ASA 2012
Art and Activism in Dalit and Adivasi movements
04/04/2012 Arts and Aesthetics Lecture Hall No. 002, SAA-II (JNU)
Session 1 (8:30 - 10)
Panel introduction: Dr Alice Tilche, Prof. David Mosse
Feeling of loss: ethnicity, ethnographic imagination and identity work of Mandi youth in Dhaka.
Mr Mahmudul Hasan Sumon (Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka)
Pithora and the making of Tribal art.
Dr Alice Tilche (SOAS)
Session 2 (15 - 16:30)
Everyday Aesthetics and Refashioning of Selves
Dr Rajan Krishnan (Loyola College)
Dalit performance art, cultural politics and the renegotiation of identity
Prof. David Mosse (SOAS), Dr Dominc Davidappa (Bangalore University), Fr Anthony Packianathan
(OCMS, Oxford)
Session 3 (17 - 18:30)
Dancing Across the Thresholds of Caste: Enacting Transcendence and 'Egalitarianism' in the Western
Himalaya
Mr Lokesh Ohri (South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg)
Between the market and Comrade Mao: Newar cultural activism and ethnic/political movements.
Dr Ingemar Grandin (Linköpings universitet)
Kamlari Voices and Movements: repositioning Tharu indigenous artistic knowledge into global
activism
Dr Mottin Monica (London Metropolitan University)
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, 3rd-6th April 2012
(P39)
Art and activism in contemporary Dalit and Adivasi movements
Location Arts and Aesthetics Lecture Hall No. 002, SAA-II
Date and Start Time 04 April, 2012 at 08:30
Convenors
Alice Tilche (School Of Oriental And African Studies) email
David Mosse (SOAS) email
Mail All Convenors
Short Abstract
Adivasi and Dalit struggle for dignity and recognition has been accompanied by an
effervescence of cultural production. This panel explores 'art' as a semiotic and political
intervention that refigures existing relations of exploitation generating new meanings,
political identities and connections.
Long Abstract
The growth and diversification of social movements and civil society activism for
empowerment among those historically marginalised and subordinated as 'untouchable'
(dalits) or 'tribal' (adivasis) has been accompanied by an effervescence of cultural production.
Visual art, music, dance forms, artefacts, religious or heroic iconography and mythic
representations all connect to a politics of recognition and of rebellion. Assembling semiotic
elements (artefacts, images, dance, mythologies) in reconfigured settings — special events
and new audiences — specifically decontextualizes them from former relationships of
exploitation and caste or gender subordination. As 'art' these performances break the nexus of
social relationships and ritual structures, generating new meanings and changing the semiotic
process itself in ways that the panel will explore. Dalit or Adivasi 'art' then becomes a field of
meaning, authorship and political intent.
The processes of cultural production are differently oriented among Adivasi and Dalit groups
and have different social effects, which the panel will consider. Common to all is the
production of 'art' (in the broadest sense) as a means (intentionally or otherwise) to forge new
non-local relationships, to connect to power through works that travel within national and
increasingly international fields of consumption, as well as within local social activism.
But if 'art' is a means of forging effective political identities, it is also implicated in the
complex internal group and gender dynamics of Dalit and Adivasi movements in ways that
have been subject to ethnographic description.
This panel is closed to new paper proposals.
Papers
Dalit performance art, cultural politics and the renegotiation of identity
Author: David Mosse (SOAS) email
Short Abstract
This paper examines the social and semiotic processes involved in producing and performing
Dalit art, especially dance-drumming. New meanings and modes of signification indicate
changed social relationships, but ethnographic work reveals the relationship between Dalits
and their 'art' as ambivalent.
Long Abstract
Performing art has an important role in Tamil Dalit activism. Public action of various kinds is
invariably accompanied by Dalit 'art' (kalai), especially dance-drumming, on the stage, in
liturgy, at rallies and processions, or as part of public protests or direct action. At one level
these are performances which celebrate and honour Dalit identity, or are construed as
'weapons for liberation.' The force of such performances especially arises from the power of
symbolic reversal, re-mythologising and performatively reinterpreting practices that formerly
stood for and enacted subordination within village caste orders. Thus the drum is a
transformative sign, theologised as a symbol of suffering and of emancipation. Dalit social
recognition involves assembling semiotic elements (artefacts, music, dance, mythologies) in
reconfigured settings — special events and new audiences — specifically so as to
decontextualize them from relationships of subordination and thus produce Dalit culture and
art.
The paper will argue that as 'art' these performances not only symbolise a break with the
nexus of social relationships and ritual structure so as both to generate new meanings, but
also show a changed semiotic process (from index to symbol, ritual-effect to interpreted
meaning). However, the relationship between this art and activism is always uncertain. The
tension is partly because Dalit 'art' is either insufficiently or excessively socially
decontextualized: either retaining degrading identification with histories of subordination; or
depoliticized as a stage performance. The paper explores ethnographically the complex and
ambivalent relationship between Dalits (activists and villagers) and their art.
Everyday Aesthetics and Refashioning of Selves
Author: Rajan Krishnan (Loyala College) email
Short Abstract
The paper explores how the capacity of Dalit communities to undertake assertive political
action rests not only on their becoming conscious of their social situation but also their
potential to effect changes in their life with creative refashioning of selves through every day
aesthetic practices.
Long Abstract
As part of the larger study of Dalits in rural settings, a set of encounters with Dalit converts to
Christianity brought to light some of the changes that occur in the practices of everyday
aesthetic as part of the dynamic refashioning of self through conversion. These practices
naturally involve the performative aspects of worship and rituals; however, there are more
inconspicuous changes that relate to materials and implements used in everyday life
sometimes even unconsciously. The understanding of such effects among non-converts points
to the intricacies involved in the making of identity bearing self. The boundaries of self, its
capacity to define itself appear to rest upon a whole range of household and personal artifacts.
The observation can be usefully explored through the notion of "equipmental whole" in
Heideggar's philosophy productively invoked by Valentine Daniel in the context of national
belonging.
As a corollary to this, Dalits also find it necessary to estrange themselves from some of the
ritual performances that seemingly code their subjugated status through typical acts of ritual
inversion. I will use the rituals related to Annanmarsami in western Tamil Nadu and
contemporary criticisms of the same by Dalit social movements as instances. What needs to
be explored is how and under what conditions the performative aspects and their meanings
can be changed within the cultural whole without seeking a total departure. In other words,
what freezes acts of interpretation is perhaps the urgency with which alternative belonging
through aesthetic practices is sought by developing consciousness.
Dancing Across the Thresholds of Caste: Enacting Transcendence and 'Egalitarianism' in the
Western Himalaya
Author: Lokesh Ohri (South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg) email
Short Abstract
Caste, generally bracketed under the umbrella of exclusion, is enacted in remote Himalayan
regions through forced inclusion. Efforts of a group of performing folk artistes from the Kolta
community and their attempt to break barriers of caste, while media and communication
flows emerge as the non-intentional actors, are analyzed here.
Long Abstract
Until the 20th century, the vast yet remote regions known as Jaunsar, Bāwar, Bangān, Simla
Hills, and parts of Rawain, in the Western Himalayas in India, along the headwaters of the
Tons River were ruled from temple-fortresses by divine kings, the four Mahāsu brothers
being the predominant deities. The cult of Mahasu stands out as volatile and intransigent,
monopolised by high-caste, headhunting Hindu Rajputs, proudly independent of their
neighbouring kingdoms and colonial powers. Local inhabitants continue to insist on their
cultural autonomy, living by the ritual regime prescribed by their divine king, even post
assimilation into a secular nation state. Of the social boundaries prescribed by Mahāsu's
ritual, caste restrictions on the lowest Kolta caste were perhaps the most impregnable social
boundaries. The paper deals with temple ritual of the divine king and cult god Mahāsu, in the
remote mountain valleys of the recently formed state of Uttarakhand in India, where a secular
and egalitarian legal system clashes with the divine king's ritual dispensation in matters of
caste. As media flows reach the god's realm, the cult is rendered increasingly self-reflexive,
largely through the agency of a troupe performing folk dances headed by a man from the
Kolta community. As folk dancers and the god's officialdom are forced into a situation where
adopting a reformist stance is the only option, the god apparently relents, only to reveal it as a
tactical retreat, a ploy to stamp the hegemony of caste.
Pithora and the making of Tribal art.
Author: Alice Tilche (School Of Oriental And African Studies) email
Short Abstract
This paper focuses on the re-evaluation of Pithora paintings, from a divinity with the power
to cure, to a form of 'Tribal art' with representative and symbolic function. It interrogates the
ethical and political consequences of this shift for Adivasis' struggles for equality and
recognition.
Long Abstract
Baba Pithora is an important God among some of the Rathava, Nayak and other Adivasi
communities of western India. Through a wall painting and a ceremony Pithora is called to
bring protection and prosperity upon a household in the occasion of sickness, scarcity or
misfortune. Pithora Paintings are not representations of the sacred, they are themselves sacred
entities - Pithora is the God. Today Pithoras are also produced as paintings on canvass and
circulate within transnational art markets, museums and networks of indigenous people. They
can therefore be seen as commodities, art pieces or symbols of cultural/indigenous identities.
Looking at aspects of production and circulation this paper considers the re-evaluation of
Pithora as 'Tribal Art', with a focus on the 'symbolic' shifts that this implies. The paper starts
by discussing Pithora in villages in relation to theoretical discussions about aesthetics and the
agency of art objects. It then considers the emergence of the categories of 'art' (kala) and
'artist' (kalakar) and its implications, in terms of style, canons of beauty and value, and
relations of patronage. Most importantly, the paper examines how the re-evaluation of Pithora
as art involves a shift from agency (Pithora as a God) to meaning (Pithora as a symbol of
indigeneity), and assesses its ethical and political implications. It considers how, while the
painting is to an extent emptied of its efficacy, the question of agency also resurfaces in
relation to how art objects can act as agents in attempt to grant equality to indigenous people.
'Feeling of loss': ethnicity, ethnographic imagination and identity work of Mandi youth in
Dhaka
Author: Mahmudul Hasan Sumon (Jahangirnagar University) email
Short Abstract
The paper explores the festivity of wanna, its revival in newer settings of Dhaka and its
import among the urban Mandi youth of Dhaka. It focuses on how such organizing is
bringing about a “consciousness” of identity among the Mandis. The case presents us with
the opportunity to explore theories of ethnicity, ethnographic imagination and identity in the
wake of transnational discourses of indigenous rights in Bangladesh.
Long Abstract
In this paper I explore the festivity of wanna (a Garo harvest festival among the Garos/
Mandis) related to the harvesting season of the Garo/ Mandi people and its import among the
Mandi population living in the Nadda-Kalanachanpur-Kuril area of Dhaka. I will try to
contextualize the Mandi festival of wanna, how such organizing is bringing about a
"consciousness" about identity or the loss of identity among the urban Mandi people living in
Dhaka. In addition to drawing from fieldwork based material and observation, I also use
some secondary sources of information such as autobiographical literature, poetry and some
other writings written and published in Bengali by Mandi activists/ intellectuals and writers
to discuss the identity question in relation to their organizing for wanna.
The case I elaborate presents us with the opportunity to explore theories of ethnicity,
ethnographic imagination and identity and how this is taking shape in contemporary
Bangladesh in the wake of indigenous rights discourses. I try to argue that themes of reviving
"our culture and tradition" espoused variously and consciously by a small group of young
Garo activists in Dhaka and many of their social activities is linked to the transnational
discourses of indigeneity, propounded by institutions like ILO and UN through conventions
like ILO 169 and other instruments which gives emphasis on protecting "culture" and
"identity" of the indigenous people of the world.
Between the market and Comrade Mao: Newar cultural activism and ethnic/political
movements
Author: Ingemar Grandin (Linköping University) email
Short Abstract
Based on ethnographic research from the 1980s into the present, this is a study of cultural
activism among the Newars of Nepal – as an artistic, aesthetic practice that works from song
texts, musical resources and non-verbal statements in dress and dance to voice both political
and ethnic concerns.
Long Abstract
The Newars are prominent in the ethnic and indigenous (janajati/adivasi) movement in Nepal.
With their heartland in the country's capital area, the Kathmandu Valley, their position is
contradictory: they are part of the economic, political and cultural elite yet dominated in
numerous ways. Still in the 1940s, people went to jail for publishing literary works in
Newari, and the Newar struggle for recognition, identity, and cultural survival - often linked
with leftist, political movements - has taken many forms since then. Cultural activism is
prominent among these forms.
This contribution studies Newar cultural activism as an artistic, aesthetic practice. This
practice includes songs, cultural programs, music, dance, theatre, but also media artifacts
such as cassettes, cds, video-cds, and recordings and "visualizations" for broadcasting
purposes. Not only song texts, but also such things as musical resources and non-verbal
statements in dress and dance are meaningful here and important to analyze.
The contribution builds upon ethnographic research from the mid 1980s and into the present
day. This period has seen a transformation in political terms from absolutism to democratic
republicanism with Maoism as perhaps the most important base for political ideology. But
equally important, economic transformations have come to challenge the very roots of the
traditional agro-urban civilization of the Newar heartland. In this light, cultural activism is
one way to negotiate a position for the Newars and their heritage between the economic
forces of the market and the ideological offensive of Comrade Mao's followers.
Kamlari voices and movements: repositioning Tharu indigenous artistic knowledge into
global activism
Author: Monica Mottin (London Metropolitan University) email
Short Abstract
The paper explores how drama, songs and dances objectify Tharu ethnic cultural identity and
how it is synthesized in kachahari natak (forum theatre) to raise awareness against the
kamlari pratha (child-labour) among diverse audiences.
Long Abstract
How to explain to the world what it means to be sent away from home as a child worker and
becoming victim of exploitation and violence? How break free from the kamlari system of
oppression and speak out?
This paper explores how kachahari natak, the Nepali adaptation of Boal's Forum Theatre, has
been appropriated by Tharu activists and embedded with indigenous dances and songs into
awareness raising and mobilization programmes against the kamlari pratha, a practice
common among Tharu communities in the Western rural districts of the Tarai, of sending
girls aged 6-16 as kamlaris (indentured labour) to work in landlords' houses or to well-off
families in the cities. The Kamlari Natak Samuha is a grassroot theatre group that performs
exclusively against the kamlari pratha and enlists former kamlaris as artists. They perform in
villages to persuade the parents not to send their daughters away, as well as in Kathmandu to
expose the problem to potential employers.
The paper also investigates the processes the group undergoes as they rework their cultural
performances to be restaged for urban and multicultural audiences. By exploring the role of
drama, songs and dances in the kamlari liberation movement, I want to suggest that
indigenous aesthetics not only objectifies ethnic identity in intelligible and portable forms,
easily understood by local audiences and similarly exchanged within development project
politics. It also offers a space for the reworking of pain. By speaking out against violence in
the aesthetic space, the artists try to rework their own lives.