Borderless Humanity Discourse- An Effort

A Presentation by Somali Panda

#borderlesshumanity

[This is a submission, a humble submission. A dream to find a thread out. A thread that vaguely binds the great philosophies of the world. Or, else, to search for the essence of the great civilizations of the world in its ancient period. An impossible crescendo-like-flight toward the heaven, where every component reflects the heaven itself. A desire to comprehend all these facets in essence, however, in the Indian notes, or in Indian philosophy for that matter; and in turn, an attempt to feel the harmony worldwide.]

It all started in finding the logic behind the usage of high pitch notes in almost all the mystical forms of music. Gradually a pattern started to unfold before me. With the journey of the mankind itself the elemental notes too travelled throughout the world, and evolved one pattern that is still vibrant in so many parts of today’s world even. The structured religions had their mystical offshoots, and the religious overtones from the mystical musical forms were somehow subdued by the notes from human struggle and sufferings worldwide. I started to trace back the origin of Mystical tradition, and reached the 5^th century BC Greece. 

#Diaspora

Etymologically, Diaspora derives from Greek dia (‘through’) and speirein (‘to sow, scatter’). The word is used more broadly to refer to the cultural connections maintained by a group of people who have been dispersed, or who have migrated. Each distinct group or community is different timescales. A key characteristic of Diaspora is strong sense of connection to a homeland which is maintained through cultural practices and ways of life. This ‘homeland’ may be imaginary rather than real. Its existence even need not be tied to any desire to ‘return’. The 20th century has seen massive ethnic refugee crises due to war, and of course, due to rise of nationalism and racism. The first half of the 20th century experienced how hundreds of millions of the ethnic population across Europe, Asia and Northern Africa became refugees.

#Migration

Movement of people is perhaps as old as the history of civilization itself. From the time immemorial people are walking down the path of happenings, leaving or losing their home in search of a newer one, with their own desire and dream, longings or desperation, music and amusement; and they are interacting, creating, merging or emerging, in the course. This movement or migration has shown the path of unknown to the human race, though the elemental urge for them is to settle down. The reasons may be as different as natural, spatial, political, economic, social or racial, people have to move toward a new horizon, but with an incessant quest for the root somewhere deep in the mind. Migration of people and their culture, especially music, across the world has been occurring to an unprecedented extent and in novel ways for some time now. 

I tried to tread along the paths of the 5th century BC Greece to understand what actually spurred Alexander the Great to move this far with the entire panorama of Hellenic culture, and thereby to lay the foundation of the huge Hellenistic pattern. Afterwards, these immensely rich, in every possible way, population, living in the areas which the great emperor traversed and founded habitations in, including Persia, Turkey, and, of course, parts of Indian peninsula, became mere have-nots. With only the glorious cultural heritage as their characteristic, they became commonly known as the Gypsies after their ever-migrating character. Later, toward the end of the 14th century, and early into the 15th century, Taimur’s conquest resulted in immense destruction and loss of life in Persia, and in India. And the poorest of the poor people of the areas, i.e., the Gypsies, were the worst sufferers. Many of these wanderers, or the Gypsies, headed west, and some of them finally ended up in the early 15th century in Spain, and, in particular, in Andalusia.  The impact was so immense that Federico Garcia Lorca had to pen his essay on the Andalusian Gypsy Music (Deep Song), and had to compose number of Gaceles (ghazals) as the outcome. This part of the world, the corridor of the Gypsies, later known as Silk Route, incidentally, has been the cradle of mysticism.

This stretch of land experienced wars, aggressions, migrations, agonies and pangs for quite a long time. This place is shedding tears, or elemental fluid, from the time when the ancient civilizations of this world were searching for the same truth, the ways of progression of numbers, that initiated in turn the concept of Zero in India, to these days of unrest, lack of trust or catastrophe. 

With the passage of time here emerged a number of musical forms which spelled out the agony of the suffering souls, and the story of confluence too, knowingly or unknowingly. All these musical forms were hybrid in nature that speaks themselves their pattern of birth and growth. 

 An important observation may be cited here. This is the stretch of land that has been the cradle of Mysticism. We know that almost all the structured religions have their mystical offshoots. The world of mysticism- the Kabbalah in Judaism, or Gnosticism with Christianity, or Sufism in Islam, or, else, Vedanta or Upanishads with Hinduism, or so on, is so varied, and yet emanating perhaps the same spirit- yearning to be re-united with the Ultimate Reality through the path of love and devotion; and the search for one’s identity is the soul of Migrating Music, which is the quintessence of the Upanishads.

#Aspiration

This migration of musical notes or culture with migration of humans can bind the three fourth of this good earth almost by a strong sense of harmony, by a sense of love, essence of peace; and the migrants can see their voice reflected in mainstream cultural phenomena worldwide. This alone can be enough reason for the migrants not to think themselves as marginalised, rather the mainstream people who have been instrumental in changing the world, through their own sacrifices and losses. 

Now this is a more systematic effort to walk steadily on the path of Harmony through a series of Discourse on this subject, we invite you, online and offline, to take part.