Davesh and co 's twists in the modern history of Indian classical dance forms

[Nagaraj Paturi]

Modern history of all Indian classical dances : Sadir to Bharatanatyam , Telugu court and temple dances to Andhra Natyam /Vilasini Natyam, Traditional Kuchipudi to modern Kuchipudi, Krishnattam etc.,  to Kathakkali, Odisha temple dance to Odissi etc., have two common themes:

1. Open up  -  from single gender heredity to both genders, from single caste heredity to people of any caste.

2. Adaptation from traditional stage i.e., street, royal court floor or temple natya mandapam to modern proscenium/fourth wall stage

Both these aspects, like many developments of modern history with regard to traditional Indian life, allow two opposing perspectives:

1. that of celebration, looking from the perspective of hereditary occupations to choice based occupations to be good , democratic, egalitarian , progressive etc., 

2. that of the pain of losing hereditary rights by a gender or a caste

Liberals, in general , advocate or give the impression of advocating #1 of the above two perspectives regarding these modern developments. 

Davesh and co are doing what they are doing, as liberals or in the name of liberalism. 

So logically they should celebrate Sadir, the Tamil court and temple dance  or Telugu or Odisha  court and temple dance shifting from the court and temple dancer community to the general population of all genders and castes, in becoming Bharata Natyam. 

But their argument , in this case, is on the lines of the perspective #2 above , which in fact, is considered to be the perspective of the pro-caste, conservative, illiberal Indians. 

One more of their arguments is the stigma attached to the premodern forms of these dance forms. This , they, unjustifiably and baselessly blame on Brahmanical patriarchy while the fact is that it is the Victorian morality of the colonial government and the colonized Indians that brought an unprecedented stigma towards the community and their dance. 

Their attempt to blame all this on Brahmanical patriarchy is a clear attempt to whitewash the sins of the colonial rulers and their racial inheritors on whose pay rolls these tricksters are. 

They are co-opting some modern educated women dancers hailing from these communities to speak this version of interpretation of modern history of these dance forms, who get easily played into the false sympathy towards them and scapegoating  the usual scapegoats Brahmins,  created by them. 

[Nagaraj Paturi]

This woman, Swarnamalya Ganesh, a Bharata Natyam performer, though she too continues the same vocabulary of Brahmanical spaces, patriarchy etc., talks about  Davesh and co in this post

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Nagaraj Paturi

 

Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.

Director, Indic Academy

BoS, MIT School of Vedic Sciences, Pune, Maharashtra

BoS Kavikulaguru Kalidasa Sanskrit University, Ramtek, Maharashtra

BoS Veda Vijnana Gurukula, Bengaluru.

Member, Advisory Council, Veda Vijnana Shodha Samsthanam, Bengaluru

BoS Rashtram School of Public Leadership

Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Studies in Public Leadership

Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies, 

FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of  Liberal Education, 

Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.

 

 

 

[Ramesh Rao]

Thanks for the link, Nagaraj ji.

Puts a Saturday morning dizzy spin in my head...  

I also read this interview of Swarnmalya Ganesh... and the jaw-aching and nonsensical mouthing of continental and new-American sophistry -- "patriarchy," "intersectionality," "marginality," by the interviewer from Ashoka University, and Swarnamalya's equally distracting stretching of reality with the use of selective data. This is all stuff concocted in the hot houses of Western academe -- mindlessly imported by Indian "scholars" and artists, with TM Krishna the most prominent among them.

Sure, the popularity of teaching and learning the classical dances and music in newly independent India spawned and shaped new social dynamics, including the influence, of course, of films and the film-industry.

https://medium.com/the-edict/swarnamalya-ganesh-and-a-brief-history-of-bharatanatyam-8ddbbc8866a0

Sifting through the charges against Davesh by Swarnamalya also gives us an insight into the world of Indian art appropriated by Western academe and its battalions of scholars in search of data to fit preconceived theories, and in the pursuit of a livelihood. 

Modern academe has turned monstrous, and the dollar destructive.

I am in the business too :-(

Ramesh Rao

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