Kapila Vatsyayan helped organise India’s first Republic Day parade that reflected the country’s military strength juxtaposed with its cultural glory. Excerpt:
Although Kapila was back from that green world (South India) and teaching at Miranda House, not rejecting King lear, Albert Camus or Andre Jide, her sorties to the South became an escapade from being explicit to more implicit. She became an adopted daughter of Tamil Nadu and Kerala alike, with an affinity of a hardcore North Indian, a Kashmiri-Punjabi-Delhiite.
And one day, during a class in Miranda House, the principal called her over and said, “There’s a phone call from the Prime Minister’s office. He wants to talk to you.”
She didn’t quite know what was happening. She took the call and went over to see Pt Jawaharlal Nehru. On meeting her, he said, “Soon, we’re going to have our first Republic Day parade. Don’t you think it would be a good idea to have floats on the cultural history of IndiaIJ Also find out more about the dances and the people of the remote regions of India.”
There was no such appellation as tribal, adivasi or Dalit, but Pt Nehru wanted to know everything, even if not much was written about them in his Discovery of India. Perhaps, he made a mental note that it would be worthwhile to involve the university students and teachers. He asked Kapila, “What do you think the first float should beIJ I want it to be devoted to the message of peace.”
She just mumbled what came to her mind instantly, “We could have a float on Buddha. Not the scene of enlightenment but where Sujata brings him the puddingIJ”
He laughed, “Not a bad idea at all. Fine! Why don’t you get going on thisIJ”
A three-tonne truck was parked at Miranda House and Kapila activated all the girls to start working, while the principal oversaw the entire activity. And the student who befitted the role of Buddha was Roma Mazumdar, later to be the Secretary to Government of India, and a proficient administrator. They worked it all out, cutting a tree from the campus. It seemed very amateurish, given the simplicity of the float, but this was an experience of what it is to create a tableau on a truck. There was a sense of eagerness as they started to take the float, which had to be stationed near Talkatora Garden.
On the way, as the truck passed under a bridge, the Bodhi tree came crashing down. The girls had yet to be seated under the tree, so no one got hurt. There was as much lamenting as laughter. Then they had to recreate another Bodhi tree. Kapila was shaking in her shoes if it would fall all over again. Mercifully, it didn’t, and became the inaugural pageant of the Republic Day Parade. And soon after, even the Department of Education had issued a statement:
Since its inception, the Republic Day parade has had two components: The military parade and the cultural pageant. The Indian State took a deliberate decision in 1951 to incorporate these two elements in the parade...which signifies that this young Republic values cultural progress no less than military strength.
As meaningful was this experience the following year, as Pt Nehru suggested, “We should create the Nishat Bagh.”
Going by the earlier mishap, this time round, the trailer of the truck was parked at No 5, Rajendra Prasad Road, where the IGNCA stands today. As they started recreating Nishat Bagh, all the vines and flowers were needed, like cascades which flow from terrace to terrace. So also a motor for water to be re-circulated. One of Kapila’s colleagues had some engineering skills. But the more they experimented with the machine, the more slush was created in the lawns. Also, it was rather difficult to get roses in the month of January.
While they were working like maniacs on that chilly night, guess who arrived there to take stock of thingsIJ None other than Pt Nehru himself! He inspected everything and said, “Kapila, you’ve recreated the Nishat Bagh, but you must have the vines of the white roses of Nishat hanging from all sides of the truck. Then only would the idea seem real.
None of them could have conceivably imagined that the Prime Minister would land up at this ungodly hour past midnight. They were working real hard but it wasn’t coming out too well. And here was Pt Nehru accompanied by Aliek Percy lancaster, Superintendent of Horticultural Operations.
lancaster looked at the slush in the beautiful lawns, and said, “It’s all very well to think of white roses and cascades coming down, but who’s going to sort out these messy lawnsIJ”
Kapila was at the end of her tether and started crying. Seeing that she had reacted to this reprimand, Pt Nehru said very gently, “It’s alright. We have to get white roses and Percy will ensure to get them from wherever he will.”
That was the end of the matter. Nishat Bagh was ready. All of Kapila’s students were dressed up in Kashmiri gear. And the friend who had made the motor work was operating this gadget, as the float went through. A great sigh of relief!
But what became the most touching moment for Kapila was receiving a note next morning that read, “The Prime Minister would like to have breakfast with you.”
All tears were forgotten. She cycled to Teen Murti House and there she was being received by Pt Nehru. This overwhelming gesture was, perhaps, owing to the fact that Kapila did not have the heart to take any criticism. “Come on, we’ll have breakfast togetherIJ” That was the compassionate Pt Nehru she got to know.
Why Kapila and her students were roped in initially was due to the absence of professionals on the scene.
That’s another long history, as to how the presentation of diversities of India happened on this occasion, which was primarily meant to be a military parade. Kapila puts down the reaction of the caustic critics to basic ignorance and their inability to admit that the educated India, the Indian, who calls himself ‘mainstream’, was barely acquainted with the richness, vibrancy and the multiformity, which in socio-economic terms is called ‘tribal India’, or in sociological terms, ‘folk Indian’.
It was Pt Nehru and Indira Gandhi, evinces Kapila, who conceived and thought that there should be a section of not quite a pageant but a diversity of India, which should be annually represented on the 26th of January. This parade was meant to sensitise the urban Indian to another India and arouse interest in other parts of the country, which they were not directly acquainted with, but may have read in the books of anthropology.
Excerpted from Afloat A lotus leaf by Jyoti Sabharwal