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Aangan Mein Mor Nacha Kisne Dekha
The best of Deshwal is to be found in his recording of the various aspects of the culture of Haryana, that has, under the pressure of changed circumstances, undergone revolutionary changes. There is little doubt that his recordings will be of immense use to the scholars who seek to explore Haryana as it was in the pre-Green-Revolution days. However, while he is nostalgic about all that was in the past, he needs to be reminded that while life has changed beyond recognition during the past 50 years, there was negligible change during the preceding 300 years. This meant that while there was awareness of human responses to varied experiences in the past but the present generation, unable to relate to those experiences, discarded those responses. The change has been imperative and unavoidable for the welfare of humanity and it would be inhuman to try to cling to a past that compelled people to remain shackled to the professions of their ancestors to perpetute that lifestyle. The author is also guilty, in his excessive zeal for the ‘lost paradise’, of propagating ideas that are historically and scientifically incorrect. Thus, on page 18 he mentions that Vikramaditya, (not Chadergupta) repelled invaders under the guidance of Chanakya and later extolling the virtues of the cowdung, claims that it offers protection against cholera. Perhaps he needs to be reminded of the number of people who used to lose their lives in the rural areas due to cholera. Similarly, his caustic criticism of all that is modern strikes a jarring note. He makes a distinction between true culture and the not-so-true culture. |
Aangan
Mein Mor Nacha Kisne Dekha is a
veritable feast for those who believe that Paradise has been
irretrievably lost. Dr Santram Deshwal can be said to belong to that
generation which grew up in an era when people, in the absence of any
opportunities, were content with the little that they had and then
enjoyed the advantages that came their way with the advent of the Green
Revolution. The 30 essays that form this collection cover subjects as
wide-ranging as the Baramasiya, the various months of the year and the
impact that the climatic changes have on the human emotions, the heroes
and heroines of yore, and a criticism of the spirit of materialism and
utlitarianism.