EDITORIAL

You see now the first web issue of Sanskriti. We had its regular printed version. Later due to financial crisis we could not continue it. So the let's say this attempt to bring Sanskriti again to you is bringing a lot of memories.

Jana Sanskriti has crossed miles by now and there are miles to go. In the mean time the concept and the form of the festival has changed. We now feel the need to be connected with the international TO community. Muktadhara, the name of our festival was designed in order to maintain this link. Mukta means free dhara means flow. It has a dual dimension to us. First of all we want the free flow of thoughts to create conflicts of positive nature among them, to make thought dynamic.Dogmatic politics and economics now-a-days have been trying not to make thought dynamic. A society where there will be no debate, people will have only the right to be the blind followers of the values propagated by the so-called human system. Secondly the flow of art, ideas are always stopped by the elites in the society. As if majority should have no access to the world of art, they should be satisfied with the trickle down effect of the economy. We feel the need to take the means of producing art to the people at the ground level. The name of the festival is therefore a metaphor of the work Jana Sanskriti has been doing since its inception. We have here the reports of Muktadhara-I & II.

We have the story written by Somnath Lahiri translated by Rohini Mukherjee. The story is based on the famine we had in Bengal in 1943. We still see people die out of starvation in India even after 65 years. Should numbers matter when we compare the famine between what happened in 1943 and what we witnessed in Kalahandi in Orrisa in the very recent past? Starvation death is also common among tribals in India. Our state ruled by communists is no exception in this regard. Poor are becoming poorer, the disparity among classes has been increasing rapidly. So what? The GDP of the country is increasing, more will trickle down to the poor!!

We really need to talk about development. We certainly need dialogue on this question and don't want to fight with the purpose of destroying the opinion of others. Therefore we include below the view of Professor Amartya Sen on the question of industrialisation and completely different view of professor Dipanjan Raichudhuri on the same question are given here in this issue of Sanskriti.Both views were originally published in the daily newspaper,The Telepragh.

Besides we have an article from Dia Mohan who did her PhD from University of Cornell on the work of Jana Sanskriti and a report of an international workshop that took place in Jana Sanskriti last month.

We invite all of you to kindly utilise the space of Sanskriti magazine for the intellectual and pedagogical upliftment of all of us practising TO and non TO in the world.

Muktadhara II by Sujoy Ganguly

Jana Sanskriti was born in the remote hamlet and it spent the first phase of its life in the company y of the folk artists. Thus the term ‘mela’in relation to the influence of folk and rural culture happens to have been familiar to Jana Sanskriti from the very beginning. Then, the term mela signified togetherness, the performance of folk plays and songs, small shops and food stalls and the like. Now in the villages one sees the growth of bigger enterprises and capital and with it is noticeable a greater number of richer people. In the political parties has arrived the culture of a fascist inclination. The hand of the villagers in the cultural structure of these melas is being lost and is now being replaced by the hands of the rich businessmen and political leaders. The character o the melas is under going a change. The gambling, alcohol and commercial theatres in Calcuttahave become the life source of the rural melas. Earlier these commercial theatres in Calcuttawere closer to the people in the rural areas but the increasing demand for capital ahs changed the mind set and perspective of even these groups too. The accountability of these groups have now shifted from the people to the side of the investors of capital.

This is the reason Jana Sanskriti organizes their mela every year with the intention of facilitating the relationship between the people. When in the present globalization of the capital there is an attempt made to remove the existence of the culture of many opinions then standing utterly on the side of the opinions of many we

claim and announce that we are completely for the globalization of thought, philosophy, human beings and humanity. Our concept of globalization is based upon the Sanskrit saying “Basudhiva Kutum Bakum” which primarily means “The Guest is God”, where the citizens of the world are united and related and not isolated from one another. Man over here is not a slave to selfish and materialistic thoughts. In order to create a world of not just beings but human beings we have come out with “many in opinions and together”. We are perturbed and agonized because we are living in a state where the culture of a fascistic political and economical system is being successfully implemented by its rulers. Even the last word regarding the means of livelihood of the people is being taken away by the state and its rulers. In this present economic and political culture the collective desire of the majority of the people in this state is meaningless and disrespectable.

In the context of this present political situation this mela becomes a medium where many opinions can come together and engage themselves in dialectical relationship and many people can find a relationship among one another. That’s the mela and its name is called Muktadhara (“free flow” in English). This name is relevant from two perspectives – the first is enable the free flow of many opinions and the second is to bring about a decentralization of art- its culture and its philosophy – from the hands of the elite and privileged sections of the society. Taken together Jana Sanskriti’s festival – Muktadhara-II is a well conceived political move.

For Jana Sanskriti, from the very beginning, acting was a necessity under taken for political activism which is why the relationship between Jana Sanskriti and the other mass movements across Indiais very sincere, deep and full of meaning. In particular today, the urban theatres are dreadfully far away from political activist groups. The accountability of these theatre groups is not to the people but, to the ruling party the hands of the powerful political leaders of which they seek to strengthen. The desire to stay closer to power is so strong in them, that, they resort to continuously lying the matter away in order to not address the fascist ways of the political parties. In this context Jana Sanskriti felt that the combination of political activism and theatre of the oppressed is extremely vital and significant. This is why in the festival we witnessed the performance of those groups that are in reality, each one of them, a particular mass movement organization. One of India’s greatest mass movement leaders, Medha Patkar, had for this reason inaugurated the festival even though at the heart of it all was Augusto Boal which was a very relevant factor. According to the Sanjoy Ganguly, founder of Jana Sanskriti, “ Theatre of the Oppressed today, has to embrace the activist movements if not, it shall drift further and further away from its main goal.” He further maintains that, “ there is a plot to make Theatre of the Oppressed a property of the elite sections so that the oppressed masses cannot use it as a tool to liberation”, thus in relation to this context, we presented a political statement and a way by having Medha Patkar to inaugurate the festival. In her inaugural speech Patkar mentions that political activist movements in Indiaexpect much from Jana Sanskriti: “For enabling the rationalized political intervention of the working classes in Indiatoday theatre of the oppressed can become a powerful instrument- a weapon.”

Boal mentions in his inaugural speech that, “The work of Jana Sanskriti is important in various aspects.

First of all, this is a group which practices the best of Theatre of the Oppressed, whose aim is not only to understand reality but to transform it; not only to understand the mechanisms of oppression but to fight against them.

Second, Jana Sanskriti starts from a very real conflict but, through that particular story - like, for instance, a girl forced to marry against her will -, we undertsand not only the family but the whole social and political structure where that particular problem happened in that small village, or is happening in the whole country.

Third, Jana Sanskriti knows that the aesthetic presentation is also a language and is a necessary part of our capacitity to learn: their shows are beautiful.

Fourth, Jana Sanskriti understands that Solidarity is an essential part of Theatre of the Oppressed, which is an Ethical System, and they establish a solidary relationship with the populations for which they work.

Fifth, Jana Sanskriti is no longer a group, it is a National movement. Jana Sanskriti has integrated Theatre of the Opprssed in the lives of hundreds of people, every time more and more.

Jana Sanskriti is an exemple for all of us. »

Performances in the festival were done by the Delhi Shramik Sanghatan (which is Jana Sanskriti’s Delhi wing also in a way), Sarvahara Jana Andolan, Malla Bhoom Adivasi Sangrm Manch( JS wing Orissa), Bundelkhand Adivasikrishan Majdoor Sannghatan, Baghel Khand Adivasi Kisan Major Sanghathan , JS Udaypur Tripura, JS Samanyay Shakha, and this apart there was the Ashtar theatre from Palestine, TDU-Vienna and CTO Rio.

There were mostly two themes that received major importance in the festival – displacement was one and the other was the domestic and social oppression on women. The wave or urbanization and industrialization that are being made to rise as a result of globalization, is causing massive displacement. This very development paradigm was questioned through the performance of the Delhiand Maharashtara groups. Development or destruction? This was the main question that was put forth to the spectators. On the one hand in the name of development people are being evicted from their slums where their place to stay is not fixed and permanent, where as the existence of these slums originated in order that urban house holds could be made. As a saying in Bengali goes, “friend at the time of need and enemy after that”. This is the culture of the government and the neo rich classes. All this was talked about in the forum performed by the Delhi JS team which drew good intervention and discussion.

On the other hand in the name of creating Special Economic Zones the governments of various states are implementing land acquisition act which was passed by the British in 1894. By applying this law the state is evicting a large number of peasant’s and workers from their livelihoods. But the industrialists will be

given all kinds of opportunities. The electricity, water, land will be given to the industry by the state and the industry doesn’t have to pay even the taxes of importing and exporting their products outside the country. In one hand their will be real estate growing shopping malls and entertainment industry will take its place and the poor villagers on the other hand will be evicted from their livelihood. This was the subject o the forum performed by the Sarvahara Jana Andolan (they also work as Jana Sanskriti Maharashtara). Is this development or destruction? The forum of JS Orissa dealt with the problem of land acquisition in Kalinnagar Orissa. The land was acquired against the will of the farmer’s for the industry. In their forum too the same question was addressed.

The coordination team of Jana Sanskriti performed a play called “where we stand” the forum highlighted the undemocratic relationship that exists between the party leaders and the people.

Bundelkhand Adivasi Kisan Jana Sanghatan and Baghel Khand Adiasi Kisan Sanghstan (both from Madhya Pradesh) performed a forum only on how the poor people are being worst affected by the public distribution system run by the government.

The presence of patriarchy is some thing we find all throughout the world and It also exists in places where capitalism is very developed. It existed even in the so called socialist states. In this festival Ashtar theatre from Palestine(west Asia), CTO Rio De Janeiro (south America), Austria CTO Vienna (Europe), JS Delhi (south east Asia) performed forums on the oppression on women inside the family and in the work places. In all the forums performed by the groups of different continents involved the spectactors in a very serious discussion all through out – the people in Calcuttaand from other parts of the country did not view this oppression on women as something very alien even though the expression of the oppression differed.

Apart from Jana Sanskriti’s own units all over Indiaand the groups that they have trained all over Indiathere was the participation of 32 different mass organizations from12 different states in India. More than 300 hundred delegate saw the festival; they stayed together and debated together. Besides, participants from 14 different states was also a major source of delight and significance.

The festival is going to be a landmark in the history on Indian theatre. Workshops, spectactors rally, forum theater festival, seminars and the formation of the Federation of Theatre of the Oppressed India were the part of the festival. Last but no the least the festival was organized without the financial support of any sponsor or any institutional support.

Muktadhara: A Forum Theatre Festival

Organised by Jana Sanskriti

Announcement

In mid-2004, friends and well wishers of Jana Sanskriti received a letter from the organisation saying,

“We have decided to organise a Forum theatre Festival in November 2004 – the first of its kind in India, in Kolkata. All the groups trained in Forum Theatre by Jana Sanskriti in different parts of India will participate in the Festival. In our journey to this position we have taken a lot of criticism – constructive and shattering. Now the time has come to prove that Theatre of the Oppressed is not just an attractive concept. This concept translated into practice is the most democratic way of doing Social action.

We have named the Festival – Muktadhara , a Bengali word which means ‘free-flowing stream'. At the Festival groups from the eastern, northern and western parts of India will come together and engage the people of Kolkata in debate on issues that are local as well as national. At the same time the people of Kolkata, other theatre groups, will see for themselves that theatre is not necessarily propaganda, it is creating space for the oppressed to allow them to think , express, to articulate their thought.

We are happy to invite you to this Festival, which for us is a reaffirmation of our commitment to the Theatre of the Oppressed movement. Your presence will help us to make it a success.”

Background

In Forum Theatre conceptualised by Augusto Boal, performance is not confined to the stage. In this theatre members of the theatre team select, construct, and narrate a social problem from their daily life. With artistic direction this play is taken to an audience who must now find a solution to the problem. Passive spectators then become engaged spect-actors . Spect-actors come on stage to enact the solutions they have thought of, debating with trained activists about the feasibility of the solutions suggested. Thus individuals publicly engage in tackling a problem that has thus far provoked the most profound cultural silence and acceptance. This exercise gradually suggests possibilities for liberation from that oppression in real life.

Since 1991, Jana Sanskriti has removed itself far from conventional theatre and spread the practice of Forum Theatre to remote villages of the Sunderbans in Bengal. With 20 theatre teams active in rural Bengal, Jana Sanskriti is today perhaps the state's largest theatre group. Jana Sanskriti has also taken this theatre pedagogy beyond the boundaries of the state to different parts of the country - to Tripura, Orissa, Jharkhand, Delhi, Maharashtra, uttaranchal, and Gujarat.

Jana Sanskriti has worked with Augusto Boal on a number of occasions, the first time being in 1991. Jana Sanskriti has participated in two international festivals of Theatre of the Oppressed – in Paris and in Rio de Janeiro. This group is also perhaps the only one in the world practising Forum Theatre in rural areas . Jana Sanskriti's work has become subject for theses and dissertations in Harvard, Cornell, Chicago, Cambridge, London, Manchester and East Anglia Universities.

Why a Festival?

In our work on Forum Theatre we have dealt with a range of issues which are relevant to different groups in different regions - malpractices in the public distribution system, communalism, exploitation by contractors, undemocratic culture of political parties, corruption in the Panchayat, blind superstitions, domestic violence, insurgency and terrorism.

Our society is comprised of different interest groups – one issue affects the interests of one group, another issue affects the interests of another. Because each group looks at each issue narrowly, or selfishly, it leads to conflict between groups. Theatre of the Oppressed is an ideology and practice, which allows space to all groups to look at issues with a human perspective. In Forum Theatre different interest groups meet on the same ground, get the opportunity to examine all aspects of the issue presented, have the space to agree, to dissent, to go forward, to attempt to solve – and this reduces conflict.

One of the primary reasons we decided to hold this Festival is we wished that more and more people to know about Forum Theatre and the power it holds and disseminates. Over a decade of doing Forum Theatre in rural areas amongst landless agricultural workers has proved to us its power to provide a political space which makes us think, and then act. We believe that this experience and learning must be shared with more and more people in our country – where millions of people, oppressed in different ways – are looking for a way to address their problems. Every citizen needs a space, in which to express himself freely – this space has been shrinking over the years and as a result, participation of people in collective and community affairs has almost become a thing of the past.

Jana Sanskriti's theatre teams have been reaching out to thousands of people every month, with aesthetically refined theatre and hard-hitting questions on the reality around us. Not offering any solution, this theatre attempts to arrive at a solution with the help of spect-actors. Over the years we have seen that the experience of ‘spect-acting' has motivated people to be active outside theatre as well . And it this reality that we wished to share with audiences in Kolkata at our Festival.

The second and equally important reason for holding this Festival is that it became a meeting ground for the Forum Theatre teams trained by Jana Sanskriti all over India. Each of these teams is active in their own regions; most of them are also heading organisations engaged in struggles to assert the rights of the marginalised. Though all these teams are linked to each other through their commitment to the Forum Theatre movement, they have had very little opportunity to interact with each other and see each other's work. At this Festival we were able to provide this valuable opportunity. This interaction has no doubt imbued each individual and team with the feeling that they are not alone in this challenging task of establishing dialogue in society.

Theatre of the oppressed practitioners and theorists all over the world have showed great interest in Jana Sanskriti's Forum Theatre. The Festival also served to showcase this work for them, most of whom visited India only to be able to attend this Festival.

Forum Theatre at this Festival

Usually Forum Theatre is performed before audiences who are also facing the problem portrayed in the play. So the spectators and actors form a homogenous group. At this Festival we tried something new. That is, there were people from all kinds of interest groups in the audience. Different groups see the same issue in different ways. Usually, each person looks at it selfishly, narrowly – because there is no scope for debate or discussion. Forum Theatre allows for debate and discussion – therefore the audience emerges from the experience with a more human outlook .

This experience, in itself, is an empowering one – a realisation that here is a space, where each person can think, question, suggest solutions in his own way, without feeling exposed or threatened. It is to celebrate this experience of empowerment, of discovering oneself in a political space that Jana Sanskriti decided to have this Festival. We decided on the name ‘Muktadhara' because the Festival was all about equality, freedom and progress.

Programme design

The festival was held at an open air venue in the centre of Kolkata, in a lush green park which seemed very welcoming in the midst of the hurly burly of urban traffic. Every evening at 3 pm we would begin and go on till about 8.30pm. There were other events each morning at the government's cultural centre in the city - on the first three days there was a workshop on Rainbow of Desire (an important component of Theatre of the Oppressed techniques) conducted by Jean Francois Martel from France. On the fourth morning there was a seminar presentation by Canada's Simon Malbogat and Luciano Iogna on their Theatre of the Oppressed work in Turkey and the Ukraine. On the fifth morning there was yet another presentation by Ali Campbell and Jane Plastow, both on the faculty of universities in the U.K. Their piece was about their experience of doing Forum Theatre in Sudan. Before the Festival began, there had been a theatre workshop conducted by Julian Boal of Paris, at the Jana Sanskriti training centre. After the festival there was another workshop conducted by Ali Campbell of London University.

On each day of the Festival, we had performances by Jana Sanskriti teams from different parts of India. All these performances were followed by Forum Theatre.

The programme on each day also featured a performance by a folk team – from remote parts of Birbhum, Purulia and Cooch Behar. Different folk forms were given an important place in this Festival as a tribute from Jana Sanskriti to the folk tradition in Bengal , which actually gave birth to Jana Sanskriti's theatre. Loud resounding drums played by Jiten Badyakar's Dhol team, incredible acrobatics by Raibeshe and Natua , melodious songs and graceful dances from the tea gardens in northern Bengal, and the magnificent masks of the Chhau dancers brightened up the programme on each day.

The final day of the Festival was a Sunday, and there were over a thousand spectators. Augusto Boal was scheduled to attend the Festival but was eventually unable to come. Instead he sent us a reasons video message which we screened on the final day. In his inspiring message he stressed on the importance of having Festivals to spread the Forum Theatre movement and also congratulated Jana Sanskriti for doing good work.

About the performances

The inaugural show of the Festival was Jana Sanskriti West Bengal 's Gayer Panchali . This play was chosen because it is Jana Sanskriti's first play, written in 1988 and has been performed more than 2000 times till now. A collage of different aspects of life in rural Bengal, the play looks at the ways in which villagers' lives are affected by government policies, by corruption of politicians & bureaucrats and how they are deprived of even the very basic health and education facilities. Jana Sanskriti West Bengal performed two more plays at the Festival. Aamra Jekhaney Dariye focused on the relationship between political parties and the common man today – the Forum Theatre interventions that followed were very illuminating and said a lot about the situation in Bengal today. Santras is Jana Sanskriti West Bengal's latest play and talks about the terror unleashed by political parties in rural areas.

Jana Sanskriti's Delhi Forum Theatre team performed two plays at the Festival. One, Laadli Hamaari was about the discrimination faced by a girl in different stages of her life and the other, Baagar Billa highlighted the relationship between a political leader and slum dwellers. Both plays were followed by spirited Forum Theatre sessions in which spect-actors came up one after another to replace the protagonist in a bid to reverse the oppressive situation portrayed. These plays were in Hindi, which is a language understood and spoken by most people in Kolkata – so the Forum Theatre interventions were energetic and lively.

Jana Sanskriti's Tripura team also presented two plays at the Festival. Aatanker Golpo Noy

brought out the different ways in which insurgency problem was affecting daily life of the common people in Tripura. In the Forum Theatre session that followed, spect-actors struggled hard to find a way out of the situation portrayed. As this was in Bengali too, we had a wide range of interventions. It is difficult to address a 25 year old problem in the space of a few hours – but the spect-actors were able to use the space for offering well thought out opinions on the issue. The second play by this team Tamasha showed how corruption is seeping into every walk of life.

The Jana Sanskriti Forum Theatre team from Maharashtra comprises Katkari tribals from Raigarh District. These people are landless and have faced deprivation and discrimination for generations. They performed the play Choracha Rajya re Hai which depicted their daily experiences at the ration shop, at the landlord's fields where they go to work, and their interactions with the local political leader. The team started by singing a Bengali song as a way of greeting the Kolkata audiences. Even though their play was in Marathi, there were a large number of interventions from spectators. And interactions in Forum Theatre occurred through double translation – Marathi to Hindi to Bengali and then Bengali to Hindi to Marathi. Perhaps this is another first!

The Jana Sanskriti Forum Theatre Team from Orissa put up two plays at the Festival. Phulmonir Bichar highighted a year in Phulmoni's life. A tribal girl, Phulmoni works in a brick kiln and is sexually exploited by the labour contractor who takes advantage of the fact that Phulmoni's father owes him money. At the village trial, Phulmoni is judged guilty as the contractor goes scot-free. A flood of interventions followed in the Forum Theatre session. The second play from Orissa, Paharoro Chhai was about blind beliefs and superstitions still followed by people in their villages. It focused on witch-hunting and how it constituted a form of violence against women.

The Forum Theatre team from Gujarat comprised young boys and girls living in Ahmedabad who had witnessed the post-Godhra carnage 3 years ago. Their play Danga was a chilling narration of what actually happened – also, it shows how difficult it is for Muslims to resume their normal life after the carnage. This play was in Hindi and a fiery Forum Theatre session followed.

Performances by Interactive Resource Centre (IRC) of Lahore, Pakistan added an Asian touch to the Festival. Opportunities and spaces for the people of Pakistan and India to meet and interact are few and far between. Therefore Jana Sanskriti was proud as well as honoured to be able to achieve this at the Festival. The IRC put up two plays. The first, Aman Hamare Liye , was a piece on Indo-Pakistan peace which they had presented before the Prime Minister of India a few years ago. Another play by them – Bhatte ki Kahani – depicted the condition of labourers at a brick kiln and the exploitation they have to face on a daily basis. This was followed by a long and interesting Forum Theatre session which had people from all walks of life going up to offer their solutions.

At the end of the fifth day, the Festival was declared closed with an impromptu performance of Kolattam by all the Jana Sanskriti teams together . Over 50 people on the stage, each with a pair of sticks in their hands, went gracefully through the steps of the dance we learnt from Andhra Pradesh. These 50 people were dancing the Kolattam – a stick dance that requires a great deal of precision – for the first time as a team. But they had no problem in synchronising their steps – it was a picture of harmony and a coming together of committed soldiers of the Forum Theatre movement from all over the country. It wasn't an end – it was a beginning.

In conclusion

What has been a revelation for us at Jana Sanskriti as also I am sure for those who were there to witness the Festival is the universality of the language of Forum Theatre . Performances were put up in as many as four languages and in no way was that an obstacle for the spectators in their interventions in Forum Theatre. The spectators ranged from bureaucrats from the Writers Buildings, clerks from private offices and policemen to vendors, hawkers, students and unemployed youth. The ease with which they overcame the language problem reaffirmed for us our belief in the efficacy of Forum Theatre.

We are grateful to the audiences in Kolkata who encouraged us and inspired us all along. There were people who made it a point to come every single day of the Festival and contribute with interventions in all Forum Theatre sessions. On the last day, as we were winding up, the local police and administration, who cooperated with us to an unprecedented extent, came up to us to tell us that Kolkata needed more such events and that we should be back next year.

The Festival proved to us at Jana Sanskriti that we are moving in the right direction . As stated in the beginning itself, Jana Sanskriti's mandate is to work amongst the oppressed people. In Bengal it is landless agricultural workers, in Delhi it is slum dwellers, in Maharashtra it is tribals dispossessed of their land……………..On each day of the Festival, the Forum Theatre sessions threw up questions on oppression of various kinds. And members of different Jana Sanskriti teams were able to understand and identify immediately with what was being shown in the arena because they all have the same orientation, the same conviction and the same commitment. On the final day, at the closing of the Festival, when they all seamlessly flowed into the same Kolattam circle, it somehow seemed symbolic of the fact that they are the drummers of the same band. This is evidence enough that the Forum Theatre movement in India has reached a take-off stage.

Lastly but most importantly, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to Augusto Boal, Julian Boal, Jean Francois Martel, Ralph Yarrow and Rohit Jain – without whose help it would not have been possible to organise such a mammoth event in the heart of Kolkata.

LIST OF EVENTS

Day One

Raibeshe

Gayer Panchali – Jana Sanskriti West Bengal

Laadli Hamaari – Jana Sanskriti Delhi

Day Two

Jiten Badyakar's Dhol

Phulmonir Bichar – Jana Sanskriti Orissa

Danga – Jana Sanskriti Gujarat

Bahurupee

Day Three

Natua

Choracha Rajya re Hai – Jana Sanskriti Maharashtra

Aatonker Golpo Noy – Jana Sanskriti Tripura

Aman Hamare Liye – IRC, Lahore

Day Four

Danga – Jana Sanskriti Gujarat

Song by Jharkhand team

Aamra Jekhaney Dariye – Jana Sanskriti West Bengal

Bagar Billa – Jana Sanskriti Delhi

Chhau from Purulia

Day Five

Pahararo Chhai – Jana Sanskriti Orissa

Tamasha – Jana Sanskriti Tripura

Santraas – Jana Sanskriti West Bengal

Augusto Boal Video Message

Bhatte ki kahani - IRC Lahore

Dance from North Bengal

intend well, but they are not serving the interest of Bengal's working class or peasantry. The prosperity of the peasantry in the world always depends on the number of peasants going down. That is the standard experience in the world.

It is not that historically agricultural production goes up so much that they become hugely rich on that basis. Bengal has done very well in terms of agriculture compared to other states. But that has not made Bengal immensely prosperous. In countries like Australia, the US or Canada, where agriculture has prospered, only a very tiny population is involved in agriculture. Most people move out to industry. Industry has to be convenient, has to be absorbing.

When people move out of agriculture, total production does not go down. So per capita income increases. For the prosperity of industry, agriculture and the economy, you do need industrialisation. Those in effect preventing that, either by politically making it impossible for an industrialist to feel comfortable in Bengal or making it difficult to buy land for industry, do not serve the interest of the poor well.

The Communist Party made a mistake earlier when it drove industries out by union action, which was intended to create benefits for workers but ended up making the workers having no job. Second time it is happening now, not from the Communist Party but from the Opposition, preventing industrialisation, which is not in the interest of Bengal in general and the poor in particular. So if Bengal is to regain what it used to be — being one of the richest in the world — industrialisation has to happen.

Prohibiting the use of agricultural land for industries is ultimately self-defeating.

Q: Why not develop other areas in Bengal where land is less fertile and build infrastructure so that industry goes there?

Sen: You have to bring industry everywhere. But there is no way in which you will be able to avoid industrialisation around Calcutta, any more than you could have avoided it in London, Lancashire, Manchester, Berlin, Paris, Pittsburgh. You will find industry will come up where there are advantages of production, taking into account also the locational preferences of managers, engineers, technical experts as well as unskilled labour.

But we should not make the mistake of thinking that somehow while you are trying to attract business based on the market that the government can say: ‘I want you to go to Siliguri and that is where you are going to be.' That is not the way the market economy works. The market economy has many imperfections, on which I have written extensively. But it also creates job and income and if the income goes up, government revenues go up, so there is money available for education and healthcare and other things.

Professor Amartya Sen's interview (The Telgraph, July 23) makes us sad.

1. “The market economy has many imperfections, on which I have written extensively. But it also creates jobs and incomes, and if the income goes up, government revenues go up, so there is money available for education and healthcare and other things.” — so said Amartya Sen.

Textbook (neoclassical) economics is a strange discipline. It is timeless. There is a history of economic thought but no history of economic phenomena. Prof Sen has given above a perfect textbook lecture, which he applies, in the best traditions of textbook economics, equally to the early capitalism of 17th century England, the colonial economy of 19th century Bengal, and the late capitalism of present-day India.

Centuries have rolled by, nevertheless, and the lecture given above has become irrelevant in the era of “Jobless Growth.” The burden of Prof Sen's intervention is that the present inflow of big capital into West Bengal will bring jobs. How many jobs, Prof. Sen? The water tank manufacturers Patton proposed a 13 million dollar investment in Falta SEZ in July, 2006, employing 250 people — 3 to 4 jobs per crore of rupees investment. In 2003 the refined petroleum goods industry in West Bengal (which includes Haldia Petrochemicals) had a fixed capital of Rs 2178.21 crores (total investment — Rs 3359.05 crores) and 6610 employees — 3 jobs per crore of rupees of fixed capital and 2 jobs per crore of rupees of investment. Lakhs of jobs downstream had been promised. Haldia Petrochemicals went into production in 2000. Up to 2003-04 the plastics industry showed 6643 employees, many, no doubt, from pre-2000 days. How many people will the Tatas employ in Singur? Nobody knows, not even Prof. Sen. It is almost a state secret. But this we know. The Tata Indica (car) factory employs 250 people, and not one of them comes from the people displaced by the factory.

The Bourbons, it is said, learnt nothing and forgot nothing. We, the talking classes of Bengal, are almost as bad. We have not forgotten B.C. Roy, but we have not learnt the lesson that (a) implanting sporadic big plants do not lead to industrialisation (apart from Durgapur, what remains?) and (b) in a state where the number of unemployed in 2004-05 was 33.37 lakh, even according to the conservative, formal estimate of the Finance Minister (Budget speech, 2007), a few thousands of jobs, while certainly welcome, do not provide a solution (B.C. Roy's “industrialisation” could not prevent the 1959 food movement and the 1967 food movement. The foot-soldiers in these struggles were unemployed youth, destined to play a big part in the final ouster of Congress rule.) The CPI(M), the media, a large section of the opposition, and Professor Sen have bypassed the main issue to concentrate on a side-issue, the use of agricultural land.

The main issue is whether the virtually jobless massive investments, being touted through ignorance (or malice, who knows?) as the solution to our economic problems, of which the most glaring and soul-destroying is that of unemployment, do really have this miraculous potential . We have seen enough of “trickle down” since B.C. Roy's days. We are not ready to listen to sermons, however eminent may the preacher be, to wait for the investments to give rise to jobs and income. They never do. Ask the people of Amlasole. We want an alternative model which can give jobs today, or, at least, tomorrow. Market economy has no such model, and it is painful to see one of the best minds this country has produced fumbling in the coils of that wily retiarius, the market, and promising nothing more than “trickle down”.

2. “In countries like Australia, the US or Canada, where agriculture has prospered, only a very tiny population is involved in agriculture. Most people move out to industry. Industry has to be convenient, has to be absorbing.”

Where will the people move out? To industry? Alas, real life in late capitalism has little in common with the timeless textbooks of economics. Since Prof. Sen has studied Singur, he must know what “Sanhati Udyog” has calculated. About 10,000 people will lose their livelihoods. The Tatas have clearly stated they offer no jobs. The few trainees they have picked up were also told that there was no job guarantee. So, presumably these 10000 people, among whom are agricultural labourers, bargadars, van rickshaw pullers, small vendors, and other labourers, will have to survive, presumably on air, for at least 10 years to taste “trickle down”. Or, what nobody is articulating clearly, they are the sacrifice. They will move out. Period. To nowhere. Late capitalism does not have jobs in industry for people “moving out” of agriculture.

3. “ ... government revenues go up, so there is more money available for education, healthcare and other things.”

It is strange hearing these words, linking the market to education or healthcare, from the initiator of The Pratichi Trust's surveys of primary education and healthcare in West Bengal. He should know better.

There is no market for millions of the literate poor. No demand. A few “Eight class Pass-walas” will suffice for the market. So, the government will never be overly worried about mass literacy, drop-outs, a proper education for millions. The money may even be there. But it will be spent on other things. The latest proof is the fizzle-down of the “neighbourhood school” based “education for all” proposal and its replacement by Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, which has degenerated, at least in this state, into nothing more than some forced spending without policy or direction.

In spite of Prof Sen's forceful expositions, may be, his life-work, capital and governments continue to regard female health, children's health, and, in general, community health as non-marketable stuff, just as they regard a proper education for all. No demand. No government expenditure.

So, Prof Sen's premisses don't hold out to the end. The investments will bring profits to big capital, and some taxes to the government (provided the target is not in a SEZ). The few employees will get good pay, perhaps. That is all. The overall unemployment picture will not change, quality of life outside the factory enclave will continue at its worst.

We need something else, and it is disappointing to find that Amartya Sen cannot help us with ideas for this.

4. “The government's policing has been in some cases over-strong ... It is possible that in the past, the violence committed by the government was greater, but from what I hear, it is possible the opposite might be the case now.”

Does the “some cases” include Nandigram? Although Prof. Sen has “not studied it in the way” he has “studied Singur”, he reads newspapers and, may be, looks at the TV. Is he at peace with what he read and, maybe, viewed on the TV?

I had the honour and misfortune to help in a minor way Justice Bhargava's tribunal on Nandigram. Rape, stuffing rods into the female sex organ, shooting into a retreating crowd of women and children — these are some of the material to be found in the depositions before the tribunal. A spot of “over-policing”, no doubt. And, pray, what acts even the scatter-brained opposition of ours has been perpetrating “now”, which is “greater”, from what Prof Sen hears, than this violence?

Of course, Laxman Seth says that these are lies, because no raped woman would talk of it, and Laxman Seth is an honourable man. Perhaps we should remain at Singur. But, there, too, I fail to recollect any act of the opposition which can match the murder of Tapasi Malik., or have the opposition taken to burning chowkidars of Tata's Wall in secret? Of course, Tapasi Malik was not killed by policemen, and both the interviewer and the interviewed steered clear of the acts of the CPI(M). So, Prof Sen might claim a caveat on this issue, too. But, this part of the interview leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

5. Let us come finally to the issue the interviewer and the professor found important: the use of agricultural land for industry. The main question here is not economic, it is one of rights. It may be good economics, or unavoidable economics. But has a citizen of India, who owns land, the right to say ‘No' to a package he considers inadequate in compensation for his land? Prof Sen shows that a better and fairer package should have been offered in Singur, and talks of the ‘tactical' mistake of the government. But, nowhere does he say, in so many words, that the citizen has a right to his land, the right to say No. He reminds us “it is very important in a free country, any people can come in and go out from any place they like and you cannot establish restriction of movement either by the goveenment or the Opposition.” Quite. But, in a free country, presumably, it is quite in order to take away land from the owner by a simple notification of the government (we all know about the 1894 imperial law).

Even the rulers in Delhi are mulling over demands for setting up a National Rehabilitation Commission without whose approval no displacement of people will be allowed in any project. Prof Sen opposes bureaucratic directives to capital of the kind “I want it in Siliguri and Bankura but not here”, but we are sad to observe that he does not once say that the real mistake of the government was a bureaucratic one in Singur, too, because the would-be-dispossessed were not adequately consulted (a point even conceded by Jyoti Basu). In fact, the government emphasises that, under the 1894 law, consultation is not mandatory. Prof Sen wants the government to correct its tactical mistake regarding the value of the land in future deals, but presumably this, too, will be a unilateral action by the government, for nowhere is it mentioned that the affected are also to be consulted. So, bureaucracy (which earned a strict NoNo in dealing with capital) seems okay in dealing with the affected people.

We are indeed sad, for this we did not expect from Amartya Sen

The encounter started with a Forum Theatre workshop for participants from all over the world. Expression exercises and games took place,evolved in improvisations and got converted into Forum Theatre plays that finally became part of Jana Sanskriti's Mukta Manch festival artistic programme.

The programme further consisted of musical performances; indian classical music and singing, traditional music from Rajasthan, dhol (tribal percussion show), chow, (dancing with masks of hindu gods and godesses) and the plays of Jana Sanskriti.

The workshop was followed by a rally about the right of the people to get art in their hands. The rally ended up in a gathering and the presentation of the above mentioned programme.

The foreign group spent the night at the village of Digambarpur where they got in touch with indian rural life and the local people.

The programme was also presented in the village of Srinarypur and on the 8th of January an extended discussion was held by the economist Achin Chakrebortti about indian economy and its relation to international economy.

The festival concluded with a meeting between the members of the Indian Federation of the Theatre of the Oppressed and a presentation of the artistic programme in Salt Lake EZCC hall, Kolkata.

It is late evening in a remote village in the Sunderbans. Under the harsh light of kerosene gas lamps, a poignant drama unfolds before a transfixed village audience. It is a familiar tale: Amba works hard all day, only to be beaten by her husband when he returns from work. Her in-laws support their son. A neighbour's wife who wants to intervene is restrained by her husband. This scene from the play Shonar Meye is brought to an abrupt halt as the Joker claps and calls stop. The actors freeze in different postures to form an image. The Joker calls upon the spectators to respond to the situation. After initial hesitation, many villagers, men and women, come up to replace the protagonist. Each one critically reflects on her/his experience to explore solutions. Each enactment is analysed and questioned by the spectators and the discussion goes on late into the night as the villagers struggle to reach a consensus…

This is Forum Theatre in action, as practiced by Jana Sanskriti- Centre for Theatre of the Oppressed (JS). Drawing on Augusto Boal's work and the rich local folk forms, JS has created a vibrant, indigenously rooted movement, where theatre becomes a platform for dialogue. Spectators are transformed into spect-actors, who draw on their inner resources to introspect and question ‘normal' everyday practices, within the family and civil society, practices that oppress, marginalise and render them silent. In the process, as Sanjoy Ganguly, founder of JS, says, “ actors, actresses, spectators, spect-actors, everyone involved in theatre (…) finds talents hidden within themselves, identifies the oppressor within themselves and also recognises the human self. They humanise the oppressor within themselves…” The introspection sparks off positive conflicts and the possibility of inner transformation and reflective action. This inspires collective action that democratises both family and society.

It has been a long creative journey for JS since 1985, when Sanjoy, along with a few urban fellow activists, moved to a village, seventy kilometres from Kolkata, to understand and experience rural realities, in the process of helping people to resist oppression. Sanjoy was struck by the richness of Baul music, Gajan and other folk forms. In his own words:

Jana Sanskriti grew out of the initiative of a non-actor like me, who had begun with the intention of becoming a full time political worker. Before this I had never been involved in theatre or acting. But gradually I found myself being attracted by the entire concept of performance and its rich possibilities. Where did this enthusiasm and ability come from?

Sanjoy plunged into theatre work, involving local people in scripting and acting plays that explored the oppression in their everyday lives. Along the way, he and his group realized the limitations of propaganda theatre, which is monological, at best, a theatre for the oppressed, but not of the oppressed. In the early 1990s, as the JS team came into contact with Boal's seminal work, it was able to translate his concepts, using local idioms and forms, into a unique initiative for social change. This was the first attempt ever to interpret Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed within a rural context.

Today, JS is one of the largest theatre groups in India, with 25 theatre teams in West Bengal and two in Tripura. These include 7 women's theatre teams. It also has helped create 16 theatre groups in 9 other states and has trained a competent group of trainers, based in 5 states. The members of the JS teams are men and women from agricultural worker families. JS's uniqueness stems from its ability to recognize and build on the wisdom and strength of ‘common people', to empower them to form thinking, committed citizens' groups that can analyse and handle their own local issues. The traditional hierarchy between the activists and the people that one finds in many political parties and NGOs is absent. The theatre work has led to the development of Human Rights Protection Committees at the village level. These committees work with local bodies, including the panchayat. They have tackled issues such as illegal alcohol, ecological protection, education, health, atrocities on women, political participation, corruption and non-payment of minimum wages, among others.

The villages in the Sunderbans have no proper roads or electricity; health and educational facilities are very limited. In 2000, Jana Sanskriti launched a pre-primary learning initiative, Nibedita Shikshayatan, with the idea of inculcating the school-going habit among children and raising community awareness about the need for education. Over the years, it has grown into a vibrant village level institution that provides spaces for learning and dialogue not only for children, but also for their mothers, local teachers and the village community. The community is actively involved in creating and managing their own preschool, through Guardians Committees and Mothers' Forums. The initiative has also reached out to forge linkages with the government ICDS programme. There is also a great deal of synergy between the theatre teams, the human rights protection committees and the Nibedita Shikshayatan initiative. Campaigns, melas and other events also serve the purpose of bringing together people to work towards a sustainable, locally rooted movement for social justice and change. Financial support from the Trust since August 2001 has enabled the expansion and consolidation of the Nibedita Shikshayatan initiative and the creation of village level forums and human rights committees.

In November 2004, Jana Sanskriti organized Muktadhara: A Forum Theatre Festival, the first of its kind in India. For 6 days, an open air venue in the heart of Kolkata drew large crowds for performances by Jana Sanskriti teams from all over the country, Forum Theatre and folk performances. Workshops and seminars were conducted by Theatre of the Oppressed practitioners from France, Canada and the U.K. A Muktadhara II is being planned for October 2006, with the participation of Augusto Boal and other theatre practitioners and academics from Europe, USA and Latin America. Muktadhara is an affirmation of the power of Forum Theatre and the universality of its language. It is a visible celebration and extension of the democratic spaces that the work of Jana Sanskriti has opened up, from the local to the global.

The Joker is a central character in Forum Theatre, who raises questions and facilitates discussion among actors and spectators.

Ganguly, S. Theatre- A Space for Empowerment: Celebrating Jana Sanskriti's Experience in India in Theatre and Empowerment , ed. Boon, R. and Plastow, J., Cambridge University Press, 2006 .