Ship, ship hurray!

Paul Robeson and Vangapandu; both have nothing in common but have everything that is extra common. Belonging to two different continents, and active in different time frames, call them peoples’ artistes, folklorists, balladeers, and resistance voices, undoubtedly they agree.

And to our surprise, much before a troubadour like Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel prize in Literature, by the Swedish academy, last year somewhat expanding the definition and scope of the word literature, to be exact in 1940s itself,

flamboyant Telugu writer Chalam, in his foreword to burgeoning poet Sri Sri’s ‘Mahaprasthanam’, said that his daughter after hearing the poems of Sri Sri, compared his verse to the music of Paul Robeson.

How come Chalam and his legendary daughter Sowris drew this analogy, in those days when it was hard to get Gramophone Records from abroad, and what were the sources for Chalam and Sowris to hear the music of Paul Robeson.

Well, the point is, in the 1940s itself, 75 years before the Swedish Academy made a decision to announce the annual Nobel Prize to a lyricist singer in 2015, Telugu writer Chalam has compared Paul Robeson an American civil rights singer par excellence, to Sri Sri, an Indian poet writing in Telugu. Well, this is the globalisation of aesthetics, largely speaking.

Paul Robeson is a senior generation poet when compared to Bob Dylan. Paul worked in the docks, and Sri Sri in his poem ‘Desa charitralu’, (Histories of nations) invoking the international brotherhood of labour, said that rickshaw wallah in China, the miner in Czechoslovakia, and the docker in Ireland, all will reverberate in one voice, what actually the history contained, for the working class.

Around that time Sri Sri was writing his poem in the late 1930s. A few years earlier say in 1928, Paul Robeson was recording what would be his all time hit “Ol’ Man River”, a lyric that portrayed the plight of stevedore dock workers, at the port. Truly, it is a docker singing this song of life struggle in America, and here Sri Sri is charging ahead with his majestic poetic chant for the international egalitarianism.

In American aesthetics, they refer to rivers as masculine, and we Indians refer to rivers in the feminine gender. That is why river Mississippi becomes an old man, in this lyric of Jerome Kym. The song rendered in slow baritone by Paul Robeson gave him many opportunities to act in films like ‘Song of Freedom’ among others.

Even the lyrics of this song were revised along with the trends of the time, as per analysts. The lines “Niggers all work on de Mississippi, Niggers all work while de white folks play” were in the original 1927 Broadway show.

They were changed for the 1936 film version to “Darkies all work on de Mississippi, Darkies work while de white folks play”. By the time of the 1946 Broadway revival, the lines had changed again to “Coloured folks work on de Mississippi, Coloured folks work while de white folks play”.

And soon after, in the film ‘Till the Clouds Roll By’ they had become “Here we all work on Mississippi, Here we all work while de white folks play”. The song went on to become an American classic and was performed by many artistes as the decades rolled by.

Paul Robeson recorded many songs of civil protest, and against racism, and clearly a forerunner, and a powerful claimant for Literature Nobel honours as well, but one thing made the difference, the then Nobel committee had no idea to look beyond the written word.

Now this Paul Leroy Robeson has some extra commonalities with Vangapandu Prasada Rao, popularly known as Vangapandu. Paul was a towering six feet plus person, a football player, a bass singer; he during his lifetime became a cultural giant of America.

Our Vangapandu, is a midget personality, also an actor, lyricist singer, ballad performer, and a staunch radical. As Paul spent some part of his life as a Dock Khalasi, so also Vangapandu, came in search of livelihood, and worked at Hindustan Ship Yard, Visakhapatnam in the 1970s, as a ship khalasi.

So, the khalasis singing about ships and life in ports happened in the USA, and in India, and a poetic vision connected this inter-continental camaraderie, between comrades of the downtrodden one Paul Robeson and other, is Vangapandu.

As Paul Robeson sang about the “Old Man River” in the 1930s and our Vangapandu wrote a mercurial song “Ship, you don’t go away, stretching our sinews, and breaking our bones, we made you a fort in the water.

The ship, you don’t go away” and depicted in his dynamic style and danced to his staccato stanzas to perfection and created a workshop melody.

While the “Old Man River” is a melancholic take, that is going to haunt the listeners, the Vangapandu jingle is a lance of sentiment that wounds the listeners and leaves unseen lacerations on their psyche.

Vangapandu had his apprentice years with stalwarts like Sri Sri, Rachakonda Visvanatha Sastry, Angara Surya Rao, Puripanda Appala Swami, in the heydays of the original Visakha Rachayitala Sangham.

As the revolutionary movement in the remote areas, and in the annals of literature gained the major stay in the State, the writers supported the right of the people to resist the authoritarian ways of the State, and apart from the writings meant for the literate, the song has started its expo, as it did in the days of freedom movement.

Vangapandu wrote about the poor and downtrodden without succour and invited the ardent youth with his signature song he appropriated from the tribal crooning and polished to be a fine weapon in the arsenal of agitprop.

The song was “Em, pillado eldamostavaa. Em, pillo eldamostavaa (Lad o lad, will you come. Girl o girl, will you come to the hills of Srikakulam where parrots are drawing knives)”.

His long ballads “Bhoomi Bhagotam”, and “Sikkolu Yuddham” have recorded the armed struggle and the manner of oppression, the poor farmers had to undergo, in the slow process of disempowerment, practised to a perfection by all the stakeholders.

Developing his art from the folk styles of “Jalari Bhagotam” of fishermen, he said that he developed Bhoomi Bhagotam, which had been performed thousands of times in the entire State.

For his “Sikkolu Yuddham”, he also used another fork art style of narration from “Kanjira Katha”. His songs are sharp takes on exploitative society, and joining voice with the cause of the people, this troubadour protestor has completed 50 years of dedicated service.

He was the co-founder of Jana Natya Madali along with Gaddar, and B Narasinga Rao, in 1972. Credited with penning down more than 400 songs, of which a score are translated into national and world languages. He gave thousands of performance in the State and across the country.

Vangapandu had displayed histrionic talent as well in a few films and penned lyrics for some songs. He is the recipient of Suddala Hanumanthu Award, organised by Suddala Ashok Teja, son of the famous resistance singer-fighter.

Kosaraju-Rasamayi Award and Bollimuntha Sivaramakrishna Award were also conferred on him for his exceptional services to the people's art.

Andhra University recently recognised his original talent and appointed him as an Honorary Lecturer in the Department of Theatre Arts.

On January 22, at Visakhapatnam, a public performance by Vangapandu is going to mark the grand half century of his works.

1967 being the beginning year of troubadour career, Vangapandu is completing fifty feisty years of song and dance in the interest of the common man, and it is not a surprise that a ship khalasi on daily wages in the shipyard, gave the ship building industry of the world, a most memorable song, and had inspiring forefathers in Sri Sri who was proximate, and in Paul Robeson, a distant guide.

In trying times, these artistes walk on the razor’s edge, and, the analogy of ship and port based songs, both of them have contributed,

which is only a small measure to understand their commitment to make the art a sheet anchor, in the worldwide campaign to usher in a just society that guarantees human dignity, and provides fair means to all, to the riches of the planet, for truly no one has brought them here, and no one is capable of taking them away.

Paul Robeson and Vangapandu demonstrate beyond a point, what a concerned individual and focused society can do. Nothing else, but that alone makes the difference.

By: Rama Teertha
The writer is a poet, critic, translator and an orator