Who ploughed the land of the Directorate of Art?

Just like the famous monologue in the play ‘NataSamrat’, ‘Ghar deta kuni ghar…’ (Could anyone provide a home?), now it is the turn of the Directorate of Art and the Department of Higher and Technical Education to say ‘Could anyone provide an Art Director?’. What was sown by the corrupt officers of the Higher and Technical Education Department in the last thirty-five years has now sprouted. Satish Naik, the editor of ‘Chinha’, will be writing a special series reviewing the numerous scandals in the Directorate of Art, every Monday to Friday for a month starting September 1st . Here is the second part of the series.

Prof Shantinath Arwade retired in 1989 and it was from there that the Directorate of Art and effectively the JJ School of Art began the decline of art education that was once the topmost in Maharashtra. Shantinath Arwade was succeeded by an Art Director named B B Chopane. Only the officials of the Higher and Technical Education Department who appointed him as Art Director can tell about his relationship with painting.

What happens if a person of the rank of a clerk or higher than a clerk is appointed to the post of Art Director of Maharashtra? The same happened to the Directorate of Art during his tenure. This man held that position for almost nine years. I have no idea that the man had any sense of art. Those who know about it should let me know so that it would add to my knowledge.

Chopane Saheb tried to run the Directorate of Art in the same manner as it was done earlier. As he had no knowledge of art, there was no change in art education or the overall system of the Directorate of Art. All that can be said about his career is that he tried desperately to preserve what was before.

After that, Prof. Muralidhar Nangare, art teacher at Abhinav Art College at Pune, was appointed. This appointment took place and the prestige of the Directorate of Art that had been maintained until then began to crumble. In fact, his appointment was strongly opposed in the art circle. But Mr. Nangare was expert in managing things. He managed everything and got his appointment made on that post. That was the time of the coalition government (Yuti Shasan). The coalition government is considered to be the turning point in the administrative history of Maharashtra. This turning point proved to be of great help for Mr. Nangare. Mr. Nangare wooed the politicians by gifting them his paintings and firmed his base there. (Someone should now look into the quality of the paintings that he gave to the politicians. As it was because of these paintings that he flourished. But the art education of Maharashtra went into the abyss. Those paintings may or may not exist now, but they did their job well.)

This gentleman used to live in the building of JJ Institute of Applied Art. Originally he was from Pune. So when he came to Mumbai, he stayed in the rooms above the  Directorate of Art. So for him, just climbing down a staircase was the way to the office. And another staircase down was the government car. Due to these facilities, he left nothing to do. Now after so many years, there is nothing more shameful than to enlist his achievements, hence I do not even want to utter it. This man, who was the Art Director of Maharashtra, used to walk around JJ’s beautiful premises in striped shorts and vest. (If you remember Dada Kondke’s chaddis, you recognized correctly.) During the reign of this man, about 150-175 unaided art colleges were started in one year. And the Directorate of Art went into a downward spiral.

These so-called unaided art colleges were established in picturesque places like village common hall, verandah, village temple, primary school, under the banyan tree, cow-pen, and even a slaughterhouse. Two to four art colleges were permitted in each district. Art Teacher Diploma i.e. art training courses were started in every art college. Art colleges were distributed without even looking at who was qualified to run the art institution. There was only one condition ‘we should be paid our share first’ that’s it! These art colleges literally destroyed art education in Maharashtra. Such art education has literally ruined the lives of many students. Many students committed suicide. The poor parents in many districts who could not afford it had sent their children to this art college to become art teachers by selling the household items and sometimes taking loans or by selling their land. They were very disappointed. Because to the extent that the jobs of art teachers should have been there, they never got announced. In fact, there were never going to be. Because it was all a scam.

Girish Bapat, a BJP leader from Pune who later became a minister, also became an MP, strongly opposed the appointment of Nangare. He even raised a big movement. At that time, he had sent me a file of about four hundred pages containing documentary evidences of the corruption of Nangare. From that I published several news articles in the newspaper in which I was working at that time.

The evidence of his corruption was so terrible that the government had to take notice of it. Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde issued an order to arrest him, but some student artists of Mr Nangare intervened and the order was cancelled. Not only this, but on the front page of a reputed daily like Loksatta, a news article about how injustice is being done to Mr Nangare was published. The then learned editor Dr Arun Tikekar took a great initiative in publishing that news. As a result, those of us who opposed him were literally squashed and the empire of corruption spread in Maharashtra’s art education system. 

(Those who want to read more in this regard please click on the following link and read the pdf of the ‘Kalabazaar’ issue of ‘Chinha’. https://chinha.in/2008_edition) 

Please continue reading what happened next in the next part.

Satish Naik

Editor ‘Chihn Art News’