The Commune-ist Air: The Case of the IPTA Central Squad

Abstract

The House of Satan continued with its search for a homo nationalis through the early twentieth century. With time it became more assertive of an identity that it wished to establish. However, the collectives, the sociables and the groups that were largely associated with its functioning had not changed much in terms of the configuration of such congregations. In urban spaces it continued to be spearheaded by a certain educated section of the society although an increased mass base of the anticolonial movement as a whole provided impetus to the performance of the working groups. While reforms remained the primary agenda in this age of associations, the primary search through most narratives remained a search for the common being. And mostly that was the national common being. It was more like throwing one’s hand out in darkness not knowing what one wants—a substanceless substance. ‘Rowing’ should we call it through the unknown? Is that how it can be most appropriately defined? An interesting take on such a quest of the substanceless substance can be seen in the play by a performance collective that was formed in the Calcutta University around the Second World War. It was the Youth Cultural Institute (YCI). One play that it performed at the Ashutosh Hall in Calcutta was called ‘Politicians take to Rowing’ written by Jolie Kaul, a member of the YCI. She writes that what she aimed at was reaching out to a larger community given the hypocrisy and confusion around the political situation of the time. In this interesting take, a farce on a common being, a notice is sent to the Fuhrer from India, about a rowing challenge amongst four. The Fuhrer, Hitler, has no idea about how to row. He discusses his problem with Benito Mussolini. They come to the conclusion that rowing is something practised by the ‘decadent students of Oxford and Cambridge’. However he could not refuse the challenge because that would mean that his Aryan culture lacks something. So he calls upon Joseph Goebbels to order a truce with England because England knew rowing and they could teach the Germans. Goebbels was to take this message to Winston Churchill who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the time. However he had to explain to Churchill that it was because of the Jews that the Germans forgot rowing. Meanwhile, Goebbels practises the sport and all of them meet for the competition. Lord Linlithgow, the then Viceroy of India, becomes the moderator. The representatives from India who come to the rowing competition are Chakravarti Rajagopalachari—a leader of the Indian National Congress in the Madras Presidency; Lord Linlithgow introduced him as ‘He is the only member of the working committee who is working seriously for a compromise’; the next was Mahatma Gandhi who is introduced by Linlithgow as a saint-politician and that he has had ‘several talks with him already in which we have both understood each other perfectly but not arrived at any settlement’; the next is Subhas Bose, ‘the Congress President of the All India Forward Bloc; the next one is ‘Mr Hindu Mahasabha Savarkar’ and finally Jinnah whom Linlithgow introduces as the one ‘who has devised a brilliant scheme to keep India under the British as a dominion’. However even before the competition could start, chaos begins when Adolf Hitler declares himself as the leader of his team. Churchill clearly has a problem with that. Mussolini takes Hitler’s side, but the debate remains unresolved. On the other hand, in the Indian side, while Rajagopalachari begins with a compromise, Subhas Bose says the essential thing was leadership, and he would make the compromise if made the leader. Savarkar goes on to argue ‘Our ancient munis and rishis could have won this race by pure spiritual power. We Hindus have no unity amongst ourselves; that is the cause of our downfall and we have actually gone and included a Muslim in our crew’, while Jinnah argues for minority reservation and wants 50% Muslim representation in rowing. Although Linlithgow tries to intervene and says ‘you must never agree together but you must have perfect unity amongst yourselves’. However the Indian representatives become quiet when Mahatma Gandhi threatens them with a hunger strike. The farce remains unresolved. The author Jolie Kaul, an active woman member of the cultural movement of the Calcutta University, leaves several questions open. That a sport could become the motivation for a union turned the entire political scenario into a ridiculous situation where no one had an idea about the purpose—neither the Indian side nor the European. The question of the purpose, the reason for why the fight, is ridiculed not only within the national context as it were but also the international one. This question continued to haunt the cultural movements of the time.