The Local Interface of a Globalized
Modernity:
A Case for Kathak dance in India
The globalization of modernity has impacted on national cultures around the globe in multiple and unexpected ways. As capitalism and market reforms sweep across all corners of the world, a resurgence of ethnic politics around cultural identity appears poised to threaten the present world order. In India, the rise of radical Hindu nationalism, represented by Hindutva re-surfaced with the integration of India in the global market. The emergence of a new dimension of modernity and cultural politics in India is thus global, but with very specific localizing processes.
This paper attempts to explore this modern production of locality in contemporary India, by focusing on the traditional cultural practice of Kathak dance, known to be the premier classical dance from northern India. The primary argument here takes the lead from Arjun Appadurai (1995,1997). It articulates locality as a historical product that emerges within the context of the translocal. The complex interaction between the market and the production of cultural identity is central to the project of modernity in India. Thus the multiple genealogies of Kathak dance provides the historical context for analyzing the intersection among the competing forces of Hindu nationalism, regional chauvinism, and the market, in shaping new identity politics in contemporary India. The first section of the paper situates classical Kathak within the cultural history of India. In the process it underlines the politics of cultural identity implicated in the dominant representation of classical Kathak. The second section provides an ethnographic window into the new project of modernity in India, articulated by the local reception and transformation of global and national cultural forces. Finally, I critically analyze a Kathak dance production by a Calcutta based group on Subhas Chandra Bose, the venerated nationalist leader from Bengal, to showcase how regional identities are forged within the dominant Kathak ideology.
From Petty Nautch to Classical Kathak: The tradition of Kathak dance has its roots in the Bhakti and Katha tradition of North and East India. The Bhakti movement in the medieval period of Indian history is marked by its progressive anti-caste and anti Brahminical position. It rose against the hierarchical ritual centered, caste based, patriarchal regime of a sanscritized vedic culture. The Bhakti poets composed in regional languages in order to deliberately break the literary and religious hold of Sanskrit (Tharu and Lalita: 1991). The songs of Bhakti poets like Mirabai or Tulsidas, written in regional dialects, continue to be performed by Kathak dancers today. The central tenet of Vaisnavism, which includes worshipping Vishnu and his popular incarnation, Krishna, is based on the doctrine of Bhakti philosophy. The idea of a personal god, engaged in lila or divine play in the role of a lover, is represented by the divine symbol of Krishna and his soul mate Radha. In fact, the Indo-Islamic genre of of Indian miniature painting is replete with images of sensuous, divine play between Radha and Krishna. The culture of "traditional" Kathak is intricately linked to this particular period in Indian art history . For an elaboration of representation of Kathak in miniature painting see Kapila Vatsyayan excellent work: "Dance in Indian Painting", (1982). The images of Krishna that abound in the miniature paining schools and the Kathak gharanas (or schools) signifies the confluence of Bhakti and Sufi philosophies of the Indo-Islamic tradition.
The tradition of Kathak flourished in the Muslim and Hindu courts of Lucknow, Jaipur, Benaras, among others, in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. The tawaifs or the courtesans who graced the royal courts, were trained in the Kathak idiom, often by male experts. The popularity of Kathak today, along with the classical vocal genre of Thumri and Gazal owes much to these women and royal patronage. But due to the impact of the anti-nautch movement in 1892, these women were stigmatized as the infamous nautch dancers of colonial history. By the turn of the 20th century they were driven into prostitution by the Hindu social reformers and their dance was appropriated from them by new class of upper caste, western educated Hindu women. Subsequently Kathak, and other regional dance styles (like Bharatanatyam) were elevated to the classical status. The revival of classical Indian dance during the early part of the century traces the origin of Kathak back to an invented vedic past and links it to the Sanskrit texts Natyashastra and Mahabharata, and its genealogy is traced through male lineages (see Kothari 1989).
After India's independence Kathak dance was institutionalized within the national academies in India (with its center at Delhi), as the authentic representation of a patriarchal Hindu national identify. The multiple genealogies of Kathak dance was homogenized into a single national narrative and the image of Krishna stripped off its hybrid and subversive history. The image of Krishna and the invocation of Bhakti in Kathak dance in modern India, marginalizes its secular history. The dance has been repositioned as the dominant symbol of Hindu culture.
From patronage to sponsorship
The next section argues that within this ongoing hegemonic construction of Kathak, there are moments of rupture that manifest a contested and fragmented national terrain. The new forces of a free market and the electronic and print media have created new spaces for re-imagining the nation through classical Kathak. The paper will narrate one such moment to map the localizing processes of modernity in India. This period of transition and cultural contestation is aptly summarized by Bimal Mukherjee, one of the editors of "Rasa", a comprehensive book on the past twenty-five years of Indian performing arts. In his words: "the present is an age of sponsorship and not of patronage" (1997:2)
Classical Indian dance since its revival and institutionalization in the national academies, has primarily been supported by the government. Occasionally the private sector has worked with the national government to preserve national treasures like classical dance and music, somewhat in the form of a modern day museum. The primary agenda has been generally to uphold the traditions of the "gurukul" system. But the increasing involvement of the multinational corporations in claiming the cultural sphere for marketing consumer products, has ushered in a new phase in classical dance culture. This commodification of classical dance has been aided by the growth of the electronic media, like cable television, the print media, the mushrooming of concert halls, the grand festivals of music and dance, and the spread of classical Indian dance among the middle and lower middle classes, and the Indian diaspora. Kathak dance practitioners, young and old, established and struggling, are responding to this new situation in various ways. To entice an urban audience largely indifferent to the hackneyed traditional narratives of Classical Kathak, dance practitioners are experimenting with new themes to keep the dance alive in metropolitan cities. "Innovation" is the key term in popular dance parlance today, which reflects this ongoing transformation. The pioneer in breaking from the traditional narratives of Kathak is the Kathak exponent Kumudini Lakhia. Based at Ahmedabad, in Gujarat, her productions have received national and international recognition. Her works have ranged from narrating the story of a blind woman, interpretations of modern poetry, modern themes of alienation, among many others.
The idea of "innovation" in classical Indian dance, including Kathak, has found its way into television, print media, dance festivals and conferences. Many traditionalists reluctant to embrace this trend has adjusted to this new era in their own terms. I will look at a local dance production by a Calcutta based dance group, headed by a long time Kathak exponent Bandana Sen, to analyze the articulation of "innovation", within the parameters of regional cultural identity. The intention here is to show how local identities are forged due to the dynamics of the translocal.
The life of Subhas Chandra Bose, a controversial, romantic, militaristic, spiritual figure of Indian nationalist struggle is very dear to the Bengali heart. Historians Read and Fisher (1997:363) observes:
Bose, had been a failure as a conspirator, as a military leader, as a revolutionary. But whatever his shortcomings, he never lacked courage, and he still casts a long shadow over Indian politics, even today. He set out to create a myth, and he succeeded - so much so that some Indians, mostly Bengalis, do not believe he died at all. They say he is in Russia, or is living as a hermit in the Himalayas, and that one day, like King Arthur or the Emperor Barbarossa, he will awake from his long sleep and emerge to claim his kingdom.
Bose born of Bengali parents in Cuttock, Orissa, was one of the founder of the Congress Socialist party. He was elected to Bengal assembly while in prison in 1926 and served as the Chairman, Reception Committee of Youth Congress session in Calcutta in 1928, and was President of Indian National Congress in 1938, to name just a few of his accomplishments. Bose was also the founder of the Azad Hind Force which later became the Indian National Army. He traveled all over the world in search of support for Indiaís freedom and at one point collaborated with Hitler, Mussolini and general Tojo to oust the British from India. He titled his autobiography "An Indian pilgrim".
Bose looms large in the Bengali psyche through the statues of "Netaji" in Calcutta streets and the circulation of his figures through photographs and calendar art (See Pinney 1997). Thus it is not surprising when the veteran traditionalist Kathak dancer in Calcutta, Bandana Sen, selects the life of Bose, to mark Indiaís fiftieth year of independence and offers ( in her words) "something new to her audience".
The experimental piece, which used a medley of dance styles, including Kathak was titled "Mahajibaner Pathe", loosely translated as "The journey of a great life" It was presented in the style of a dance drama, with the main narrative in Bengali. The songs that were incorporated in it were popular Bengali songs of Indiaís freedom struggle. The character of Bose played by a male Kathak dancer of Senís group, did not engage in much dance movements, perhaps to maintain the venerable stature of Bose. The women dancers sometimes dressed as young male freedom fighters and sometimes as women soldiers of Indian National Army or INA, were seen in various sequences engaged in combat and revolutionary activities, using the vocabulary of Kathak. It is to be noted here that women rose to prominent positions in the INA force. In fact, one of INA's regiments called "Rani Jhansi" had captain Lakshmi as its head. The innovative use of marshal arts and Kathak to represent a bellicose Hitler was one of the highlights of the production. A far cry from the traditional mythological themes, this historical dance drama was geared towards the local Bengali audience. Incidentally it did not get very good reviews in the local English dailies nor was it historically accurate. But what makes it important is the local adaptation of a classical dance genre to showcase a regional, as well as national history. The dance piece represented Netaji as a national hero who disappears into world history, but within the context of a vernacular Bengali identity.
Conclusion The project of modernity in India is uneven and heterogeneous. The ongoing reconstruction of Kathak dance in India is simultaneously hegemonic and fragmentary. The paper has shown how the complex tradition of Kathak was assimilated in to the dominant national narrative of a Hindu India. The subtle Hindutvization of Kathak dance that continues in India, is a legacy of the past revivalist national ideology. Yet the competing forces of market and cultural identity create alternative spaces to articulate moments of rupture. The life of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the nationalist leader from Bengal, as the subject a classical Kathak evening, encapsulates such a moment. The use of vernacular Bengali, the renditions of popular revolutionary Bengali songs, not to mention a cast consisting of almost all Bengalis, produces a powerful localized identity. The articulation of locality, in the form of regional chauvinism, symbolized by the mythic figure of Netaji, is ultimately linked to the wider context of "innovation" and globalization. The juxtaposition of the mythic symbol of Krishna, and the mytho-historical figure of Netaji within the performative space of Kathak dance, nonetheless rearticulates the nation as central to the project of modernity in India.
References
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Read Anthony, Fisher David. 1998 The proudest Day. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.
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Pinney, Christopher 1997. The Nation (Un) Pictured? Chromolithography and "Popular" Politics in India, 1878-1995. Critical Enquiry 23 (Summer), P: 834-867.
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