Dancing in Perespective of Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav
Gandhian Scholar
Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India
Contact No- 09404955338
E-mail- [e-mail]

Dancing in Perspective of Mahatma Gandhi

Dancing is a type of art that generally involves movement of the body. It is performed in many different cultures. Mahatma Gandhi was very fond of dance. When he went to London for study of law. He knew it that dancing is symbol of mannered person. So he wanted to learn to dance. Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “Jalaluddin was once observed dancing with joy at a funeral, and on being questioned what he meant thereby, the saint replied, “When the human spirit, after years of imprisonment in the cage and dungeon of the body, is at length set free and wings its flight to the source whence it came, is it not an occasion for rejoicing?” We can see that, in the olden days, even women freely participated in such Sufi way of life. Rabia Bibi was a Sufi herself.”1 Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “If there is a dancing girl amidst you, I ask you to make her life not one of shame. Take up the spinning-wheel and take the few pies that the work brings you, and it will bring pies and God into your house. Do you suppose that Rama and Sita would rest for a single moment if they knew a single woman might have to sell her honour for lust of men and for a mess of pottage? I ask you to discard all your fine garments and ornaments, if only for the protection of these dancing girls. Take up the spinning-wheel for their sake, if not for the sake of India. Take up the spinning-wheel for the sake of the purity of India. Take up the sari that the charkha can give you. Let the spotless sari of India be the protection of the virtue of man and woman in India. I ask you to consider that to wear fine foreign saries is a sin.”2
Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “I had my full say at Rajahmundry on an important matter and I hope that some Telugu friend will reproduce that speech, translate it, and spread it broadcast among hundreds of our countrymen. It was at about ten o’clock last night in Cocanada when dancing girls paid me a visit that I understood the full significance of what they were. I felt like sinking in the earth below. I ask you to blot that sin out of us. It is not right that for our lust a single sister should have to live a life of shame and humiliation. In this movement of purification we are in duty bound to regard these girls as our sisters and daughters. Let us who feel the pricks of violence that this insolent Government inflicts on us not commit worse violence by ruining the life of a single girl in India. I ask you, brothers and sisters, to send me assurance, as early as possible, that there is not a single dancing girl in this part of the land. I charge these sisters who are sitting behind me to go about from place to place, find out every dancing girl and shame the men into shunning the wrong they are doing.”3 Dance may also be regarded as a form of non-verbal communication between humans. Motion in ordinarily inanimate objects may also be described as dances. Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “He did not know. He inquired, and after some hesitation the answer came, “We are dancing girls.” I felt like sinking into the bowels of the earth. My host soothed me by saying that there was a ceremony attached to the commencement of life. It made matters worse for me. It gave the damnable thing an air of respecta-bility.”4
Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “The hills, the dancing, impetuous Ganga and her clear waters, all compel admiration for the foresight of the rishis, for their aesthetic sense and their simplicity.5 Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “Just as Sudhanva1 kept dancing with joy in the cauldron of boiling oil, so do I feel intense joy in the blazing fire around me. Now is the time when the real nature of non-violence will be revealed.”6 Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “He saw an old woman going home with a lamb. It had been in the household of a big officer and, therefore, had lacked nothing by way of food. But it was not happy there. As the old woman led it away, it was dancing and gamboling and ran ahead of her, for it was going to its home. From confinement it was going to freedom. In freedom alone can any creature grow, never in slavery. This idea is expressed by Tulsidas in his inimitable manner: For the slave there is no happiness even in his dreams.”7
Dancing has evolved many styles every dance, no matter what style, has something in common. It not only involves flexibility and body movement, but also physics. If the proper physics are not taken into consideration, injuries may occur. Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “Today you see the thread of yarn from the charkha coming between you and God; but on this very thread you will see Him dancing. Wherever faith is He is.”8 Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “I am sure that when the yarn comes out uniformly, he will catch a glimpse of God in his heart and he will even see God dancing on the thread.”9 Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “You can see the soul-force in me because I have ever kept my soul wide awake by humbly entreating it, or beating a drum or dancing before it. Yours may not be equally awake, but we are all equal in our innate capacities.”10
Choreography is the art of creating dances. The person who creates a dance is known as the choreographer. Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “Sudhanva1 kept dancing in the cauldron of boiling oil but a person like me, watching the scene, would tremble with the thought of his agony. May chaste and virtuous women ever cling to their suffering. Their suffering is not suffering, but happiness. Thinking of them, many have found deliverance and many more will find it in future.”11 Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “A husband’s duty is to provide shelter, food and clothing to his wife appropriate to their circumstances and within his means. A man who has grown poor cannot provide for his wife the luxuries which he could when he was better off. A husband who lives in ignorance may lead, and help his wife to lead, a life of pleasure with dancing and drinking and foreign things to wear. Likewise, on awakening he will reform his life and also want the wife to reform hers.”12
Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “Among Hindus there is a great deal of ostentation at weddings. There is singing, dancing, feasting and a variety of other diversions. The spiritual element, which indeed makes the ceremony meaningful, gets lost sight of.”13 Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “It is not easy effectively to dispense with pomp, feasting and singing and dancing in a marriage ceremony. If wedding were to take place in Bombay it would be a lesson go the Marwari community and Jamnalalji’s friends.”14 Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “There are floral decorations, feasting, lighting and dancing by professional dancers. I am not sure whether there is such dancing among the Marwaris but in Gujarat this is so among certain wealthy people. It has its effect on the Marwaris and on the entire Hindu society of which they are a part and even on Muslims and other communities.”15
Many early forms of music and dance were created and performed together. This paired development has continued through the ages with music. Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “There will be no singing and dancing. Only the barest ritual as sanctioned by religious usage will take place. You friends have been invited so that you will witness the ceremony, approve of it and pledge yourselves to follow the example.”16 Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “I was very much agitated. I then remembered this verse, and the very next moment I was almost dancing with relief. We should identify ourselves with Arjuna and have faith that Shri Krishna is driving our chariot. Thus, the meaning of the Gita on the commonsense level is that, once we have plunged into a battle, we should go on fighting.”17
Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “The gopis in their love go on dancing, for, knowing that their love is pure, they are not afraid of the world’s censure. Mira said that she paid no heed to what the world said, since she had not left her husband but only wished to discover the true meaning of devotion to one’s husband.”18 Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “If we make them dance as we wish, instead of ourselves dancing as they wish, we would be the directors of the drama of life. In the first Chapter, even the evil-minded Duryodhana asks his warriors to remain in their positions and protect the patriarch Bhishma. If, likewise, we protect the director of the drama, who dwells within us, play our part in accordance with his instructions, the director would not become weak.”19 Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “To Mirabai, however, the snake in front of her seemed Shaligram1 dancing. At the worst it would have harmed her physically, but the snake which bites the man of lust destroys his very soul.”20
Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “I am sure in my mind that my effort to learn dancing was also not prompted by love of dancing. At that time, my only thought was to acquire all the accomplishments which make a gentleman. The point is that everything we do should be dedicated to Shri Krishna. We can so dedicate only the work which comes to us unsought, not that which we undertake of our own choice. Though the inmates of the Ashram attend to different tasks, dedicating them to Shri Krishna, in reality all of them are doing the same work if there is complete harmony in their thoughts. If that is not so, and only one person is earnest about spinning and others let their minds wander, then they cannot be said to join the former in spinning.”21 Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “I have been trying to see that Kakasaheb’s pen is active and dancing. Staying here, I cannot think of any suggestions to make about creating a new world. Those which occur to me do not seem worth putting down on paper.”22
And if anybody no matter how high he may be comes to you and seeks to justify the admission of women of ill fame into your temples for dancing or any such purpose, reject him and agree to the proposal that I have made to you. If you want to be good Hindus, if you want to worship God, and if you are wise, you will fling the doors of all your temples open to the so-called untouchables. God makes no distinction between His worshippers. He accepts the worship of these untouchables just as well and as much as that of the so-called touchables, provided it comes from the bottom of the heart.”23 Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “As if all this were not enough to make me look the thing, I directed my attention to other details that were supposed to go towards the making of an English gentleman.T10 I was told it was necessary for me to take lessons in dancing, French and elocution.T11 French was not only the language of neighbouring France, but it was the lingua franca of the Continent over which I had a desire to travel.T1 I decided to take dancing lessons at a class and paid down £3 as fees for a term. I must have taken about six lessons in three weeks. But it was beyond me to achieve anything like rhythmic motion.”24
Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “I had not to spend a lifetime in England, I said to myself. What then was the use of learning elocution? And how could dancing make a gentleman of me? The violin I could learn even in India. I was a student and ought to go on with my studies. I should qualify myself to join the Inns of Court. If my character made a gentleman of me, so much the better. Otherwise I should forgo the ambition. These and similar thoughts possessed me, and I expressed them in a letter which I addressed to the elocution teacher, requesting him to excuse me from further lessons. I had taken only two or three. I wrote a similar letter to the dancing teacher, and went personally to the violin teacher with a request to dispose of the violin for any price it might fetch. She was rather friendly to me, so I told her how I had discovered that I was pursuing a false idea. She encouraged me in the determination to make a complete change.”24 Dancing in India comprises the varied styles of dances in the country. As with other aspects of Indian culture, different forms of dances originated in different parts of India, developed according to the local traditions and also imbibed elements from other parts of the country. Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “Let no one imagine that my experiments in dancing and the like marked a stage of indulgence in my life. The reader will have noticed that even then I had my wits about me. That period of infatuation was not unrelieved by a certain amount of self-intro-section on my part.”25
Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “Mussoorie is one of those places where pleasure-seeking abounds. There is no purdah here. Wealthy ladies spend their time in dancing at parties, paint their lips, deck themselves in all sorts of ways and blindly imitate the West in a good many ways. Ours is a middle path. We do not wish to keep alive superstitions and purdah nor to encourage shamelessness and self-indulgence.26” Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “Probably you know that there is no music and dancing and no feasts on the occasion of a wedding in the Ashram. The celebration consists entirely of the religious ceremony and the dresses of the bride and the bridegroom are all of khadi.”27 Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “I do not know if your tongue dances, but I see that your pen has been dancing. How many benefits flow from my living in the jail palace?”28
Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “There is English saying similar in meaning to the Gujarati saying that a girl not wishing to dance finds fault with the dancing ground. One can find a hundred excuses for not using pure khadi. If one has faith in khadi, one would find no difficulty insuperable.”29 Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “I don’t listen to the muse of dancing. I heed only to the promptings of Goddess Sleep.”30 Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “Music has an important place, and it accompanies physical exercises also. They teach dancing too, and it gives plenty of exercise to the body. The children do most of the things by themselves and learn without effort to concentrate attention. The thing I liked most in their method was that they trained children to observe silence and concentrate. This is how they do it. The children sit with closed eyes, the teacher speaks in a voice no louder than a whisper into one’s ear and children strain their ears to hear what she says. As soon as any child hears it, it goes over on its toes and sits by the side of the teacher.”31
Although dance is often accompanied by music, it can also be presented independently or provide its own accompaniment. Dance presented with music may or may not be performed in time to the music depending on the style of dance. Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “After the Bombay madness we have to forget our dancing and our playing. I can never understand how man can fight man in the name of religion. But let me check my thoughts and my pen. At present I am drinking cupfuls of this poison.”32 Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “I believe that I am dancing as a puppet in His hands. Hence I feel no burden on my mind. If only I could pass the final test in this same manner!”33 Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “Even if you sing this bhajans from outside the jail walls, your voice will reach me. I do hear, for instance, the sound of all of you dancing. Greetings to Father and Mother from us all. And a slap for you. Blessings to Dahyabhai. Is Pashabhai all right now? Ba spends the whole day with me. I am now regaining strength fairly rapidly, and, therefore, Ba’s visits may stop now.”34
Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “The purity of the temples themselves is irrelevant to the present discussion. You don’t want to say that if a temple has dancing girls and swindling Brahmins, it should be opened to Harijans, and not if the Brahmins cease to swindle and the girls cease to dance in those temples?”35 Folk dances are numerous in number and style, and vary according to the local tradition of the respective state, ethnic or geographic regions. Contemporary dances include refined and experimental fusions of classical, folk and Western forms. Dances in Indian films are often noted for their idiosyncrasies, and hold a significant presence in popular culture of the Indian subcontinent. Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “If we had as much of the spirit of dedicated service in the Ashram as we need, I would be dancing with joy today and be sure that, when the time comes, all the inmates would go and plant themselves on the sands of the Sabarmati with unshakable determination of fast unto death. My impending fast is preliminary to similar fasts by other people.”36
Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “Let us derive the lesson from this calamity that this earthly existence is no more permanent than that of the moths we see every night dancing round lights for a few minutes and then being destroyed. This earthly existence of ours is more brittle than the glass bangles that ladies wear. You can keep glass bangles for thousands of years if you treasure them in a chest and let them remain untouched. But this earthly existence is so fickle that it may be wiped out in the twinkling of an eye. Therefore, whilst we have yet breathing time, let us get rid of the distinctions of high and low, purify our hearts, and be ready to face our Maker when an earthquake or some natural calamity or death in the ordinary course overtakes us.”37 Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “But I am dancing in your jaws. I shall dance as long as you let me and when you would not, I shall go to sleep in your own lap.’ This sangh will become immortal when you thus conquer your fear of death. And if you are men of this kind, what need is there for any sangh? You are, in that case, each one a sangh by yourself.”38
Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “Why should we fear death when we know that wherever we are we are dancing in the jaws of death and they may close any moment to swallow us? Why should we worry about it? One day we have to leave this world, then why not today? We are also aware that death is not the end of the atman.”39 Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “I would close all the cinemas and theatres, though I might, as an exception, permit exhibition of pictures of educational value or showing scenes of natural beauty. But singing and dancing I would stop completely. I have great regard for dancing and music. I love music indeed. I may even claim that I understand what good music is and what is not. But I would surely prohibit music and dancing which tend to pervert the minds of young men and women.”40
In Hindu mythology, dance is believed to have been conceived by Brahma.. Brahma inspired the sage Bharat Muni who writes the natya shastra. It used in Hindu’s dharma by different and different names. In ancient India, there were no dedicated auditorium halls or theaters, and dance was usually a functional activity dedicated to worship, entertainment or leisure. Dancers usually performed in temples. It was performed on a regular basis before deities as a form of worship. Even in modern India, deities are invoked through religious folk dance forms from ancient times. Classical dance forms hand gestures also to retell episodes of mythological tales. Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “Then we can dance with joy and sing. If such a situation arises there, I would ask Shri Dilip Kumar Roy to sing such a bhajans that people would start dancing—because those who would have died would become immortal and those surviving would be as good as dead. I would not be pained at all about this. Of course, I would be pained if people here lost their senses and Pakistan also went mad.”41 Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “Intoxicating drinks, drugs, dancing, debauchery and the vices to which many of us become addicted are not for the followers of the Gurus and the Granthsaheb. With the Granthsaheb as my witness, I ask you to make the resolution that you will keep your hearts clean and you will find that all other communities will follow you.”42 Gradually dancers, particularly from south India, moved from temples to houses of royal families where they performed exclusively for royalty. Mahatma Gandhi wrote about dancing. “Drawing their attention to social evils like child marriage, marriage of old men with young girls, sale of daughters, meaningless community feasts, lewd dancing, bringing up of young girls in sin in the name of religion, marrying of young widows, the purdah system etc.”43 So we can say that Mahatma Gandhi liked dances. Which were related to Indian culture.

References:

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2. The Hindu, 8-4-1921
3. VOL. 22 : 23 NOVEMBER, 1920 - 5 APRIL, 1921; Page- 495
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