In 1972, the fledgeling Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) – founded 1969 – held its first convocation. Unusually, it chose to invite an actor from the Hindi film industry as the chief guest. The actor delivered an unusual address that has, for the most part, been forgotten. In it, he spoke of many things: the urban-rural divide, the artificiality of the Hindi-Urdu schism, the continued dominance of English and Macaulay, the challenges of artistes and the distance the nation had yet to traverse to become truly self-confident.
1972 was the Age of Indira and her popularity was sky-high at that point. The famous victory over the old enemy, Pakistan, in December 1971, had cast a spell over the nation. Even Vajpayee, who was an entrenched opposition leader, is said to have spoken of her in glowing terms and addressed her as ‘Durga’ (he later denied doing so).
1972 was also the silver jubilee of Indian independence. The nation had survived all the doomsday predictions of Western commentators, survived as a united entity and by some accounts, actually thrived. It was perhaps the time to chest-thump and to crow about the nation’s accomplishments.
And amidst the celebratory fervour came this speech with its discordant notes. The actor who had delivered that wet-blanket speech was Balraj Sahni, surely among Bollywood’s most unusual personalities.
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