User:Jossiearthur/sandbox

Jossie K. Arthur was an iconic artist, musician and tap dancer in Mangalore of the 1930s and early 1940s. With Theodore Melville and another friend, he formed a string trio that was the rage at the time for their breakthrough form and surprising musical innovations. Their large and varied repertoire fused the styles of popular musicals, jazz and the native folk idiom to break the pattern of expected entertainment in Mangalore. Underneath the rambunctious cheer of his music was a vein of serious intent – of bringing social groups together.

Early life
Born Jossie Arthur Kerode, a Basel Mission Protestant, Jossie changed his surname when he married Mary Pinto, a Roman Catholic. This created violent ripples among both communities and his life was threatened on more than one occasion. With his guitar, his tap shoes and his magnetic personality he was able to bring about a welcome melding of communal sensibilities. With his iconoclasm and his magnetic personality he strove to smash some of the walls that divided the religious communities of that time, particularly among the Protestants and the Catholics, two groups with diametrically opposing cultures. At the age of 13 he was assigned the project of painting the main mural of St. Sebastian’s Church, Bendoor. He completed the mural when he was just 14.

Career
Arthur moved to Bombay in 1943. Beginning as a political cartoonist, he pioneered the country’s early forays in the area of animation. As an animation artist in the Films Division and later as a free-lancer, he experimented and innovated techniques in cel and tabletop animation.

His intellectual companions included personalities such as Harindranath Chattophadhyay (poet and Bollywood actor) Ebrahim Alkazi, (theatre personality) Janaki Nath Gunju (diplomat and official PRO for India) and a few others.