Marginal Culture and Development

Culture, Development and Identity: The Musahars of the Middle-Gangetic Plain

Documentation of Himalyan Folklore

Culture, Development and Identity: The Musahars of the Middle-Gangetic Plain

Our journey to understand marginal cultures and development began with research and documentation on Musahars who are often referred to as Dalits among Dalits and occupy the bottom-rung of society in the middle Gangetic plains. Descendents of a Chotanagpur tribe, Musahars are scattered all over the paddy-growing areas, providing the so-called unskilled labour. We first encountered and confronted with the dominant image of Musahar community that emerges from mainstream development discourses which considers them either as subjects of the modern production mechanism or as an object that gets defined through discussions around land relations.

The over empowering presence of the dominant image of the Musahar community paused daunting challenges to us to understand what is indeed development from Musahar point of view. Our present understanding of Musahar community emerges from the experiences and feelings that Musahar reality was captured from a position outside of that reality. The realization was not simply that development has failed, but that mainstream perspective of development is profoundly alien to native perspectives of Musahars. In the process we had to unlearn ourselves to look development from the lens of Musahar community. We became aware that it is only from the mainstream perspective of development that Musahar community looks backward, stagnant and altogether lacking. Our understanding of the dialogical process of Musahar community is that it is not essentially an oppositional stance that rejects whatever comes from the mainstream development but rather a two-way flow between different collectivities that constructively creates spaces for dialogues and negotiations.

The hosting of this conference provides all interested stakeholders an invaluable multi-organizational and multi-sectoral networking opportunity which aims to bring together academicians, non-governmental employees, volunteers, policy makers, governmental and inter-governmental professionals, UN agency staff as well as grassroots organizations and representatives to share and learn from development experiences of marginal communities. Through collective action of discussions on the seemingly complex issues of culture, development and empowerment we not only intend to enrich, broaden and situate our present understanding but also generating new insights crucial for developing liberative public action policy.

Main Themes:

Perspectives on Culture, Development and Identity: The Musahars of the Middle-Gangetic Plain

• Mobility, Marginality and Development: The Case of Bhuinyas and Musahars
• Culture, Development and the Cultural Capital of Farce: Notes on the Musahar Community in Bihar
• Myth, Culture and Democracy
• Dirt, Untouchability and Livelihood
• Discourses of Emancipation: Voices from the Margin

Towards a Public Action Policy

Documentation

The various forms of documentation are:

Written

1. Story Books:-  These books tell stories on the community based on folk tales, myths, legends, their stuggles and experiances.
2. Pictorial Book:- We have already published a pictorial book"Asserting Voices: Culture, Identity and Livelihood of Musahar Community in the Middle Gangetic Plain"
3. We have written documentation of hundreds of folk-songs in Magahi, the language of the community, and have also transcribed them in Hindi.

Audio

1. We have audio cassettes of around 200 hours of performances, which include marriage songs, transplantation songs, Jhoomer songs, Teej songs, Karma Songs, Sohar, Epics, Dewas etc.
2. We have developed a series of radio-features which depicts life and experiences of Musahars. These are soon to be on air from Patna Radio Station.

Visual

1. Film:- We have produced a 30-minute documentary on Musahars’ culture, identity and resistanceAaropit Pahchan ke Paar (Beyond Imposed Identities).
2. C D:- We have already produced three thematic slide-shows on the livelihood, culture and identity of the community, namely, Asharhi Puja, Ropani and Settlement.
3. One C D presenting life of the Musahar community from the perspective of culture with commentary.

Photo Gallery:-

1. Digital:- We have around 3,000 digital photographs covering various aspects of day-to-day life of the community.
2. Non-Digital:- We also have 800 non-digital photographs of the community.

Documentation of Himalyan Folklore

A folk-song is a spontanious outflow of life of the people that live in more or less primitive condition outside the sphere of sophisticated influences. Its seeds lie in community singing. Folk lore song is not something far away and long ago, but real and living among us. It is like a forest tree with its root deeply buried in the past, but which continuously put forth new branches, new leaves, new fruit. Here, the past has something to say to the present and bookless world to a world that like to ready about itself, concerning our basic oral and democratic culture as the root of arts and as a sidelight on history.

Himalyan ranges of Uttaranchal can be called the abode of gods with Shiva and Shakti as the ruling deities. The lofty mountains, enchanting scenary and variety of landscape have influenced the thinking and character of generations of the Uttaranchal people and have brought them close to gods through nature.

Uttaranchal can be called the treasure of folklore. Folksongs, ballads, myths, festivals, theatre, craft, art, dance are abundant in the region. Thousands of songs, ballads, myths, stories are written on tongue for years and years. All these along with craft, drama relate to numerous subjects and themes such as, Earth & Sky, Botanical & Zoological World, Human being & Human made objects, Soul & Extra-life, Para-human existence, Joy & Grief, Fortelling & Magic, Maladies & Cure etc.

Folk songs never neglect the contemporary issues. It does reflect the contemporary conflict, struggle and problem of the society. This region has also championed the contemporary issues and problems through its folk songs and lore. In a way folklore of Uttaranchal tell the history, reflects society and polity of the region. Keeping the importance of folk-lores in mind Deshkal Society has documented folk-lores of this region in order to document the history of the region and also to preserve art and culture.

We have documented thousands of folflores. This is available in audio cassettes and printed form of the following regions:

1. Kumaun
2. Garhwal
3. Himachal Pradesh - Documentation of Legendary  and Religious Ballads such as Pahadi Ramayan, Mahabharat-pandayan, Ainchali, Y(J)ukantas, Balraj, and Devkanya in Simla, Sirmaur and other regions.
4. Lorikayan, a form of folklores of Magahi speaking regions of Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh