Cultural Expressions of Indigenous People of Rural India

Adivasi Theater and Storytelling

Storytelling and sharing narratives are rich and living aspects of adivasi traditions, particularly for orally transmitting community values and ideologies, building society, educating and creating awareness, and for organizing and mobilizing community members to fulfill their goals and aspirations. Apart from interpersonal storytelling (e.g., fables and lullabies), contemporary adivasis are exploring various performative avenues for communicating their narratives, collective memories, and lived realities. Consequently, more performing/theatrical groups are emerging who not only share their message within their community, but also take responsibility and proactively reach out to wider, global audiences.

Watch:
Forlorn Tudung: Experimentation with storytelling practices

Budhan Promo—An adivasi theater group that regularly performs in indigenous and non-indigenous spaces

#KaahonFolk- Adivasi Adibimb Festival '16— An initiative of the National School of Drama, India to showcase indigenous theatrical performances

Additional Readings:

Author Biography

Uttaran Dutta studies creative ways to address development, health, and social disparity issues. His research focuses on sustainable development and social change in marginalized communities, analyzing the importance of culture, communication, design, and innovation in transforming the lives of people who are socially, politically, and economically poor. In all his work, local participants are the key forces in identifying and developing cost-effective solutions using local resources.

In one project, Dr. Dutta is developing a computer application for illiterate people in rural India to access useful information regarding local weather, employment, education, and other basic services such as healthcare. In another project, he collaborated with local people to construct a mini hospital, library-cum-museum, and a protection wall to save sacred environmental resources in remote indigenous villages in eastern India.

Additionally, he researches the folk culture and indigenous knowledge of the underserved to document and understand alternate ways of viewing the world.

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