A cultural perspective on a cultured evening

Kolkata has the reputation of being a city of culture. Countless poets, philosophers, and artist have emerged from this place. Bengalis themselves are renowned throughout India for being intellectuals. As such, there is never a want of activities to suit one’s taste for a high-brow evening. From dance recitals, to art shows, to concerts all can be found here.

Which brings me to last night; I went to the marvelous concert of a French blues quartet. Their jamming session was amazing and totally infused the evening with rhythm. As expected the audience was mostly Indian, with the odd expat or grungy backpacker peppered in. Like most Kolkatan cultural events, I later learned, it was free of charge. But what struck me the most is that like my previous theater experience this even was sponsored by western organizations. I’ve only been able to attend a couple of events I’ve been invited too, but all of them have been western sponsored or themed.

I am not saying that ALL artsy events in Kolkata are western influenced (there was a huge Bengali rock concert earlier that I was not able to attend that was organized by a Bengali TV network) but in my admittedly limited experience there does seem to be a heavy western arm in all this. Could it be because western businesses have greater funding for cultural events? Or is it still a form of colonization when western powers control cultural events in other countries? Granted the same could be said for the development field, of which I am a part of.

If you are curious, no I am NOT hanging out with any expatriates, besides my flat mate I only have fleeting acquaintances with other expats in Kolkata (did I mention that the members of the British club are mostly Indian!?).

I don’t necessarily have a point with this rambling, just a random observation based on very limited data.

Hope all are well.