Creative Freedom

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

All over the civilized world freedom of thought and speech, particularly in the creative spheres, is respected. Of course there are a few countries like China  where freedom is defined under ideologies of regimentation. In India the constitution guarantees all citizens the right to free expression of ideas. A poet can create new myths, reinvent old myths and episodes of history and can also make ideological interpretations totally unwarranted by the situational dynamics of the original. A.K.Ramanujan’s 300 Ramayanas is a case in point. The original poet- mythmaker is dwarfed by the later poets who gave their own ideological spins or unreined their fancy to come up with strange metaphorical signposts making Valmiki look sheepish for having composed the original Ram story in epical measures. I don’t, however, deny creative freedom to restate, rewrite or retell a myth or creative piece which has permanent appeal. But when Ramayana is the subject Valmiki comes to the mind of every student of literature; not the other versions of Kamban or the Buddhist and Jain poets. If a poet rights certain mythic wrongs using his creative freedom he is welcome. Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound unchains the hero by his profound sense of freedom and reinvents poetic justice. But the same cannot be said of Tate’s King Lear which kills Shakespeare’s brilliant masterpiece. I am positive Romila Thapar who argues for the acceptance of variants of the Ramayan will not accept Noam Tate's Lear.

In today’s India we function like the all-licenced Fool in the Elizabethan plays without, however, the subtleties of life perception. I can make Gandhi a traitor and Subhas Bose a seditious protagonist of anarchy without batting an eyelid, for the constitutional guarantee is deliberately misunderstood by ideological tomfoolery. Today in the guise of freedom of expression expletives are thrown at will, at political opponents and if it is an election campaign platform one may wax eloquent mortgazing logic to hate and passion. Every politician and for that matter every journalist is an authority on religion, economics, ethics and what not! An actor who normally mouths words written by others may also comment on the ethical substance of epics in the name of freedom of expression. Creative freedom may make Vyasa dance a bhangra and Padmavati dance in the royal court. The most abused term today is this freedom which creates hate and ill will between communities.

When the opportunity came to India in 1947 to create our identity as Indian we failed miserably. Our long history, instead of becoming the story of one nation comprising different religious and linguistic identities in a creative whole was appropriated by communal interest and their historians of colonial legacy. The majority community was so disorganised that they couldn’t establish whether the Aryans were indigenous or as claimed by the colonial researchers. When the constitution was drafted they couldn’t decide what ought to be the correct meaning of Secularism: They thought Secularism meant equal attention to all religions. And this creative indecision has given rise to all our problems. The temple, mosque and church like thre spears pierce our creativity whenever some original mind tries to create a new narrative.       

The Hindu Code Bill, the Muslim Personal Law Board provide new metaphors for creative discourse. The Rastriya Swayam Sewak Sangha has another creativity which systematically challenges the left and left of centre by using creative freedom, to hurl parliamentary abuses against the ruling leadership while the later consciously uses creativity with the authority of power.

In the so called art world creative freedom is seldom seen except in a scene or two of countable good films. In the plastic arts hindu goddesses are shown as underwater nudes in the name of freedom. Only the hindu deities, scriptures and philosophies are taken jibes at because in no other community literature, philosophy and art have sweep and imagination. The creative freedom of the epics, puranas, sculptural depictions of history or events of perennial appeal are so vast and various that the creative freedom of some so called liberals is limited to hindu bashing.

Freedom and creativity are always on a delicate balance: if creativity crosses the line it is reduced to bathos.