Moinul Haque, a leading mime in northeast India, has incorporated climate change messages into his shows.
By Teresa Rehman
Assam, India : Visualize this. Several trees stand tall by the side of a pristine river. There is also a hand pump and people come from neighboring villages to collect water.
A family rows their boat on the river. Birds of all hues come and build their nests on the trees. Monkeys hop from one branch to another.
But this happiness is short lived. Disaster strikes.
A woodcutter starts felling one tree after another. This leads to a reduction in the water level of the river. The hand pump starts to run dry. Finally, when the last tree is felled, the water dries up completely.
This leads to a desperate situation. People start dying. It is then that a young child comes and plants a sapling.
This 'silent' play, without any props, was enacted on stage by a group of mime artists led by Moinul Haque. It left the audience, especially children, spell-bound, and prompted many schools to invite Haque and his troupe to perform for them and teach the nuances of mime to their students.
Haque, 52, an accomplished mime artist based in Assam, a state in Northeast India, has been incorporating environmental themes in almost all his shows.
ART AS MEDIUM FOR EDUCATION?
His work suggests how messages about climate change and environmental protection might be brought to a wider audience through art and entertainment, whether in the form of art exhibitions, radio plays or mime performances.
Haque started dabbling with issues on climate change some 10 years back, long before the subject became a global issue, largely out of a longstanding love for nature.
A self-taught performer, credited with popularizing mime across India, Haque has for more than three decades used the versatile nature of mime to comment on social issues, including most recently environmental issues.
One impetus was seeing his hometown of Guwahati, a bustling city in the region, growing in a haphazard and unplanned manner.
"There is acute scarcity of water in several localities of the city and people actually buy water from private water suppliers. Due to the ad hoc growth of the city, every year the city experiences artificial floods. I now plan to work on this issue," he said.
He believes the future rests on the efforts of the younger generation. Realizing that he could tap the potential of upcoming talented youngsters, Haque founded a mime academy in 1991, the only recognized institution of its kind in the region.
One of his favorite performances is aptly titled "Gos Thakile he Manuh Thakibo" ("Man dies when tree disappears").
In the poignant tale, a man plants a tree outside his house by the roadside. His wife waters it regularly, and as their children grow up, they sing and play under the huge tree and savor its fruits.
Many a weary traveler sits under the shade of the sprawling tree and the villagers organize meetings under it. The birds build their nests in its branches.
Then one day, wood cutters fell the gigantic tree and take it to sell in the market. The disheartened man dies when he sees his tree being felled. The birds and the monkeys that played on its branches weep.
This 'silent' act never fails to brings tears to the eyes of his audiences. In mime performances, as the saying goes, "Actions speak louder than words."
Photo: Teresa Rehman
**Teresa Rehman is a journalist based in Northeast India. She can be reached at www.teresarehman.net
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