Everyone is making a noise about noise. “Democracy”, they are shouting from the rooftops, “is the freedom to make the maximum amount of noise by the maximum number of people from the maximum number of places for the maximum number of hours.” This has set up a clash between the judiciary, which has expended a lot of words in favour of silence, and the Noise Brigade.
Who is right? The judiciary, of course (it always is). But the other side has a point too, but more of that in a moment.
To start with, there’s a simple argument against the need for loudspeakers. Public prayers have been a feature of all faiths for centuries. (In some, like Islam, there’s also the call for prayer).
These predate electricity, so amplification was provided by the priest who used simple lung power and the learned ability of public speakers (and stage actors) to throw their voice naturally even to the back of the congregation. So why the need for loudspeakers now?
Has the temple or church or mosque got bigger? They haven’t. Has the size of the congregation increased? It hasn’t because of the physical limitations of the place of worship. So if the unamplified voice was good enough for prayer earlier, it should be good enough now.
Using this argument, loudspeakers shouldn’t be allowed at all, even between 6 am and 10 pm. How many of us have been woken up by scratchy bhajans at six? Or unmelodious voices calling for prayer even earlier?
How many of us have been disturbed at work by a preacher’s tuneless singing during the day, delivered at full blast to anyone within miles, when there are only about two hundred people listening to him in the pandal? This is the tyranny of the unsilent minority. Why should the silent majority tolerate it?
The demand for loudspeakers comes from extraneous reasons. The first is that religion has become competitive. In Ganeshotsav, it’s a case of my Ganpati is bigger than yours, my pandal is grander than yours… Across religions it’s a case of “We Hindus can drown you out”, or “We Muslims can outshout you.”
Our religious festivals are now also not about religion; they are Festivals of Money. The money is Big. Donations may be collected by a trust, but who are the trustees? What is their reputation? Is the money used for worthwhile causes?
Big as the money was earlier, it’s got even bigger in the last five years because each and every pandal now has a corporate sponsor.
That isn’t all. This year there’s a brand new trend and I wish Ganpati would do something about it: political parties have become large-scale sponsors of Ganeshotsav. And like any politician anywhere they are not content to be behind the scenes. That would defeat the very purpose for which politicians get into any form of pooja: to be seen and heard and get their faces plastered all over town.
Thus, you have a lot of Big Brothers watching over us, and let’s face it, whatever their virtues, Narayan Rane and
company won’t win any prizesin beauty contests. Yet there they are, their likenesses inliving colour hung up all over the place.
What next? Their statues in the pooja itself like some Assistant Gods in attendance over the holy proceedings.
You watch this and wonder if there is any way religion can reclaim its own festivals and get them away from the Attention Grabbers, the Moneybags and the Politicians. There should be, but there doesn’t seem a chance, unless governments enact laws to shut up loudspeakers and loudmouths at one go and bans the use of non-religious faces and logos and symbols at religious functions.
But the blanket ban on loudspeakers isn’t always sensible. For example: how can a 10 pm deadline apply to New Year’s Eve? That’s a universal, non-religious, secular function. It revolves around the moment when midnight arrives. How odd then that the authorities should allow the function, but not its special moment, its raison d’etre.
There’s also a ban on playing music at any time near places of education. Suppose you have a clubhouse near a school and you want to have a party with music at eight in the evening. Party yes, say the authorities. But, sorry, no music.
Why have the restriction when the place of education is shut? Does any school work at 8 pm? Good laws should do good. They shouldn’t shut out all the joy of living.
Email: anildharker@yahoo.com
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