33 Folk and Tribal Aesthetics

Dr. Mrinmoy Pramanick

epgp books

 

 

 

 

Introduction

 

The very modern understanding of literature confined it within the boundary of written culture. The British invasion to India and their civilizing mission tried to establish the notion of literary as it should be primarily written. If we see the history of medieval Indian literature, we can understand that several cultural forms were engaged with the literary productions. There was no as such strict definition of literature especially in the bhasha culture. Bhasha had observed the sources of the written texts were adapted from oral culture and other existing great literature written in Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit etc. the written manuscript used to be performed and used to survive in public life through oral or performative culture. Interestingly it had its own life in manuscript culture too.

 

This is because of very European notion that, in modern times, the literature had divided into two sub categories as written and oral or folk. And because of that, written literature is only considered as literature and this literary productions are historicized. Gradually folk became marginal and other category of human excellence, sometimes it is considered as the creation of low intellect. A marginal art practice.

 

Tribal cultural practices always had been observed as ‘other’ by the dominating Aryan culture. But in Indian history, tribal and other non-tribal; communities were not alienated from each other. They had their cultural communication. Modern India carries the ancestry of both the non-tribal and tribal. The so called non-tribal in modern India carries genes of the tribal and non-tribal too. And naturally we can observe different Indian languages, art, and other creative expressions find their root in both the non-tribal and tribal roots.

 

But this is a part of the reality. There is huge population in India comprising large verities of the races, popularly known as tribal or adivasi. Verities of tribal art and culture is to be understood from the point of view of aesthetic concept to understand the greater literary and cultural epistemology of India. This module is intended to do so.

 

Folk Culture of India

 

Folk culture as described by the Ministry of Culture1, India “has wide range of understanding and connotations – ranging from ‘natural’ to ‘native’ to ‘traditional’ to ‘rural’ and in some cases ‘from the heart.’ The ‘outpourings from the heart’ of native or traditional people later takes the form of folklore.

 

All folklores are oral traditions, the lore, traditional knowledge and beliefs of cultures often having no written language and they are transmitted, generally, by word of mouth. Like the written literature they contain both prose and verse narratives in addition to myths, dramas, rituals etc. All the cultures have their own folklores. In contrast and traditionally, literature is understood to mean any written work.”

 

Literature in written form aspires to preserve the invaluable folklores and the cultural values associated with it. Indian literature has been richly endowed with Indian folk literature. Not merely folktales but all forms of oral traditions – proverbs, myths, aphorisms, anecdotes, rumours, songs, impromptu folk street plays – reflect the culture and values of the our land in which they take place.

 

Tribal literature

 

The last decade of the twentieth century witnessed a surge in the tribal literature. This was aided by the various socio political movements which helped the tribals and tribal right activists to carve their identity from mainstream literature. Tribal literary culture has chiefly remained oral in nature. Even though the tribals or the adivasis (original inhabitants of the land) were pushed to the jungle, this did not stop them from concocting mesmerizing creative literary exploits. However, as this literature was in unsophisticated folk languages and because the Tribals were far from the centres of power, their literature, like they themselves, was largely ignored. Even today, Tribal literature is being produced in hundreds of indigenous languages but we know little about it. One of the reason for receiving widespread attention in the late twentieth century was due to the various dalit movements happening all over India.

 

What is Folk and Tribal Art

 

Folk and tribal art covers the art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring tradespeople.

 

Long before there was the modern and contemporary, there was the indigenous—and what an interesting range and genealogy it enjoyed.

 

Let us have a look at some famous tribal and folk traditions which have survived over the ages.

 

Kalamkari

 

Kalamkari painting are normally done on clothes and give us a glimpse of historical and religious narrative. The original art owes its origin to Srikalahasti style of drawing freehand using a pen (‘kalam’) to create images of gods,humans and nature on fabrics.

 

Patachitra

 

Patachitra is a kind of a scroll painting which first began in the region around Puri in Odisha. The art form contains the narratives from anecdotes in their lives as well as the 10 incarnations of Vishnu are illustrated in a lively manner, using strong outlines in soot. The artists draw directly on these scrolls and fill in the colours, using trees and borders to render them more attractive, while the subject is usually heroic and robust.3

 

Madhubani

 

As we know that the district of Madhubani in Bihar is most famous for its madhubani paintings. The unique thing about madhubani painting was that it was initially practised only by the women artists. They used to decorate the nuptial beds with madhubani paintings.

Gond

 

The tribal Gond community spreads across Madhya Pradesh and parts of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. They are known to preserve their genealogies and bardic traditions. According to their belief, a good image bring good luck, and so they fill their paintings with forest scenes and gods and nature.

 

Tanjore

 

Tanjore — now Thanjavur — paintings originated in the 17th century Maratha court and are an amalgamation of Deccani, Maratha and British colony styles, though their essence is uniquely South Indian. These beautiful paintings of historical subjects were intended as embellishments in the palaces of court officials. There were also religious images which served the purpose of devotion among the common mass.

 

Art of Story Telling

 

Storytelling has remained an ancient practice in India. As Eric Miller puts:

 

“Many people in India seem to give little importance to the distinction between folk stories (stories created by communities and passed down from generation to generation); and stories created by individual authors, and education and entertainment companies.”

 

Many traditional stories (such as epics, folktales, legends, and myths) in India have grown from their links to their respective religions. The context of such stories were heavily influenced by the religion of the same. The main purpose of such stories was to teach the myths and grow thw supporters of the same.

 

Folk and Tribal Aesthetics

 

Can we employ our mainstream literary criticism theories to analyse and critique on Folk and tribal literature?

 

Well, the answer is NO.

 

Tribal literature was born out of a separate need to establish itself as an independent literature. It has had its own requirements and purpose. These requirements and purposes cannot be solved by the literary theories which cater to the needs of mainstream literature.

 

Writers of tribal literature seek identity for themselves and their tribe. They also expose the past and current forms of exploitation and oppression which they have to suffer at the hands of the powerful people. One of the key reason to write tribal literature is to minimise the dangers and threats which the tribal languages have to face at regular intervals at the hands of mainstream literature. The writers of tribal literature voice their right to protect their water resources, forests and land and their right to self-determination.

 

Tribal literary discourse has not reached its pinnacle yet. There is a lot to uncover in many aspects. Not all the languages (and dialects) have received satisfactory from its audience. The rights of tribals is related to the history, culture, language and society of the same. Some magazines played humungous role in making common people aware of tribal issues and the suppression they have endured for years.

 

Some of those magazines are:

  1. Yuddhrat Aam Admi (editor: Ramnika Gupta),
  2. Aravali Udgosh (editor: B.P. Verma ‘Pathik’),
  3. Jharkhandi Bhasha Sahitya, Sanskriti Akhda (editor: Vandana Tete)
  4. Adivasi Satta (editor: K.R. Shah).

Many mainstream magazines have also brought out special tribal issues and their problems, thus contributing to the development of tribal literary and nonliterary discourse. These include Samkaleen Janmat (2003), Kathakram (2012) and Ispatika (2012).

 

Initially, Hindi magazines showed least interest in sharing the tribal issues. But with growing awareness, hindi magazines have opened its doors for tribal topics. Tribal writers have begun to get adequate space in small magazines.

 

Tribal writings are diverse in nature. The writers of tribal literature inherit the rich oral tradition which is passed down from generations after another. As we know that dalit literature and women literature are primarily autobiographical in nature. This is so because these writers pen down their experiences of sufferings which cater to their problem. But tribal literature has produced very few works which are autobiographical in nature. The works of tribal writers revolve around the tribal life and society which is conveyed to their readers through poems, stories and novels and songs. The Tribal writers have made poetry the main weapon in their struggle for Tribal identity and existence.

 

One assumption about the less number of autobiographical works is that tribal people and tribal writers believe in a community as a whole and do not believe in individuality. They prefer to catre to the need of their tribe first and then towards self. Their tradition, culture, history, exploitation and its resistance – all are collective in nature and not individual based. I think this is the reason that poems are a better way to express those collective feelings and not autobiographies.

 

During the British reign in India, some of the problems which the tribals faced were:

  1. ban on collecting the forest products for domestic use
  2. imposing of land revenues of various kinds
  3. exploitations by mahajans (moneylenders)
  4. torture and atrocities by the police

Even after the independence, the tribals were not relieved of these problems. The government of India could not cater to the basic needs of the tribals. They were deprived of their own properties. Known as adivasis(original inhabitants of India), they were not able to use clean water for drinking, wood for cooking food. They were displaced from their own lands. This mostly led a vital danger to the identity of culture, language and community and also to their existence. If they would have assimilated with the non tribals they would have lost their identity. And if they would have tried to retain their identity, they would have lost their claims over the properties which belonged to them. This is the reason that tribal discourse, tribal literary practice is the discourse and practice of existence and identity.

 

We know that tribal literature draws its energy and inspirations from the tradition of tribal uprisings and revolts, this is the reason that the language and geography of those uprisings also assume forefront in the tribal literature. The tribal writers have a tendency to fondly write about the language and the geographical details of their residence. The original writings of the Tribal authors are in their mother language.

 

The Tribal literature in Hindi is greatly influenced by the rich literary tradition of indigenous languages. A part of this literature has been translated into other Indian languages including English. The literature which is written in different tribal languages is being translated into major languages like Hindi, Bangla and Tamil, thus acquiring a national form and receiving nationwide attention. Tribal literature proudly moves forward with the inspiration from tribal revolutionaries like Birsa, Sidho-Kano and other revolutionary Tribal leaders and their movement

 

Difficulties in Folk and Tribal Aesthetic

 

Folk and tribal lives have been changed so quickly and the changes are so visible in different parts of the world. One major difference between general aesthetic theory of literature and tribal and folk aesthetic is where as in general or common understanding of Literary aesthetic we use it as tool to understand the literature better, find the meaning of the text and we find the representation of life in it. But the tribal and folk aesthetic is more real in a sense, it does not come from the cultural practice which is representation of life but the life itself. Tribal and folk cultural products are so integral and unavoidable with the life of the communities from where the aesthetic thought is emerged.

 

The literary practice needs a unique, uncommon, creative talent and therefore comes the question of aesthetic in reading a particular text written by a poet or writer of high merit. One has to be trained in the culture of writing. Writing is not something which is automatically given with the birth but in other side the folk and tribal art forms and practices are so integral with the life of the people of the community that they do not have formal, institutional education to practice it or one do not have to learn it from the society. Tribal and folk arts are actually inherited by the people of different such communities. So tribal and folk arts and cultural products are the stories of life, annals of history, symbol of identity to the people of different communities. They have no need to earn it but they are always with it.

 

The growing challenges faced by different folk and tribal cultures are destroying the originality and indigeneity of the culture products and practices of the communities.

 

Moreover there are problems regarding the adaptation of folk and tribal art forms in mainstream market and the representation of those. Quite often this representation tries to homogenize the tribal and folk contents. Such representations also promotes a particular folk and cultural elements as the cultural products of large heterogeneous culture of the folk and the tribal communities of a territory. As for example, wherever ‘tribal’ association is needed it is Warli paintings which have been represented as the tribal art form of India. Mainstream culture is so ignorant about the tribal and folk culture that it has tendency to represent tribal and folk cultural elements as monolithic and it did by ignoring the plurality of cultural forms and voices of the tribal and folks.

 

Conclusion

 

Modern tribal literature as we know has been marginalised by the mainstream literature both in regional and English literature. It is only in the recent times that literary theorists have turned their partial attention towards tribal literature. There are two aspects of tribal literature which separates it from other types of literature. One is that it is devoid of any colonial influence which in contrast has heavily dominated the mainstream literature. The second reason is that tribal literature is purely based on the oral tradition of the tribal cultures and communities.

 

Reference

  1. Brenda Beck,  The  Three  Twins:  The  Telling  of  a  South  Indian  Folk  Epic, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982. And: Brenda Beck, Translator, Elder Brothers Story: An Oral Epic of Tamil Nadu, Madras, India: Institute of Asian Studies, 1992.
  2. Ciocca, Rossella, and Neelam Srivastava, editors. Indian Literature and the World: Multilingualism, Translation, and the Public Sphere. Springer, 2017.
  3. Devy, G. N. Painted Words: An Anthology of Tribal Literature. N.p.: Penguin, 2002. Print.
  4. Gupta, Ramanika. Tribal Contemporary Issues: Appraisal and Intervention. N.p.: Concept, 2007. Print.
  5. Indian Literature: An Introduction. N.p.: Pearson Education India, 2005. Print.
  6. Luisa Maffi,  “Linguistic,  Cultural,  and  Biological  Diversity,”  Annual  Review  of Anthropology, 29:599-617, 2005. www.terralingua.org
  7. Prasad, Amar Nath, and M. B. Gajjan, eds. Dalit Literature: A Critical Exploration. N.p.: Sarup & Sons, 2007. Print.
  8. Yadappanavar, A. V. Tribal Education in India. N.p.: Discovery House, 2003. Print.
  9. Vasantha Surya, “A Whale of a Tale,” The Hindu, Metroplus section, page 4, March 2009, http://tinyurl.com/3zntpm5 .
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