Chapter 1 Introduction

Transcription

1 Introduction

2 Chapter 1 Introduction Culture provides a frame of reference and guide to define collective aspiration and beliefs of a society. Culture creates patterned relationships in the group, which is called a structure. Culture comprises ideas, values, and behaviour patterns, which are supposed to be socially transmittable. In a more restricted sense, it constitutes the ideational domain which includes the beliefs, values and expectations of the group. It is a learned behaviour. Culture is cultivation of man s mind and hence cultural values cultural traditions keep changing. People adopt their sociological relations, spiritual convictions and aesthetic tastes as a manifestation of their culture. Beliefs, values and expectations are not static but dynamic and change either by force of circumstances or conscious efforts of the cultural groups or by both. Due to contact with other cultures and people sometimes cultural groups assimilate the properties judged by the community to be appropriate. This process of cultural transformation could be quite complex but interesting to understand. The present study makes an attempt to understand the change in cultural traditions of communities that have, by and large, lived in isolation till recently, viz. tribal communities, as reflected in their performing art forms. Tribal, conventionally, are considered to be a group of people supposedly living in remote places, untouched by modernity, have little interaction with outside world, have very limited exposure to external environment, have their own symbols of worship and have preserved and safeguarded their traditions and customs. It was also assumed that so called modernity would not pollute their way of life due to their limited exposure to outside world and also with technology. However, to label them as primitive, uncultured would be quite erroneous. The advent of communication and exposure of tribal to other communities and societies could also have triggered some changes in their values, beliefs, culture as reflected in performing art forms. It is also likely that old traditions and culture will give way to new patterns, sometimes even at the cost of survival of these forms, that might decay over a period 1

3 of time, because the cultural values, tastes, interests change due to the exposure of tribal communities to modern societies and systems. The change in cultural values and traditions are best reflected in contemporary literature. Unfortunately, such documentary evidences in written form, among tribal societies are rare and scanty. Nevertheless, tribal societies do have a rich tradition of performing arts like dances, theatre and oral narrative traditions, etc. 1 The changes in these forms might also indicate the pattern of cultural change over time. 2 Therefore, the present study uses Madalya form of theatre to trace these changes. The proposed study focuses cultural change triggered off by the process of modernisation that possibly changed the lives of the tribal in the Dangs district of Gujarat which is predominantly a tribal district (see, Map 1). It shares its border with Maharashtra. The case study of the Dangs will be an interesting one as sitting between two progressive States of Gujarat and Maharashtra; the Dangs has remained isolated and relatively unchanged for centuries. 1.0 Rationale of the Study The data presented in this study will show that the Dangs, its people and their culture have been inadequately studied or understood. Not only that, even into present times, all manner of misconceptions and biases prevail, notwithstanding the overpowering evidence of the available Census data and the fact that the people have made extraordinary progress and have joined the mainstream society with possibly 1 This was indicated by a number of persons in the Dangs with whom the researcher had informal discussions on the status of culture and performing arts among tribal people. 2 It may be mentioned that the researcher had two very valuable opportunities to document the tribal theater and tribal performing arts; first, during the years and then in , with support of the Department of Culture, Government of India and West Zone Cultural Center, Udaipur, respectively. These studies aroused an academic curiosity in me to know more about the status of performing arts among tribal population and the future thereof. One of the, rather disturbing, indications that emerged from the earlier studies was the sign of their gradual decay over time, which could ultimately lead to demise of this rich tradition. Therefore, I thought of exploring the subject more intensively to explore satiate my academic thirst. 2

4 Map-1: Location of The Dangs in Gujarat The Dangs 3

5 concomitant sacrifice of their own old culture and its various attributes. This is a wholly desirable and expected but little recognized or acknowledged outcome and the record needs to be set right in that regard. Ample studies have been conducted focusing on the performing arts of the mainstream society. The tribal performing arts and the study of changes in them have always been ignored perhaps due to the immense difficulties of gathering data and challenges of field work. In addition, tribal studies have not infrequently fallen prey to the evil of patronization or paternalism, thrusting viewpoints and value judgments on the subject rather than accepting it on its own terms and trying to recognize and acknowledge the reality it presented when left unadorned by additions not inherent in the material as found. This thesis takes care to avoid those pitfalls in its endeavor to develop an understanding of what actually happens in these societies considered isolated and different from the others in the mainstream, the status of their performing art forms as the articulation of the community identity and do they survive, change or decay? An attempt is made to comprehend the various aspects of tradition and change in this inadequately studied and poorly reported community, especially through the tools of original material collected in the field and copiously available reliable demographic data made available by the decadal Census of India. Resultantly, the study offers the serious effort needed to fill the gap in the prevailing vacuum of serious studies of performing art forms of tribal societies which presents a challenge to the teachers of performing arts schools and researchers. 1.1 Objectives of the Study The overall objective of the study is to understand the dynamics of change (growth or decay) in tribal performing art forms in response to the widespread socio-economic changes that are sweeping the country. The specific objectives of the study are to: 4

6 i. generate information on Mâdalyâ as a theatre form of the tribal of the Dangs District; ii. analyze and collate the data thus collected to gain insights into the relevance and effectiveness of the art form as medium of communication; iii. analyze the socio-economic context of the form and its associated social groups with a view to establish a causal relationship between development and change in tradition of art forms; iv. compare and revalidate the findings of the first study conducted during and the second study on Mâdalyâ conducted in the years , with the new data set proposed to be collected during the current study; and, v. attempt to understand the likely future in terms of growth or decay of the art form Mâdalyâ, as well as the tradition that it symbolizes. 1.2 Scope of the study The region of the Dangs has several performing arts forms classified under the disciplines of music, dance, narrative traditions and theatre. For reasons stated in the document, this study addresses itself specifically to the theatre known as Mâdalyâ, as the theatre tradition of the Dangs, apparently previously unexamined. The other arts such as dance, music, etc., are briefly explored only to the extent found necessary for this study, chiefly to place the selected focus area in perspective. This study addresses itself to the changes in music, songs, musical instruments, performance structure and conventions of Mâdalyâ to the extent that they are used in Mâdalyâ theatre. The use of the data of Census of India for this District particularly covering the decades is also within the scope of the work but, where necessary and possible, 5

7 it extends its reach much further on both sides of the time divide, that is, before 1960 and after 2001 right into the present. This is necessary to overcome the problem of stereotypical attitudes and beliefs even when enormous data base is available for forming a correct and well informed view concerning the socio-economic state of the people in question over an extended period of time. It is proposed not to further perpetuate the inexcusable neglect of Census data in the study of the social group and territory in question in this thesis. This study of tribal art tradition has involved intensive field work spanning over two decades. The primary sources of data have been the author s two previous documentations referred to earlier and the record of the oral renderings of actual theatre performances written down by the researcher in the course of her field work. Being the researcher s own personal original work and the matter of this thesis being in the nature of a continuum on the unfinished work, both these documents have been used extensively for this study and are legitimately included in the scope of the work. The earlier work has been augmented further by field documentation and additional material gathered during It should be remembered this is an attempt to study a theatre tradition that has remained in oblivion till the decade of 1990 and in absence of any other written source, the documentations of 1995 and 1999 are used to trace the changes in theatre over two decades. These text sources have been translated from Dangi to Gujarati with the assistance of local translators and later transliterated into English. The use of the generated data base including that not generated initially for this thesis, falls legitimately within the scope of this thesis as the researcher s own ongoing work and has been so utilized. 1.3 Methodology and Data base The Dangs was re-visited several times during the period 2007 to 2010 for this study focusing on Mâdalyâ during which further serious research of gathering and generating 6

8 additional data and making a record of changes was undertaken with the objective of creating a database to compare with the old data of the first two studies. The research for this study was conducted in three villages of the Dangs, namely, Gadhavi, Murambi and Lavariya situated in different directions of the Dangs district. While Gadhavi is located in central Dangs, Murambi is near the border of Maharashtra in southern Dangs and Lavariya is in the vicinity of Waghai at the entrance of the Dangs from the western side (see, Map 2). During the research an inquiry was made regarding the present status of existing Mâdalyâ troupes. Of the previously documented seven Mâdalyâ troupes ( ) only four troupes viz. Gadhavi, Murambi, Waghai-Barada and Jamanyamal could be traced surviving and were able to give performances. Out of these four Mâdalyâ troupes, the Gadhavi Mâdalyâ troupe was chosen for this study because Gadhavi has been selected and studied as a model village of the Dangs in several post-independence decadal socio-economic studies. The first was a village survey study by Census of India in Subsequent socio-economic decadal studies were conducted in 1971, 1981, and 1991 by Tribal Research Centre of Gujarat Vidyapith, Ahmedabad. However these were demographic, socio-economic time-span studies focused on the socio-economic profile of Gadhavi as a village and not referring to Dangi performing arts. This thesis primarily concentrates on Mâdalyâ and examines the impact of changing socio-economic conditions of the Dangs on Mâdalyâ theatre as the performing art form of Dangi tribal. Both, primary and secondary data have been used in the study. Extensive use was made of the government records, District Gazetteers, Census data on the District of Dangs, the record of researcher s observations made in the Dangs over two decades in the course of previous research work undertaken by the researcher, etc. Till date, 7

9 Map-2: Location of villages surveyed in The Dangs in 2010 Gadhavi Lavariya Murambi 8

10 Mâdalyâ has remained an oral performance tradition and therefore the question of having access to any written material or photographs saved as mementoes by family or elderly Mâdalyâ performers did not exist. There is no reference to Mâdalyâ in any previous published source other than the unpublished documentations of Performing Art forms of Dangi Tribal ( ) and a monograph on Mâdalyâ in These have served as a prime source of information for this study. Although various studies have been conducted on different aspects of Dangi society and culture, they have been piecemeal studies covering only selected areas or performing arts of the Dangs. The primary data were collected using an open ended but structured schedule and focused group, besides shooting the skits and extensive photography, through a field study spanning about six months. The focus of the field work was the information on current status of Mâdalyâ and perception of the people on its survival, growth or decay. An attempt was also made to elicit information on preference of the people for alternate and competing sources of entertainment like cinema, TV serials, etc. The research process in the field involved organizing Mâdalyâ performances to document relevant information to build the data base for this study and was thereby conducted through the following activities: Arrange performances of Mâdalyâ. Observation, photography and videography of the performances. Interviews with performers, community members and the audience. Conducting a primary survey in the village Performances Mâdalyâ troupes of the selected three villages, Gadhavi, Murambi and Lavariya were contacted a month in advance and given a date for performance. The performances were held in the respective villages to facilitate interaction with the community and the 9

11 performers. They were requested to perform the same plays which were documented in and any new ones the troupe may have created during the previous decade. The performances of Gadhavi, Murambi and Lavariya Mâdalyâ troupes were observed, documented and were translated from Dangi to Gujarati with the help of a Dangi translator Interviews Conducting and recording informal interviews with Mâdalyâ performers, community leaders, the villagers and audiences of Gadhavi, Murambi and Lavariya village (before and after the performance) was undertaken at the time of the performance Building Photographic Record Photographing and video graphing the performances was an integral part of the task and was carefully done, so that the work resulted in most valuable and perhaps in many ways unique photo documentation of the subject Attitudinal Survey An open ended but structured schedule was used to collect information from two subsets of respondents after the performance. The first subset consisted of respondents who had come to watch Mâdalyâ performance. The purpose of the first subset of respondents was to evaluate the present popularity of the form within different age group of audiences. The purpose of the second subset of respondents was to identify the reasons that kept them away from the performance, mainly to identify the reasons for receding popularity of Mâdalyâ. Interviews were conducted after the performance was over at randomly selected homes of whoever from various categories viz. the oldest person in the household, women of 10

12 the house, youth above 16 years, school going children of the house, retired Mâdalyâ performers, was available and willing to be interviewed. The data were collected using an open ended but structured schedule. This survey conducted in Gadhavi and Murambi villages (4 th May 30 th May, 2010) covered fifty respondents. The respondents were categorized by their age viz. people below the age of 30 years, years and above 60 years. Their views were elicited through personal interviews and through focused Group discussions, with the help of a translator. The entire field data used for analysis in the study is primary data, collected specifically for this study. 1.4 Review of literature Three different disciplines were examined extensively to develop an understanding of three varying components of this research. The first was performing arts and especially theatre studies, the second was tribal studies and the third covered social change studies. Various published works have been referred to in the study of the subject matter of this research, including Government records and publications. Various studies have been conducted and published on the culture and arts of Dangi tribal by several authors. Among them, pioneering work has been done by Dr. D.B. Kopper who has published a book on tribal arts of the Dangs based on his keen observations during his tenure as museum curator of Saputara Museum in He describes each discipline of art with photographs, but has not mentioned Mâdalyâ as a theatre tradition of the Dangs and Dangis. D.B. Chitale s book Dang: Ek Samyak Darshan is one of the best books written on the Dangs in Gujarati giving an overview of history, geography, tribes and their rituals, traditions and customs. By and large it covers majority of performing art forms of dance, 3 Kopper, D.B, (ed.), Tribal art of the Dangs, Vadodara: Department of Museums, Gujarat State,

13 theatre and musical instruments but fails to mention Mâdalyâ as a theatre form of Dangi tribal. 4 Dahyabhai Vadhu with his knowledge of local Dangi dialect has compiled Kukana Kathao under the tribal literature series of Delhi Sahitya Academy 5. In this comprehensive work he has translated the stories of Thalivadan, the oral narrative tradition of the Dangi tribal in Gujarati. It provides an insight into life cycle of Dangi tribal as narrated in oral traditions of the Dangs. Dr. Raj Ratna Goswami in his monograph has given an outline of the Dangi socioeconomic structure, religion and aesthetics and arts. The book written from his observations during his stay in the Dangs as museum curator is interesting and has photographs, but it is mainly for tourists and not much useful for serious research on performing arts of the Dangs 6. The Report of the Committee appointed by Gujarat Sahitya Sabha has the sole objective of justifying inclusion of the Dangs territory in Gujarat State. It is mainly concerned with establishing the cultural affinity of the Dangs with Gujarat mainly through critical examination of possible links between the Gujarati language and Dangi dialect. Prepared by eminent scholars, painters like Kanu Desai and musicians like Pandit Omakarnath Thakur, it is rich with notations of Dangi songs and drawings 7. The recent publication of a book on Dangi grammar by Fr. Raymond Chauhan is the outcome of an in depth research of a missionary staying in the Dangs to preserve, appreciate and create awareness of an important segment of Dangi dialect - its grammar. He has discussed an area that even the local people may not be aware of. 4 Chitale, D. B, Dang ek Samyak Darashan, Ahwa: Dang Jilla Panchayat, Vadhu, Dahyabhai documented and translated, Kukana Kathao, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, Goswami, Raj Ratan, Tribal Heritage in Western India, Delhi: K.N. Book House, Dang: Gujarat Sahitya Sabha e nimeli samiti no ehaval, Gujarat Sahitya Sabha,

14 His intensive research has been valuable in translating the typical Dangi words and sentences for this work 8. Given this state of knowledge on tradition of Mâdalyâ the study at hand was seriously constrained by non-availability of any prior records other than the researcher s own previous work referred to above Related Texts For greater understanding of Dangi society and culture, the following studies have been referred to: David Hardiman s scholarly work narrates the socio- political history of the Dangs and adjoining area of south Gujarat in an attempt to trace the socio-religious Devi movement and its impact among tribal. It provides a background to study many cultural traditions and values in the twentieth century but the performing arts are beyond the scope of this work 9 and his chapter in the book History for the Subordinated, culture and art forms are not in the scope of this book 10. The marginalization of tribal is traced through Vadilcha Goth, the oral narratives of Dangi written by Ajay Skaria. It is completely devoted to oral narratives and provides an understanding of Dangi world view expressed through stories, yet it does not cover any other form of Dangi oral traditions Fr. Raymond Chauhan, Dangi Bhashanu Vyakaran,St,Xaviers Social Service Society, Shamgahan, Ahwa-the Dangs, Hardiman, David, The Coming of The Devi, Delhi: Oxford University Press, David Hardiman, Histories for the Subordinated, Farming in the Forest: The Dangs , Oxford University Press 11 Skaria,Ajay, Hybrid histories: Forests, Frontiers and Wildness in Western India, New Delhi: Oxford University Press,

15 1.4.2 Performing arts Several scholarly studies have been conducted on theatre traditions of India by Indian as well as foreign authors. Among these studies and publications by scholars of art and art forms Kapila Vatsyayan is a highly distinguished scholar with her deep understanding and interdisciplinary approach that links each aspect of society to performing art forms of India. But tribal theatre has remained outside the scope of her work 12. Farley Richmond and several others have written scholarly books describing all disciplines of theatre traditions of India. The section on popular theatre traditions covers a few regional theatre forms but tribal theatre is not covered and remains outside the scope of the study 13. The most noteworthy work on folk theatre of Gujarat has been done by Sudha Desai. It provides a guideline of how folk theatre studies can be organized and the aspects that need to be highlighted in such studies. However this does not refer to any other folk/tribal theatre of Gujarat Outline of the Study The present study consists of seven chapters including the Introduction one. Chapter 2 provides an overview of the Dangs homeland and its people so that the socioeconomic setting and context of the subject of this thesis is recognized. It deals with the first two of the three voices that need to be heard in order to illumine the subject of study and concludes with an overview. The first of these three voices is the voices from the past which help to understand the historical, political and social background 12 Vatsyayan, Kapila, Traditional Indian Theatre: Multiple Streams, National Book Trust, Richmond, Farley, Darius Swann and Phillip Zarrilli (eds), Theater in India, Traditions of Performance, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, Desai, Sudha, Bhavai: A Medieval Form of Ancient Indian Dramatic Art as Prevalent in Gujarat: Ahmedabad: Gujarat University,

16 of the area and subject of study as seen through the eyes of outside observers. The second voice is the voice bridging past and present as most rewardingly and authoritatively represented by the copious demographic data thrown up by the decadal census of India. It helps us to moderate the sometimes extreme views of writers based on superficial impression or without an adequate effort to come to a proper understanding of the subject population and to put tradition and change in context and provide the appropriate platform on which the questions inherent in this study need to be examined. The first voice on the people and culture of the Dangs being quite unsatisfactory, the second voice does the job most satisfactorily since it is based on cold statistics and the data user is freer to utilize his own judgment and understanding. Without it, a proper understanding of the Dangis and their remarkable story as it has evolved over the past few decades would be impossible. The third voice is the voice from within, which forms the subject of Chapter 5. As opposed to the outsider first voice, this is the insider voice of the people of the Dangs themselves as projected by the Mâdalyâ narrative and a careful hearing of it is avoided only at the cost of doing grave injustice to the subject and purpose of this inquiry. The challenge before the researcher is to evaluate if even this third voice and voice within is the authentic voice of the people and, if not, what effect that can be concluded to have had on the theater. Chapter 3 is devoted to dealing with the performing art forms of the Dangis in general. Since the Mâdalyâ theatre is at the center of the thesis, this requires to be dealt with in greater detail. Accordingly, Chapter 4 is devoted to a detailed examination of the function, form and content of the art form. The coverage includes tools like musical instruments etc. utilized as being integral to the form as well as the roles of each and all components that typically constitute a Mâdalyâ performing troupe. This chapter examines the history, conventions, performers, music and structure of the form in detail. 15

17 Chapter 5 presents what I have referred to as the third voice or voice from within which needs to be heard in considering the subject of the thesis. This is the voice of the people themselves as it emerges from the recorded texts built up out of oral material carefully collected in the field. It analytically explores the content of numerous Mâdalyâ texts (presented in the thesis as an Appendix 1) and Mâdal Geet (Appendix - 2) to draw conclusions about what it has to say about Dangi society, its culture and customs, its concerns, joys and pains and about the soundness of the form itself as an efficient repository of the community s cultural heritage and collective memory. Chapter 6 is devoted to addressing the subject of the dissertation from the twin aspects of tradition and change. Chapter 7, the final chapter of the dissertation, presents its conclusions. 16