“We went down from the carpet to the grass and you went up from the grass to the carpet,” noted author and playwright Jyoti Prasad Agrawal once said to a fellow companion (who recently took over the ministry).
The pious driving force of mass leadership lies in the statement. Artists never compromise for self-interest and power. The essence of art has been inscribed in their hearts.
The other name for compromise is slavery. Indeed, people with values and personalities never compromise on human rights. This is the greatest and most essential quality of mass leadership. It is also a time-tested consciousness of moral culture with a sense of moral art. Genuine artists are worshippers of pure aspects of culture, they are selfless servants of the liberation struggle. The cultural mass leaders of the liberation or revolution and the priests of the transformation of mass culture are leaders in the true sense.
The personality in deeds, quality, culture, language, sense, struggle, birth and death cover the emotional heart of common people. A real artist or leader gets involved in the emotive appeal of common people. But today, the mistake of our people is that we call the political leadership a social worker, patriot and democrat. Actors, dancers, singers or poets cannot be generalised as artists. Even one king or army general cannot be termed as a leader because he may not possess the quality of public service.
The blind King Dhritarashtra is a good example of this kind. Although he was a king, he was motivated by the wicked policy of his brother-in-law Shakuni. The culture of the Kauravas was to fight and win. This is the politics of warfare. It symbolises the hollow sense of social responsibility. Here, Lord Krishna is the leader of culture and the masses. People’s leadership and artistic being have to be blended to be a true leader. This quality is clearly expressed in theoretical and artistic analysis of the mythological character -Lord Krishna.
This is the essence of art. The art of transformation of thought and philosophy is the living reality. Truth is hidden in the tears of millions of downtrodden. One day, they will come out to fight the battle of truth with the picture of creation for liberation. The bright picture will one day shine and the protesting voices of the suffering people will blow the trumpet. This belief in transformation can be seen in the poems, songs and plays of all the artists of the soil.
All societies saw the continuous decline of civilisation and culture under the influence of materialistic thought and eventually loss of a bright future.
Artists are generally alone. A lonely artist has an unwavering conviction devoted to the struggle of revolutionary consciousness. Artists and writers without dedication moved away from people and usually stood on the margins of the centre of society. There are many ways to express oneself but that should be worth people’s time and environment. Therefore, it is important to note that artists are not only for entertainment but they are also the epitome of values and principles.
