Picturesque ties
The Victoria & Albert Museum is not trying to be political but it thinks the Narendra Modi government will not be very keen on a major exhibition it is mounting from November 9, 2024 to May 5, 2025 which will demonstrate that the Mughals and their art were an integral part of India. Called The Great Mughals: Art, Architecture and Opulence, it will cover the period from 1560 to 1660, and “celebrate the extraordinary creative output and internationalist culture of Mughal Hindustan during the age of its greatest emperors”, Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan. Some 200 objects will be on display, including rarely-shown paintings, illustrated manuscripts, brilliantly hued carpets, textiles, architectural pieces and vessels made of mother of pearl, rock crystal, jade and precious metals.
Susan Stronge, its curator, said: “This is the first exhibition to reveal the international art and culture of the Mughal court. Hindustani artists, Iranian masters and a few Europeans came together in the imperial workshops to create a new, hybrid art. We are pleased to display some of their greatest creations, many of which have never been exhibited before.” She told me: “It’s a continuum, isn’t it? If you start off with a hybrid art that then carries on. You’ve got the legacy in architecture, in textile production… it’s so deeply embedded that it just carries on. It’s not separate from all the traditions that were already there. If you look at Humayun’s Tomb, it had Iranian architects but it has got features which only come from Indian architecture. So everything is blended. You don’t get Hindu and Moghul — they are all blended.”
Tireless advocate
More than 100 MPs are stepping down at the next election but among the most significant from the Indian point of view is the departure of Virendra Sharma. Now 77, he has been the Labour MP for Ealing Southall since 2007. This is the constituency, ‘Little Ludhiana’, with the highest number of Indians in the UK. Virendra has campaigned for causes such as cervical, blood and breast cancer and alcohol abuse. He deserves some kind of recognition from the Indian government. He has always stuck up for India whenever it came under attack from Pakistani-origin MPs in the Labour Party. He was never rewarded with high office because the Labour leadership is no longer bothered about India or Indians. One issue about which he has been especially passionate is the Jallianwallah Bagh Massacre of April 13, 1919. Virendra urged the government in 2017 “to ensure that British children are taught about this shameful period” and asked it to “formally... apologise in the House”.
Useful advice
For a dispassionate British assessment of the Indian general elections, I turned to one of the UK’s top foreign policy experts, Lord Simon McDonald. He had the top job in the Foreign Office and is now Master of Christ’s College, Cambridge. I asked what advice he would give Narendra Modi. “(Show) magnanimity,” he summed up. “I mean, you’re still in charge, sir... We say you’ve achieved something that hasn’t been achieved since the early days of the Republic, in order to have a third consecutive mandate. This is historic. But we have to be honest. That this is not what you were expecting. So this should impact the scope of your ambition.”
Since the Bharatiya Janata Party failed to get a majority, he wonders whether Modi will have to “throttle back on his most adventurous agenda”. He reckoned that “some of Modi’s most controversial policies are one reason why he has not achieved the thumping mandate he had hoped for. India in the end is more than a Hindu nation. I think in your final administration, sir, you should do more to embrace that. Expectations are crucial in politics. And when someone has fallen short against expectations, that impacts them. So absolutely he is in charge. But psychologically, he is not doing as well as he had hoped. And that will have an impact.”
“Might this affect Modi’s enthusiasm personally to remain in charge?” he wondered. “I mean, he’s getting on. The succession must be increasingly discussed within his party. Might it now be possible that he will not serve the full five years of this mandate?”
Lit fests galore
When it comes to Indian literary festivals, Indians in the UK are spoilt for choice. The Khushwant Singh Literary Festival last week was followed by the Jaipur Literary Festival. The former aims to brings together writers from India and Pakistan. The latter had a session, “Democracy on trial” featuring the former chief election commissioner, SY Quraishi, and the academics, Sarah Churchwell, Alpa Shah and Mukulika Banerjee. Quraishi was at KSLF as well and rejected suggestions that EVMs in India could be manipulated.
