Imagining Freedom

<p>This is the first of two episodes dealing with C. Subramania Bharati's extended English-language essay, "The Political Evolution in the Madras Presidency." It is a stunning first-person narrative of the reality of colonialism in the southern part of India - a story that has been virtually forgotten by the world, but that now demands a fresh hearing in our current time of reckoning with injustice. Even more than police repression, Bharati dwells on the chilling hypocrisy of the British government, which claims free speech and individual rights as core British values, only to deny them to their own colonial subjects.</p> <p>Music in this episode features one of Bharati's national songs, "Bharata Samudayam Vazhgave," sung by Bharati's family  members as the poet himself sang it, and percussion by tabla maestro Bickram Ghosh and ghatam maestro V. Suresh, in a spectacular "jugalbandhi" that brings together North and South Indian classical traditions.</p> <p>Executive Producer and Host: Mira T. Sundara Rajan</p> <p>Engineer: Emma Markowitz</p> <p>Producer: Bradley W. Vines</p> <p>Music credits for "Bharata Samudayam Vazhgave:" composed by C. Subramania Bharati and performed by S. Vijaya Bharati, S. Mohan Bharati, Amrita Bharati, and Vidya; recorded by R.A. Shankar in Adelaide, Australia, January 1, 1988.</p> <p>Music Credits for Ghatam and Tabla Duet: <a href= "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RwbLpI1Q4E" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">Drums of India, Bickram Ghosh</a> on Tabla and V. Suresh On Ghatam.</p> <p>Subscribe to <a href="https://bit.ly/SubscribeBikramGhosh" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bickram Ghosh's youtube channel</a>.</p>