A glimpse of Mahatma Gandhi’s life through the art of Dastangoi
NEWDELHI: The age-old art of Urdu storytelling, Dastangoi, brought alive some incidents from the life of Mahatma Gandhi at the Shri Ram Centre for Performing Arts in the city Wednesday evening.
At the centre of the event titled ‘Dastan-e-mahatma’ was dastango (storyteller) Syed Sahil Agha seated on a white mattress, the colour matching his traditional kurta pyjama. With majestic voice and powerful story of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as his only weapon, Agha took the audience back in time while recalling some significant events of India’s freedom struggle.
“The frail-looking man was once thrown off a train in South Africa when he sat in first-class compartment meant for the whites. This was the beginning of a journey that led him to lead a nation to freedom,” said Agha, a Delhi-based dastango, who is in the profession for 10 years, recalling the 1893 incident at South Africa’s Pietermaritzburg railway station.
The show, followed by a drama, was organised by Delhi government’s Urdu Academy to commemorate 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
Without any music or audio, the storyteller regaled the audience through a mix of emotions. There was little laughter, sighs and screeches, as he used modu- lations to express the various aspects of Indian freedom movement chronicling event after event. “I had never heard Gandhi’s life in this format. This is refreshing,” said Chandan Mishra, a history student of Delhi University.
The 13th century art form, Dastangoi was revived in 2005 and thousands of shows have been performed since then in India and abroad. One of the earliest references in print to Dastangoi is a 19th century text containing 46 volumes titled Dastane-amir Hamza.
Towards the end, the storyteller took the audience to the partition of India and the violence that followed. “The mighty British were shaken by the most non-violent form or protest during Dandi march led by Gandhi. One can imagine the farsightedness of the leader,” Agha said.
Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia was the chief guest at the event.