Wednesday 11 February 2015


A three-day seminar “Marginal in the Market of Theatre” held
at 17th Bharat Rang Mahotsav

New Delhi, February 10, 2015: 17th Bharat Rang Mahotsav’s first phase of Allied events ended on 10th February 2015  with a three day seminar on “Marginal in the Market of Theatre” that was held on the question of misrepresentation of marginal voices in fields e.g., theatre, cinema, literature and visual art among others. Speakers for the three day seminar included Sanjay Pawar, Arjun Dev Charan, Trina Nileena Banerjee, Civic Chandran, Rahul Roy, Amar Kanwar, Dr Hanne M.de Bruin-Rajagopal, Tripurari Sharma, Padma VenkataramanMangai, AnjumKatyal, Ajay Mandvi, while Prof.WamanKendre, LaxmanGaikwad, Bishnupriya Paul, UshaGanguli, Feisal Alkazi& R Sreedhar chaired the sessions respectively. All the three days of seminar were divided into two sessions each with first session starting from 11.30am to 1.00pm and the second session from 2.00pm to 3.30pm.

The first day of the seminar started with a positive note from the Prof. Waman Kendre, Director, National School of Drama,  “This seminar is about those dimensions which we have always denied as a part of our Indian Theatre. Most of the work to promote Theatre as a folk tradition has been done by these Nomadic communities, marginalised, but their contribution was never considered. Lakhs of such communities are there whose existence and voices were never heard and were never given a platform to stand out. We have invited such visionaries who have been working for such communities so that we can learn what we can do to give a platform to these silent voices.”

The session was taken forward by the speakers Sanjay Pawar and Arjun Dev Charan. They shared their testimonies and experiences with theatre that they want to bring in light through the session and talked about how in our country traditional artists have been very unfortunate due to the caste in which they were born in. Markets or the Bazaars’ target is only restricted to bring middle class to high class but the ones who are following these folk forms are not even considered as humans.

Sanjay Pawar who is a playwright and cultural-social activist said, “Everything nowadays is a caste based profession, folk artists who were deprived of education and rights had to learn some skills to earn livelihood.” While Arjun Dev Charan, who is a professor at Rajasthan University mentioned many folk form such as: Ravanonki Rammat, Pabujiki Phad, Kanwad all from Rajasthan and many such art forms that earlier existed in distinct parts of our country but are now slowly vanishing.

The topic for the second day of the seminar were ‘Invisible through the lens’ & ‘Caste question’ for which documentary filmmakers such as Rahul Roy and Amar Kanwar were invited. The whole session revolved around the margins in documentary film making. Several aspects relating to the role of marginal in filmmaking were stretched out. Both the speakers being documentary film makers spoke about what margins do exist in documentary film making. In the second session of the day Prof.Tripurari Sharma, NSD, talks about the journey of the Baiden women who are considered to be a part of the lower caste of the society.  These women are performers by birth and caste and not by choice.  Inequality sets the stage for the dealing. These terms are not set by the women themselves but the hierarchy that defies their status.She talks about how these women used to go and perform between these men who belong to the upper caste in a circle of intimacy. Now when these women have stepped on the nautanki stage, it provided them with security and respect. The dance became free and the women distanced themselves from the audience to dance with abandonment and joy and now the attention has seemed to shift from the dancer to the dance.

The seminar came to an end with the last session on ‘Defying and defining minority’ & ‘Peasant uprising then and now’. The session consisted of personal experiences of all the speakers. They came and talked about the projects that they have been associated with. The highlights of the session were issues that revolve around LGBT communities that have been neglected as a bigger subject in theatre. Why there are so less productions (in theatre) done on these subjects. The other topic of concern was about those naxalite groups from whom our society have feared for decades.

Usha Ganguly, who is a respectable actor, writer, director and social activist said, “Theatre in big cities, small cities and towns have been unsuccessful in showcasing the seriousness in the minds of these commoners-turned-naxalites.”

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