16-04-2021 The Asian Independent

24 16-04-2021 to 30-04-2021 NEWS
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
A festival against indecency and
vulgarity in folk art and music
Lok Rang has created
an alternative space
for Folk artists
against indecency and
vulgarity
Fourteen years ago, when noted
author and historian in the world of
Hindi language Mr Subhash Chandra
Kushwaha took an initiative to create an
space for folk artists against the culture
of indecency and vulgarity in the name
of folk culture particularly in the
Bhojpuri heartland, nobody ever
assumed that the event would become
hugely popular with the masses and ultimately
turned into an International one,
perhaps the most sought after in this
rural hinterland in Eastern Uttar
Pradesh. A nondescript village Jogiya,
about five kilometres from Fazil Nagar
town is now a place where lovers of folk
art, music and dance wait to visit every
year during the Lok Rang festivities.
Over the years, Bhojpuri expatriates
particularly those who belong to the
families of indentured labour or what
used to be called ‘Girmitiyas’, have
found this event extremely important to
perform which gives them a feeling of
‘speaking to the people of their motherland’.
Covid restrictions actually could not
allow the Lok Rang event in 2020 and
this year too with the second wave of
the Covid it became difficult for many
people to visit. In 2019, there were huge
contingents of Bhojpuri diaspora artists
who came from Surinam, Mauritius,
Guyana, Trinidad and other countries.
This year, Kem Chan Lall came from
Durban, South Africa whose great
grandparents had migrated to South
Africa in 1861 as indentured labourers
to work in the big agricultural farms of
the white colonisers. Kem Chan Lall is
a Bhojpuri singer and extremely proud
of it though he cannot read or write
either Bhojpuri or Hindi language. The
person who promoted Lok Rang among
the Bhojpuri diaspora is Mr Raj Mohan
whose parents were taken as indentured
labourers to Suriname but this year due
to restrictions he could not participate.
Raj Mohan’s ‘Dui Mutti Anaz’ reflected
the pain and anguish of the ‘girmitya’
majdoors which remained missing from
the writings of most of the historians
who were writing in favour of or against
the colonisation process. Raj Mohan’s
presence was missed heavily as people
loved his music and performances.
This year’s Lok Rang was therefore
organised under unprecedented circumstances
on April 10th and 11th at village
Jogia. Father of Shri Subhash Chandra
Kushwaha is in a critical condition and
is admitted in hospital in Gorakhpur but
he remained committed to organising
the event, keeping the pain and anguish
in his heart. It was difficult as many of
the guests could not make it due to
restrictions. Many authors and writers
were supposed to visit but they had to
cancel their trip at the eleventh hour.
The atmosphere
as such
that we all felt
that the people
might not
join due to fear of Covid. Each one of
the organisers who had worked hard
tremendously felt so.
It is difficult to organise an event of
this kind in a village where no infrastructure
is available and for every
small thing you have to depend on people
from either Gorakhpur or Lucknow
which are quite far. The Lok Rang team
involving local people do everything to
make the event successful. Every year,
the artists of Sambhavana Kala Manch,
led by Dr Raj Kumar Singh from
Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh reach village
Jogiya, a few days ago, in advance and
paint the entire village with their beautiful
creations. It is the Sambhavna Team
that paints the walls of the ground
where Lok Rang is organised, they
design the stage and display their wonderful
sense of people’s paintings.
Lok Rang is nothing without the
presence of Prof Dinesh Kushwaha,
Head of the Department, Hindi
Literature at Reeva University. He has
been anchoring the show since the
beginning and keeps people enthralled
with his humorous comments and ‘sero-shayari’
and ‘poetry’. He too suffered
from CoronaVirus last year and won the
battle against it. Despite all the issues of
restrictions, he made it to Jogiya, travelling
by Car from Reeva, about 12-14
hours from here.
One of the highlights of Lok Rang’s
events is the gathering of
authors, activists, artists, social
workers on the second day during
the day time to discuss the
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
social and human rights activist
‘Crisis of ‘folk’ and folk literature’.
Majority views emerged
that Lok Sahitya or Folk Literature and
Folk Culture must be ‘Bahujanised’. It
is ironic that while folk represent the
voices of the working masses of India
denied dignity by the Varna system,
today, it is the Brahmanical elite very
cleverly defining what is ‘folk’. So in
the name of ‘Lok’ we have ‘parlok’ and
the glorification of mysticism and rituals
injected by the Brahmanical class.
Hence it is essential for those dedicated
to folk culture and literature that they
look at the monumental work of Jyotiba
Phule, Baba Saheb Ambedkar and EVR
Periyar. Perhaps, a beginning can be
made by dramatizing ‘Gulamgiri’ and
‘Kisan ka Koda’ written by Jyoti Ba
Phule in different local dialects and
staged in front of the people to enlighten
the communities and make think
about the issues that they face and have
been victimised in the name of culture.
Live performances from artists from
Rajasthan are a big hit at the Lok Rang
events. Ustad Arba Music and Dance
Group led by Imamuddin Saheb gave
superb performances. Most of the artists
including dancers had performed live in
India as well as abroad but in their own
admission live performance at a rural
crowd dedicated to folk art and culture
has been their ‘best’ moment.
The Rai dance performance from
Bundelkhand was ‘entertaining’.
Frankly speaking, it is important to trace
these kinds of art forms mostly performed
by the Bahujan communities in
India. Rai is the lifeline of Bediya community
in Bundelkhand region of Uttar
Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The
Bediya community was looked down
upon and was thoroughly marginalised
because of this. The old feudal values of
Bundelkhand where women are still in
veils, Rai performers were meant to
entertain the old monarchs and feudal
lords because they were ‘adivasis’ or
‘Dalits’ and socially degraded. This is
the supreme irony where people want to
dance over these performances yet look
down upon the communities who perform
this. Bedia community
was forced into
prostitution and continuously
faced discrimination
not merely from the
administration but also
from society.
There is a similar
reality to ‘Bahurupiyas’
who hail from Rajasthan
and try to make us laugh
by mocking at themselves or picking up
some dialogue of a historical film or
character. They are popular here at Lok
Rang when they roam around the village
during the day doing live performances
of specific characters reminding
us of their ‘beautiful’ traditions. They
belong to Dalit community because they
don’t get a certificate of being
Scheduled Caste because they follow
Islam. The conditions of the families
belonging to Bahurupiya community is
absolutely dismal and need special
attention. How can the art flourish if the
communities who carried it forward
remain isolated, untouchables and vulnerable.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
VrADBRPC_wo)
Most of the folk art is preserved and
inherited by the Bahujan communities.
The ’Farwahi’ dance performance under
the guidance of Shri Ram Vriksha
Kushwaha of Kushinagar was simply
superb. The ‘Biraha’ song performance
by Shri Mangal Yadav and his team was
brilliant. The performance of Bihu
dance by Assam’s Natrang Cultural
Association gave us a glimpse of
nature’s relationship with the Assamese
people.
Folks cannot and should not be merely
glorification and celebration of the
past as this has been used by the
parochial right-wing forces. It needs
reorientation and retracing of the history
from Bahujan perspective so that the
mischief produced in the name of folk
to enslave us mentally can be exposed.
Bihar’s ‘ Jan-Geet Parivartan Rang
Mandali’ from Jeeradei, the birth place
of India’s first president Babu Rajendra
Prasad, really won the heart of all. They
sang not only Kabir and Amir Khusrau
but also portrayed the power of farmers
and their movement. Folk cannot be just
mysticism but it has to be the representative
voices of India’s Bahujan masses.
Many friends’ questions as why the
families of those belonging to India’s
indentured labourers are deeply
drenched into patriarchy and godliness.
I have heard ‘revolutionary’ writers and
speakers feeling uncomfortable when
listening to the Bhajans or celebrations
of the culture by the Girmitiya communities.
We never understood their pain
and agony.
Those who felt British and other
colonisers were their best friend
because they were enemy’s enemy,
should understand the history of indentured
labourers which was not better
than slavery even when the latter was
abolished by the Western power. The
Girmitiya community had a sense of
‘loss of inheritance’ and that is why they
kept their culture and history alive in the
form of folk songs. We can’t mock them
because they sing bhajans but it is
important that any community will fight
back to preserve its culture even in the
hardest form of adverse circumstances.
Kemchan Lal belonged to the
Chamar community and he said this to
me that Bhojpuri is looked down upon
by the Indian diaspora in South Africa.
His parents memorised Ramcharit
Manas but told him that they were not
allowed to do so and that they were
‘lower’ caste.
See page 20