The importance of being Mallika Sarabhai

By Sandip Roy I have met Mallika Sarabhai but I don’t know Mallika Sarabhai. I don’t know if she is speaking the truth when she says Narendra Modi tried to bribe her lawyers to “dilute” the cases she had filed against his government. I don’t know what really went down in the illegal immigration/visa racket that her dance troupe was embroiled in a few years ago. I don’t know if she truly cares about the poor she fed during Modi’s upwaas or this was as much a publicity “circus” as his own fast. [caption id=“attachment_87179” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=" You can’t accuse Sarabhai of being populist. AFP Photo"] [/caption] Now the online chatterati are busy tearing her apart for having the temerity to challenge the Mighty Modi. She should stick to her dance, they say, not try and become Ahmedabad’s Arundhati Roy. And as evidence of her untrustworthy character, they offer these nuggets. Just look at her views, they say. On marriage. “For some of us, marriage definitely is an outdated institution,” Sarabhai has said. Sarabhai is divorced. On her daughter coming out as gay. “I have no problem in accepting it at all,” she declared. And then, even more shockingly, “I have had gay friends over the years.” All of this is trotted out as evidence of her as being someone who is not to be trusted, who does not “remotely understand Indian culture and ethics” and who is a “hate monger against Hindus”, “trying to impose her pseudo values on society.” Whoa. I  always thought being supportive of your children was a good family value. And what do her personal views about marriage and gay children have to do with her political fight against Narendra Modi? Why is that even part of this debate? That is my larger point about public debate in this country, especially on online forums. It’s called debate but its main goal is a witch-hunt whose real goal is to shut off debate. And people are ready to hurl personal invective, no matter how unrelated to the issue, at the drop of a differing opinion, to shut someone up. Since this debate has already veered personal, let me add to this. Here are six things I personally like about Mallika Sarabhai. I like that Mallika Sarabhai speaks her mind. Quite bluntly. Whether it’s about marriage or Modi. Or the civil society that she’s a part of. She wrote in DNA about both the UPA government’s “idiotic and kamikaze reaction” to Anna and her own misgivings about the jingoism of “Kiran Bedi calling India Anna and Anna India – surely not!”  You can’t accuse Sarabhai of being populist. After all it’s no secret that Modi is hugely popular in Gujarat and has won elections resoundingly. I like that she doesn’t compartmentalise her identities. She has no qualms about being a classical dancer, respectful of tradition and an activist who can challenge what gets passed down as tradition. She didn’t have to be a social activist. She’d already made her name. She’d played Draupadi in the landmark international production of the Mahabharata by Peter Brook. She was a classical dancer in her own right. She came from great pedigree. There was no need to leave her comfort zone. “I cannot be an activist who also performs, or a performer who is also an activist. It has to be together,” Sarabhai told me several years ago while touring the US with her interpretation of the life of Meerabai. “They said all the invitations to perform would dry up. But that didn’t happen.” Then she added dryly, “People who have become second wives completely against the law of the land are dancing to feminist themes thinking perhaps that’s where the bucks are.” Ouch. At that time, another well-known Indian dancer and Bollywood dream girl was also touring the United States with her interpretation of Meera. I like that she takes risks, even when she fails. For example, her rather spotty movie career. Or losing her deposit when she took on LK Advani as an independent candidate. “At least the fact that I am standing, Mr Advani, means that the world is watching,” she had said at that time. I like that she has the guts to support her gay daughter publicly. That’s a huge inspiration to other young people struggling with their own sexuality. She said she speaks out because that’s what her parents taught her to do – (they) “demanded that their children have opinions, that their children make value judgments.” I like that she refuses to cede ground and just go away. She won’t surrender her faith to the Hindutva brigade even when they vilify her. For example, as a self-described feminist, she talked about her admiration of Savitri, the archetype of the pativrata Bharatiya womanhood. “She has to be eulogised not for patriarchal reasons but because she was intelligent enough to defeat Yama, the god of death, in argument,” Sarabhai said. “Nowhere does Savitri say, ‘I refuse to live if my husband dies. Instead she says, ‘I refuse to let my husband die.’” Being a David to Modi’s Goliath, on his home turf is part of that same fight. In a way, what she’s saying is that it’s her home turf as well and she won’t give up on it. But most of all I like that Mallika Sarabhai seems to have her feet on the ground. At the end of a performance in California, I remember her surrounded by fans. An adoring father pushed his little daughter in front of her for an autograph. “She’s a Bharatanatyam dancer too,” he said proudly. Sarabhai smiled and gently corrected him. “No, she is a Bharatanatyam student,” she said.  Then she bent down, her eyes still lined with kaajal from the evening’s performance, and said, “Where do you want me to sign, sweetheart?” There’s something real about Mallika Sarabhai. Even when the television cameras are not on her.