The Piano Man’s ‘Bhangi jump’ into the Quagmire of Casteism.

So, since I live under the proverbial rock for most part, a friend mentioned a recent socio-cultural issue to me while we perched at our usual spot on a nice Sunday afternoon. Eventually, I perused the net for an article or two to familiarize myself with the facts surrounding the aforementioned issue.

The articles that I read were from firstpost and the huffington post. Their respective links are provided below:

The First Post Article:

http://www.firstpost.com/india/outrage-over-delhis-piano-man-jazz-club-event-cancelled-after-backlash-over-casteist-band-name-3522781.html

The article by the Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2017/06/05/the-allegations-of-casteism-against-a-south-delhi-jazz-club-expo_a_22126430/

The facts appear to be as follows:  The Piano man is a jazz joint located in New Delhi, India, that has a quote by Louis Armstrong on the left side of its site. Apparently, the Piano Man had scheduled for a band to perform on 5 June 2017. The band was apparently named 'Bhangi Jumping'.  Due to outrage from social media and the dalit community, this performance was cancelled. The outrage was because the word "Bhangi" is a word used to refer to untouchables [and it is probably most commonly used by -take a wild guess - the non-untouchables]

3 points:

1)   The very foundation of jazz is rooted in the experience of the minority: Jazz originated in the African American community in New Orleans, United States of America around about the early 20^th century. Slavery was abolished on paper in 1865 and in the early 19^th century, Africa Americans learned how to play European musical instruments and using these, they adapted their own slave folk songs. In a similar vein, the ‘blues’ originated from the African communities in the deep South from their work songs, shouts, chants and ballads . In the early 19^th century, jazz was centred around the African-american and mullatto communities due to segregation laws. Jazz was performed mainly in vaudeville and in the brothels and bars of the red light district. In short, the foundation of jazz emanates from the experiences of a community that was oppressed.

2)   According to the above-mentioned articles the Piano Man caters to ‘art’ and the claim of the band member of Bhangi Jumping is that he just wanted to make a pun on the word Bungee. The awareness of the existence of words such as ‘art’ and words like ‘bhangi’ juxtaposed with the purported ignorance of their ramifications clearly indicate, at best, a selective cultural ignorance and, at worst, arrogance. As Andrea Pitzer (2017) had written in her article, 'Anne Frank, and America's dangerously shallow understanding of the Holocaust', ignorance abets denial and denial itself thrives on ignorance. [Note: I have cited this article only because I have cited the line regarding the interrelationship between ignorance and denial. By citing this article I am NOT attempting to draw an analogy between casteism and the Holocaust. The Holocaust was an incomparable conscious massacre of unparalled magnitude]

3)   Point 2) is a clear mockery of point 1). I mean, honestly, the cosmos possess a wicked sense of humour, in that, a place quoting a man from a minority community, was ignorant about its own alleged ham-handed exacerbation of discrimination. Ah well, they live, they learn.

Mild Suggestion: Instead of only having performances, why not also try having a few readings regarding oppression. If reading about our own culture is not in vogue then perhaps a reading of works such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin or Twelve Years a Slave may prove educative ? Writing is art as well, is it not? Though that might not be acceptable to the patrons ordering whiskey sour et al.

Basically what we have here is our own bumbling version of the Kendall-Jenner-and-the-Pepsi-commercial debacle[1] i.e., the commercialisation of an idea or issue in the absence of the adequate tools and empathy qua vital historical issues.

On the bright side, Kendall hopped out of it relatively unscathed as I'm sure, the Piano Man will as well. According to Oscar Wilde, 'the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about' i.e., all publicity is good publicity.

Besides, I've heard that they make a killer whiskey sour.

---

[1] There was a societal backlash in the United States against Kendall Jenner and Pepsi for promoting a commercial that depicted the model participating in a rally and pacifying the government’s troops by offering them a pepsi can. This advertisement was viewed as a trivialization of the police brutality against African americans and their subsequent nation-wide protests against this brutality.
Links : (1) An NBC article   http://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/pepsi-ad-kendall-jenner-echoes-black-lives-matter-sparks-anger-n742811 ; (2) A New York Times Post https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/business/kendall-jenner-pepsi-ad.html?_r=0