August 18, 1969.......flying high, in the Bethel sky......

Hi all, hearing the uproar outside my room door today in the morning put me in mind of my legendary exploits two years ago, come Holi day, outside Sarayu and Sharavati. That of course, put me in a good mood for the day. Reading up on how woodstock happened and how Michael Lang got all the credit and Roberts and Rosenman had to do all the dirty work.....and how Jimi acted like a pompous cheapskate.......well this one was a bit of a no-brainer, what! I hope the Hindu believes its incredibly profound though (boo hoo ... just 800 words again!). Here you go,

The annual Indian Woodstock

Every year, to the eye of the untrained observer, a large portion of the normally staid Indian population goes crazy for a day. To Caucasian eyes, one of the reasons why India stands apart as a distinct culture, as opposed to the colorless stereotypes that engulf other Asian countries, is its under-current of passion and joie de vivre, unparalleled save in the Hispanic nations. The Indian festival of Holi, set in the back-drop of prudish rural North India, is a perfect showcase for our study.

Recently, a law passed in Delhi has made it ‘illegal’ for couples to hold hands while in Connaught Place, the shopping heartland of the Capital. In the nearby satellite towns of Western UP, police raid restaurants, hotels and cybercafés regularly, serving up details to a drooling, salacious local press. In staid university campuses, wearing shorts in public is considered unseemly. Public opinion places drug usage at almost the same level of debauchery as paedophilia.

Contrast this, if we may, with the sights and sounds that are almost synonymous with Holi in the North Indian hinterland. Gangs of semi-naked youths roaming the streets, overwhelmingly physical displays of affection, pitched mock battles, ubiquitous eve-teasing and coquetry, and of course, the openly public confection and consumption of bhang.

Quid?

The sheer scale of Holi makes it difficult to assign it any psycho-social parallels from world history. How does one explain a humongous explosion of spontaneity and liberality that occurs at a fixed date every year? The paradox would be trivial were we to explain it to be merely a question of cult theology and religious beliefs. Only the very naïve, however, would refer to Holi as a ‘Hindu’ festival. The vast multitude that celebrates Holi does so owing to a continuous reflux of cultural conditioning.

By most estimates, more than half a million people gathered in a field at Bethel, New York for three days beginning August 16 1969 – to watch the largest rock concert in the history of mankind. Woodstock – as the event has forever been immortalized as, was the apotheosis of that psychedelic tapestry of youthful angst that was the 60s USA. The mental archetypes of the hippie culture finally passed into the mythology of American culture with this epochal, cathartic pogrom – 3 days of the flower people and their quaint anti-war, pantheistic philosophy.

Gangs of disheveled, semi-clad youths, sexual tension in the air, hallucinogenic drugs sold over the counter and partaken of with impunity, color running riot – ’69 USA or present day India? The similarities are extremely striking. Professor Joshi, I am sure, could unearth an erstwhile unknown Sanskrit text that conclusively proves that it was a venerable Indian ‘rishi’ or deity who invented rock ‘n roll millennia before Elvis walked the earth.

Should such a helpful text not exist, we are forced to look for less simplistic explanations. What do the hippies of the American cultural Golden Age have in common with the Indian common man?

The first step, of course, is to realize that most of the hippie pioneers looked to India and its pantheistic, Ego-effacing culture for spiritual nourishment and took back their own conceptions of it to their subsequent followers. Secondly, hippie culture following music as its religion, the impact of Indian collaborators in the 60s served to reaffirm the exotic Indian stereotype, adding to its mystique.

The remarkable difference lies in the fact that whereas the hippie movement was but a monument to iconoclasm, to be replaced by consumerist fads in American consciousness by the early 80s , our indigenous chaotic festival occupies pride of place in an extremely prudish mainstream consciousness.

It is here that the power of tradition and culture is evinced in its entirety. American culture, itself a subset of the largely Protestant European culture, has been built largely in cycles of growth and destruction. Conspicuous by its absence is a continuity of tradition, each succeeding cult repudiating and rebutting its predecessor. The adjective ‘brittle’ comes to mind, particularly when juxtaposed with the Indian mentality.

Through countless millennia, cockroaches and Indian culture have survived by absorbing the fundamental tenet of beating natural selection – ‘anything goes’. ‘Anything goes’ - ‘chalta hai’ in the vernacular – is the life-blood of Indian society. It is evident in our chronically corrupt public offices, in our chaotic public transport systems, and in our inefficient public infrastructure. It is also evident in the vitality of our festivals, the controlled spontaneity of our celebrations, the universal spirit of bonhomie that engulfs us all, around this time of the year.

‘Amorphous’ is the best possible description. The stubborn continuum that is Indian culture and society; smoothened and ground down by the passing of time has learned to accept, to incorporate, if one may quote Orwell, “to change out of all recognition and yet ever remain the same.”

Greetings on Holi to everyone, appreciate the uniqueness of our heritage.