IPTA - Lost Songs of the Freedom Struggle

IPTA (Indian Peoples Theatre Association) has been in existence since the 1940s, with the aim of expanding the scope of participatory democracy beyond the political processes at the parliament. While it has been involved in dance, theatre, music, and photography, the songs composed and sung by IPTA stalwarts during the independence struggle got lost somewhere along the way.

I first heard of IPTA during my undergrad years, and later at JNU where alot of students were involved I knew were involved withit. I was surprised to know that one of our own faculty members, infact from our department, has been researching these songs for the past 3-4 yrs. She recently performed at IIC/IHC etc, and today the ensemble played at college too - Dr.S.D., Deepak Castelleno on guitar (and banjo!), and Tapan Mallik on the Cello.

The songs were in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Malayalam and Telugu. They centered around themes of both resistance and celebrations - the 1940s & '50s - the Bengal Famine of 1943, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, the Telangana movement in Andhra Pradesh, the Second World War and the communal violence in the wake of the Partition of India. They were beautiful.

Probably because of their simplicity - both, the lyrics and music was such that it just resonated in your heart. She sang a beautiful "heer" (a Punjabi song) on the Bengal famine, in a manner that it is apparently sung on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. It was just so haunting. She also recalled singing Mekhdoom Mohiuddin's 'Jaane waale sipahi se puchho' at Khalsa College right after the Anti-Sikh riots in the country (1984) and how the music had a cathartic effect on the people gathered there.

At the end of the show she asked Deepak & Tapan to play some music which the audience had to guess. All of us strained to figure out the soulful music that played and gradually halfway through it everyone began to stand up - it was the national anthem! Now the thing is, the latter half of it was the Indian anthem, and the first half was the Pakistani national anthem (the part we couldn't figure out) - I cannot tell you how lovely the entire composition was. Have been trying to find it online but no luck so far. (Madan Gopal was the composer).