Popular Cultures: Television and Patriotism
Duration: 01:02:59; Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1; Hue: 33.257; Saturation: 0.047; Lightness: 0.353; Volume: 0.036; Cuts per Minute: 3.905; Words per Minute: 0.016
Summary: 26th January, 2002, 52nd Republic day of India. The citizens of India get to feel the federalism of the republic of India only on few days: the independence day on 15th August, the republic day on 26th January, the days of the parliament elections and ofcourse the days of wars with the neighbouring countries. The nationalist sentiments run high on those days, specially in the hours spent in front of the television or with the newspaper. The orchestrated visuals that get laid out evoke range of sentiments: pride, insecurity, vulnerability, bonhomie, benevolence, power, expanse and so on. The centre of all these is the state arranged republic day parade in New Delhi. There are many other public programme that take place throughout the country on that day, but they are all smaller replicas of the master programme, both in terms of look and theme. The parade is arranged by a series of floats: by the defense ministry, by the ministry of sports, by each state, by youth, by women, by issues, by public institutions and so on.
The floats of army trucks and the soldiers on the horseback.
New Delhi, India
Silent
army
defense ministry
horseback
republic day
telecast
doordarshan
float
govt
president
procession
state
vehicle
New Delhi
audience
capital
citizens
defense
dignitaries
doordarshan
floats
fog
installation
institution
march past
marching tune
media
national
new delhi
parade
pavilion
president
pride
public sector
rajpath
republic
salute
spectacle
state
telecast
television
valor
war
winter
The missile vehicles pass by - displaying machismo, valor, power and hegemony. The object also looks like a male organ.
destruction
display
hegemony
invasion
machismo
male organ
missile
power
valor
violence
war
The President takes the salute from various regiments of the army.
dignitaries
erect body
file
salute
uniform
vip
army
pavilion
podium
regiments
soldiers
weapons
More regiments pass by and the President in the podium takes salutes. Constant cutting between helicopter shots and close shots create the desired sense of scale in spectacle and dedication in detail.
dedication
helicopter
scale
shots
spectacle
television
salutes
More regiments and more salute taking. The lack of variety in shot taking and editing is shocking. Obviously there are a few static cameras without anybody operating it in any meaningful way. Also the editing is pre-decided as cut from camera 1 to 2 to 3 to back 1 etc. But wondering whether this monotony in rhythm itself creates the low intensity wide emotion of patriotism!
band
camera
editing
monotony
uniform
erect body
parade
Ah! The girl scouts. Some welcome change. The girls trying hard to be erect and focused like the regimented army men. Thankfully their humanness is still betraying them! Anyway the President is equal to all groups - so he is still taking salutes. It must be a difficult job to be a president, atleast on the Republic day.
girls
march
regiment
republic day
scout
trainee
youth
The floats have started - the big cultural extravaganza. Every year the folk / traditional artists from each state struggle with the govt. and their power brokers to get a chance to be part of the float of their state. It is suppose to be a great honour, maybe good money too. Floats from Andaman & Nicobar and then Bihar.
Andaman & Nicobar Islands
Bihar
agent
andaman
artist
bihar
folk
nicobar
New Delhi
traditional
The floats appear alphabetically by the states- populated by the people in traditional costume of the respective states. So the next one is from Chhatisgarh and then Gujarat. Oops! The next is Jammu & Kashmir. What a contrast! The beds of Hindutva and Islamic militancy.
Chhatisgarh
Jammu & Kashmir
chhatisgarh
citizens
floats
folk art
gujarat
jammu & kashmir
people
costume
Keral - Kerala with their manadatory Kathakali performers in costumes. After that Madhya Pradesh with visual of forts, horses and virility.
Kerala
Madhya Pradesh
extravaganza
fort
horseback
kathakali
kerala
madhya pradesh
performers
podium
sword
virility
warriors
cliché
telecast
tradition
Now comes aamchi (ours in Marathi) Maharashtra and that too in bullock cart. And milk pots. It is depicting the popular public game Govinda - where the neighbourhood boys play the game of breaking a milk pot kept hanging high up. This game is suppose to have been invented after the childhood stories of Lord Krishna. Next follows Meghalaya, one of the marginalized states of India, part of the romanticised seven sisters states. They come with their 'birds and bees'. Then comes Mizoram in their 'tribal' costume display. Next is the big boys of Punjab with a display of valor- medals and insignia, the patriotic race. Then comes Tripura - modest state, modest claim. Teracota (craft and architecture of mud) temples and low key music performance.
Maharashtra
Meghalaya
Mizoram
Punjab
Tripura
big boys
birds & bees
bullock cart
childhood
game
govinda
indigenous
insignia
lord krishna
maharashtra
medals
meghalaya
milk pot
mizoram
neighbourhood
patriotic
perception
play
public
punjab
seven sisters
temple
teracota
tribal
tripura
tripura music
valor
It is time for Uttar Pradesh - the heart of India, the kings of independent Indian come from this region. It is 'Holi' for them, the festival of colour. The state floats end here and now comes theme floats.
First one is (ghar) - Home.
Various models of houses in flowerbed, in the middle of snow, on a peak etc. Ofcourse absent are the blue plastic of the shanties of urban migrants - in India more live in those homes than in any other types.
Next float is 'Agro and Rural Industries' - farmers, weavers, earthen pots, ploughs, handlooms and what looks like the wife and the son of some powerful man of the region. Next comes 'Enviorment and Forset'. Obviously we are to believe that both are the same and one. A tableaux of women saving the trees from the clutches of wood merchants and their goons. Could it be a tribute to famous 'Chipko' movement of Himachal Pradesh. During this movement led by Sundarlal Bahuguna groups of women embrace the trees marked for chopping in the Himalaya. The cutters could not cut the trees without hurting the women. The movement has become synonymous to resistance against de-forestation. Chipko means 'get stuck'.
Himachal Pradesh
Himalaya
Uttar Pradesh
agriculture
agro
chipko
citizens
clay
colour
display
earthen pots
environment
festival
flowerbed
forest
handloom
himalaya
holi
home
industries
king
migrants
models
movement
people
region
replica
rural
shanties
sunderlal bahuguna
trees
urban
weave
weavers
women's resistance
wood
woodcutters
farmers
peak
snow
women
The float of Secondary Education. Some women reading books in what appears to be a library. A campaign call for women's literacy - small, functional and very drab. Will this attract women away from the other worlds of marriages, tradition, glitter, consumerism etc.!
Indian Mountaineering Foundation. How such an institution become part of the Republic day parade? Well, most probably because they make able bodied citizens and hopefully help invading peaks on behalf of the nation. No woman is part of the summit though. The President is still watching though sitting by now.
Now the float of Ordance Factories. Display of a few canons - Good Lord, we are in safe hand!!
Now comes the most loved and most magnificent of India's public sectors - Indian Railway with one old fashioned steam engine complete with a passenger's compartment and a guard with green flag. It just comes and wins! Now Rural Developmet - tableaux of happy farmers with their sackful of harvest crops. Where do such a happy lot live in this era of farmers' suicide!
campaign
canon
crops
education
factory
functional
green flag
guard
harvest
image
invasion
library
literacy
motif
mountaineering
ordance
parade
passenger compartment
pavilion
podium
public sector
railway
romance
rural development
sack
steam engine
suicide
summit
tableaux
train
republic day
Soon after the Rural is Space Satellite - that is India! The president and wife is looking tired.
Telecommunication - a replica of phone handset, a dish antenna and a globe. A parade of 'Indian peoples' speaking on the phone. Next is Textile - urban people, appropriately clothed, placed in the middle of ceramic objects and the rural and tribal folks, without much clothes surrounded by earthen pots. Now Tourism. Cactus and some unrecognizable totem followed by Rajasthani folk dance and camels with white skinned tourists, some puppets, coconut trees - it dissolves too fast to see the whole thing. Pretty attractive though!
Next one is a snow covered mountain with mannequins (or are they real people / actors) in skiing gear. What could it be titled?
Elephants and umbrellas - seems like a representation from temple extravaganza of Kerala. But then some happy children and also some adults waving from the back of the elephant. Would the orthodox Kerala temple authority have approved of it? Whatever it is some people got a joyride along the Rajpath. Must have got more rides during the rehearsal. Some people got to CELEBRATE Republic day.
Kerala
Rajasthan
cactus
camels
ceramic
clothes
coconut tree
costume
dish antenna
earthen
elephants
exotic
extravaganza
gear
globe
handset
joyride
kerala
locale
mannequin
mountain
objects
peoples
phone
pots
puppets
rajasthani folk dance
rajpath
replica
ride
rural
satellite
skiing
space
telecommunication
temple
textile
totem
tourism
tourist
tourists
tribal
urban
Now come the rows of girl scouts with flags in red and white and green - the combination of the national flag. After that come the boy scouts with flags in purple, maroon etc. How come the boys get to carry such insignificant colours? They are chased by another uniformed group. The beauty of youth brings some fresh air in the middle of large display and wide claims.
colour
flag
march
national flag
rows
scout
uniform
youth
The scene has completely changed now. There is a distinct attempt to represent the 'ordinary'. Girls in ordinary clothes, boys in army fatigue and 'farmers' in rural clothings - dance together.
army fatigue
ordinary
rural
dance
Bihar
Mehrauli, New Delhi
Orissa
Things get even more mundane. Girls from Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, Mehrauli (girls' school) too come in dancing. Followed by more women in traditional costumes of the regions, then a group of colourful chhau dancers of Bihar-Orissa region.
chau
colourful
girls
girls' school
masks
traditional
costume
performance
The chau dancers stage an elaborate performance. Devi Durga appears in the middle of a busy battle scene and that looks like the ending point. The nation will finally be saved not by the state or by its citizens - but by some divine interventions!
battle
chau dance
devi durga
divine
intervention
musks
sword
New Delhi
The empty Rajpath (the artery road) anticipates something special. Men in motorbikes perform various acrobatic tricks. Are they professional acrobat? Part of army? Police? Home guard? Or from some such security or defense related organizations? Or are they representing sports? Entertainment - as in circus? Followed by aircrafts making patterns on the sky.
Rajpath
acrobatic
aircraft
defense
entertainment
motorbike
patterns
rajpath
security
sky
sports
tricks
uniform
Compilation of various celebrity musicians sing/play the new version of Vande Mataram (Hail the mother - a song composed during the independence struggle as a war call. This was re-composed in 2002 to re-ignite the patriotic feelings and also make some business out of that. Musicians - Asha Bhonsle, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pandit Jasraj. There were some othesr, but we don't have those images
anthem
asha bhonsle
composition
hariprasad chaurasia
musician
nationalism
pandit jashraj
patriotic
singer
television
vande mataram
war call
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