Ealing.

The season has thus provoked resentment from the very people who promote a host of Asian-related activity that goes on in London every year, with or without the Mayor slapping a brand name on it.

The  perceived 'aloofness' of India Now is also not helped by the fact that businesses in areas such as Southall and Wembley have benefited very little from it, as City Hall focused on roping in organisations in central London.

Why didn't they take the festival into the heart of London's Indian communities, and promote areas such as Southall Broadway and Ealing Road as real tourist attractions? India Now has been spread too thin over three months across a huge city.
The slant towards Bollywood is predictable and cheap and came despite a vow to celebrate the culture of India.

Where are the events celebrating the culture of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Bengal and the Gujarat?
Furthermore a launch weekend, with several attention-grabbing events taking place in proximity (a la Lille) would have drawn in people across London, which India Now has largely failed to do.

Some would argue that anything promoting Indian culture In London can only have a positive effect on community cohesion and integration.

But surely Britain's large and influential Indian community have gone beyond the stage of being thankful for anything that promotes our culture.

London, for all its reputation as the world's most vibrant, multicultural city and Ken Livingstone, who revels in his image of being the great celebrator of this diversity, should have put on an Indian Summer to remember - and not one overshadowed by our friends across the channel.

Comments

[preeti]

I would also like to add that most of the music I heard during the Regent Street festival was not 'Indian' in the slightest. It would certainly have been better placed in the Notting Hill Carnival. Indian boys and girls putting on Jamaican accents and dancing around like Eminim is not my idea of India or Bollywood.

[Anjeli]

Extremely well written, Amar Singh! This festival didn't really celebrate India and as the title suggests, certainly not India as it is now! It was poor, your point about only one part of India being acknowledged as so pertinent - only one show and that too a tiny part was from the South, not to mention the rest - where was the Goan beach that was promised, at Regent's street, where was Kerala's representation (considering Lille had the big Kathakali dancers with masks) or Parsi food or the Dosa craze which is taking over London right now - all of these are things that are represented in Britain by Indians from all over India, yet forgotten by this sorry festival. I doubt many Indians actually knew about it, let alone tourists who were in town. While a big mainstream PR company tried to plug away, the festival itself was a failure in my book. You are right about the Beeb and Asian Network also putting a dampner and showcasing some talents in bad taste, while the real Indian areas that one takes foreigners like you would do with China town, like Wembley, Southall or Green Street were totally ignored.

[Anon]

Isn't this just about being British? It may be an Indian festival, but presumably most of those attending and organising the event were either (a) born here; or (b) have spent a significant amount of time here.

As such, regardless of ethnic origins, we are programmed to have a 'stiff upper lip' and behave in a certain way. This coupled with the fact that most Indians tend to be fairly introverted well-behaved types, is likely to lead to a fairly subdued 'festival' no matter where it's held.

To paraphrase the blog's author:

"So why did London get it so wrong? I offer one reason. We're British"