12) WHEN PETE SEEGER CAME TO KOLKATA

 

By B. Prasant, PV correspondent in India

 

            The year was 1961. The Congress Party held authoritarian office in Bengal as in the rest of the country. Nehru was the Prime Minister. The Left remained in disarray; there was one Communist Party, weak, lacking a mass base, and bickering counter‑factual arguments the choice between the "China" line and the "Soviet" line in the political‑ideological domain.

 

            The one important forum where all of the Left came together was the peace movement. At an invitation of the Peace Forum, Pete Seeger came to Kolkata, staying for two days in the balmy city winter. On both days he mesmerized the big audience at the Park Circus maidan (open, green grounds) with his inimitable renderings of mass songs, and anti‑war songs.

 

            I shall never forget the wondrous Seeger voice and the litheness of his fingers as he strummed his trusty banjo. He sang "We Shall Overcome", and the entire gathering joined in, some singing confidently off‑key, in English, others belting out the inspiring song in its Bengali and Urdu versions. We thrilled and listened with rapt attention. I was 21.

 

            The Congress government made no secret about its displeasure with the programme, and the bourgeois media chimed in, nodding disapproval ("anarchists" was the "in" word with them) in perfect unison. Seeger left, but mass songs and anti‑war songs, songs of peace, had found their spring of inspiration.

 

            A much‑older Seeger again visited the metropolis in 1996, when the Rabindra Bharati University, known for its strong music departments, classical and modern, conferred on him a degree of D Litt, honoris causa. This time, the singer met a series of Bengali folk singers and mass singers, and held workshops, picking out amongst the singers the best of the generation. His message was: "Think globally, but sing locally."

 

            In 1996, the then Left Front government invited Pete Seeger on the occasion of the mass song fair, but Seeger politely declined, citing his advancing age. He said memorably and sadly that his fingers were no longer strong enough to do the fast strum. Seeger was represented by his grandson, Tao, who kept the listening crowd of Kolkata spell‑bound with his rendition of the grand old man's songs.

 

            Pete Seeger, Kolkata shall miss you.

 

(The above article is from the February 15-28, 2014, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)