Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The two greats who set up such an emotional arpeggio through the waves of these two rivers are: Indian bard Bhupen Hazarika and his friend, poet, actor, civil rights champion and footballer Paul Robeson. The Mississippi stirs up the imagination of many Indians who have sifted through the pages of Huckleberry Finn and the adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.
Nevertheless, the Mississippi enflamed the imagination of more people in India after Hazarika sang the song ‘Ganga Tumi Boicho Kano (The Ganga, why are you flowing?).
Robeson influenced many poets across the world. Nobel laureate Bob Dylan and the Bard of Brahmaputra, as Hazarika is called, are among them. Hazarika met Robeson at Columbia University in 1950. Robeson’s ‘Ol’ Man River’, as the Mississippi, is endearingly called, limns the struggle and hardships of African Americans.
The song became an instant hit across the world. The tune compares the struggles with the dispassionate flow of the river.
So goes the song:
Here we all work ‘long the Mississippi Here well all work while the white folk play Pullin’ them boats from the dawn till sunset Gettin’ no rest till the judgment day… Hazarika tailored the song to suit the Indian masses.
The warble rendered into Bistirno Parore (Stretched on two shores where people live in crores). It has also been translated into Hindi: “O, Ganga tum Behti ho Kyon (O, Ganges! Why do you flow?).” When it was decoded in Bengali, it fired the imagination of those associated with the Communist Movement in West Bengal. In the USA, Robeson was blacklisted for singing such a revolutionary song. Hazarika became a hero of the masses.
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The poet tells the Ganges:
“Even as you witness erosion of morality, Even as you witness downfall of humanity Why do you still flow lazily…” So knits Robeson the sorrows and sufferings of the poor Afro-Americans through the waves of the Mississippi. Both Robeson and Hazarika are two portraitists who brushed the sufferings of the man in the street. Two friends, belonging to two different countries, speaking two different languages, gave voice to the voiceless in the same language – the language of humanity. This is the reason why each syllable of the flowing waters of the Ganges and that of the Mississippi rings in the ears of every Indian.
Bob Dylan, Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson had a tremendous influence on the Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan who used to spend a lot of time listening to Robeson records in the 1960s. Many mornings later, when Robeson was blacklisted, he performed before a crowd of nearly 40,000. He was deprived of a passport because of his ‘Un-American activities’ like supporting Afro-Americans. Once, Dylan, too, considered himself blacklisted, as he was prevented from singing “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues.” In a song, Dylan indirectly alludes to Robeson.
The album, consisting of the son released in 1964, says:
He said he’s gonna kill me If I don’t get out the door in two seconds’ flat “You, unpatriotic, rotten, doctor, Commie rat….” You believe it or not, in the song, there are serious problems to contend with. Dylan’s words are filled with dissent that you have already heard in Robeson’s tune.
Robeson chants:
I get weary, and sick of tryin’
I’m tired of livin,’ and scared of dyin’
But Ol’ Man River, he just keeps rolling’ along
Dylan intones:
Why only yesterday, I saw somebody on the street
Who just couldn’t help but cry
Oh, this ol’ river keeps on rollin’ though…
(Bob Dylan: Watching the River Flow)
