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Friday March 29, 2024

An encounter with Hamilton

By Ghazi Salahuddin
August 20, 2017

A flight of fancy it surely is, but I wonder if a play could be built around the speech that the Quaid had made in the inaugural session of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947. And the challenge, obviously, would be to portray the inner conflict of a leader who had led the creation of a new nation in the name of religion and was then, at the moment of its birth, confronted with that soul-destroying communal carnage across a frontier drawn in blood.

One problem would be that all interpretations of historical events tend to be subjective and controversial. It becomes more difficult when glaring facts of history are pushed aside to protect an ideological stance. In addition, our predicament is that we do not seem to have sufficient intellectual capacity to delve into the realities of our existence. We can make do with the melody of our national songs.

While these are sombre thoughts, I have been nudged in this direction by a personal experience and some headlines of the week. In fact, I need to explain that I happen to be in the US – a country that is also deeply conflicted about its foundational values and principles. This is our annual vacation and a dream time for the family to be together. It is a bit reassuring that we are in southern California in our first post-Trump visit to the country.

Against this backdrop, the immediate incentive for my thoughts is that I attended on Thursday a show of ‘Hamilton: An American Musical’, now in Los Angeles in its national tour. This was bound to be an overwhelming experience, if you have some idea about what this Broadway musical is. In some ways, it is becoming increasingly topical with the challenges posed by the Trump presidency.

However, I would first like to return to what is presently a distant place that refuses to fade out of my mind. With this celebration of the 70 years of our independence, there has been some serious analysis of the human dimension of Partition. This is not how we have traditionally been celebrating August 14.

This landmark has allowed a more thoughtful remembrance of the past, aided by the interest that the global media has taken in the abiding sorrows and irrationalities of two major South Asian countries. Images of the misery of displaced persons, projecting tragedy rather than triumph, have headlined the enigmatic history of India and Pakistan.

This ambivalence about the fruits of freedom in a land of immortal deprivations has actually been strengthened by the present state of affairs in both India and Pakistan. There is a surge of Hindu nationalism in India while the crisis of civilian rule in Pakistan has activated political turmoil. Consequently, questions are being raised about the legacy of 1947 and about the wisdom of investing religion into politics.

In Pakistan, so many strains have come together to create a sense of urgency about where it is going from here. That is why we must revisit Partition and make peace with what we think was the Quaid’s vision. But can we tell Jinnah’s story in a new, uninhibited and creative idiom to create a popular appreciation of the complexity of our historical origins?

This is where I want to make a brief mention of ‘Hamilton’. I have been reading about this musical for more than two years and it is providential that it has come to LA. My daughter, in view of her father’s unrequited love for such cultural experiences, had arranged the tickets with fairly good seats. This was not easy in the initial days of the show’s 21-week run at the Pantages Theatre, with its capacity of 2,600.

At one level, there were personal impressions of an unusual opportunity to be part of an exclusive community. The entire drill was exhilarating. But, of course, “the play’s the thing”. One measure of its success is that it grossed $76 million during a 22-week run in San Francisco where 376,164 people saw it. As many as 445,995 people are expected to see it in Los Angeles. You can be sure that every seat in every show is taken. On Broadway, the best seats would cost over $800.

One reason why this ‘Hamilton’ fever has swept across America is that it is in tune with today’s debates about race and immigration. What I see as the most astounding and hard-to-imagine aspect of this amazing piece of theatre is that black and Latino actors are cast as the founding fathers, including Alexander Hamilton and George Washington. As a musical, the entire story is told in lyrics and it helped that I had listened to the track and read it before going to see it.

There are details about ‘Hamilton’ and the story it tells that I need not sum up in this column. How it became a must-see show in the US is also a separate story. It became important enough for the PBS to make a documentary on its making. This documentary titled ‘Hamilton’s America’ is also a lesson in history. By the way, I was surprised to see that the entire audience was of white Americans when I saw it and the ovation it received was truly overwhelming.

Obama saw it with his two daughters when he was president in July 2015. His presence was not announced on stage. It was noted that Obama himself could relate to the story and how it was told. Mike Pence was vice-president-elect when he went to see it on Broadway in November 2016 and he was loudly booed and mildly cheered.

At the end of the show, the cast addressed Mike Pence’s presence. Let me conclude with what one member of the cast said: “We have a message for you, sir. We hope that you will hear us out. Vice-President-elect Pence, we welcome you and we truly thank you for joining us here at Hamilton: An American Musical. We really do. We, sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and work on behalf of [all] of us…We truly thank you for sharing this show – this wonderful American story told by a diverse group of men [and] women of different colours, creeds and orientation”.

The writer is a senior journalist.

Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com