FOLK THEATRE AS CULTURAL PERFORMANCE: A CON/TEXTUAL STUDY OF THE NAUTANKI OF UTTAR PRADESH

Abstract

Nautanki is a unique cultural form of the Indian subcontinent combining the features of both the theatre and folklore. As part of narrative tradition of the north Indian folklore, its corpus of narratives, thematic concerns around which plots of the Nautankis are woven, the representation of socio-cultural background in its narratives, and ideological motivations behind the actions of the characters portrayed in its stories receive their sustenance from the rich folklore of north India in all its variety preserved in myths, legends, ballads, folk tales, proverbial wisdom, folk beliefs, rituals, and seasonal festivals. As a tradition of folk performance, it shares several of its features with theatrical conventions too. These features, for instance, variations of performance styles specific to a region such as Hathras and Kanpur styles of Nautanki, folk performative tools such as utilization of local/regional stock of folk songs/tunes, audience specific performance which means inclusion of particular episode or incidence that occurred in a specific region, community specific commitments such as supporting a particular candidate as the representative at village Panchayat or District level, and involvement of audience or spectators as performers to play some improvised role or some extempore performance by a person belonging to the general public of the area of performance, and following certain formalities such as the use of Ranga or Sutradhar for various purposes during the performance, adhering to some of the features of the classical/Sanskrit theatre such Mangalacharan/Prologue make it suitable for the categorization of a form of theatre. Although acting is not as prominent a feature as singing in a Nautanki performance, that does not help it to be considered as part of India’s theatrical tradition. Therefore, the present study situates Nautanki at the juncture of theatre and folklore, and thus I study the tradition of Nautanki not only as a tradition of performance but also as a rich form of north Indian folklore. The present study is motivated by the three principal objectives that work as the guiding principles of my study of Nautanki tradition. I have listed these objectives as follows: Objective 1. To examine how Nautanki narratives address various socio-cultural issues of the community of its performance by creating an interactive cultural system. Objective 2. To analyze the Nautanki narratives to show how Nautanki as a form of community/folk performance tradition addresses the power hierarchies? Objective 3. To study how folk performance traditions such as Nautanki reproduce, legitimate, uphold, or challenge, critique and subvert the dominant ideology by engaging with or re/interpreting master narratives? Through a critical reading of the select Saangit narratives performed in the Nautanki tradition of Uttar Pradesh, the thesis shows how the Nautanki tradition, declared by culture critics to be a dead art or having low cultural or social relevance in today’s era, through its narratives comment upon, challenge, and critique various socio-cultural aspects of the north Indian folklore such as caste, gender, and social evils. Applying a set of theoretical concepts from the fields of Cultural Anthropology, Subaltern Studies, and Gender Studies, the work explores the themes of Resistance, Subaltern Agency, and carnivalesque in the narrative corpus of the Nautanki theatre. With the exploration of the above issues in the Nautanki tradition of Uttar Pradesh, I have tried to answer some of the questions that have remained either critically less explored or have not even been addressed at all. Some of these questions I have listed here as follows:  What are the ways through which the issues of day to day life of the community addressed in the Nautanki narratives?  What kind of relationship does Nautanki as marginalized folk genre share with main stream theatrical traditions?  How does Nauatnki as a Cultural Performance relate to the cultural environment in which it is performed?  What is the impact of technology and modern forms of entertainment on a folk tradition like Nautanki?  What kind of role do such Cultural performances as Nauatnki play in changing or shaping the world-view of its performers as well as the audience?  What can, we as researchers in the Humanities, learn and understand about the various layers of an extremely complex culture like India through the study of these folk traditions? The study is divided in five main chapters namely Prologue or Mangalacharan: Nautanki as Cultural Performance, Situating Nautanki in the History of Indian Folklore and Theatre, Forms of Femininity: Women’s Representation in select Nautanki Narratives, Folklore as Counter cultural Discourse: Exploring Themes of Resistance in Select Nautankis, Nautanki Today: Surviving to Struggle, Struggling to Survive, and Epilogue: Upsanhaar. Prologue or Mangalacharan: Nautanki as Cultural Performance begins with short discussion on the rationale behind the study. It answers the question what inspired me to work on the Nautanki tradition. Later on the chapter proceeds with a critical introduction of the tradition of Nautanki as it was performed and as it is now performed. The chapter also critically engages itself with the historiographical and pedagogical biases of the Indian academia especially in the discipline of Humanities which has been quite apathetic to incorporate the study of folklore as an area of critical inquiry. The history of Nautanki theatre is also made to juxtapose the study of a folk theatre between the two disciplines namely North Indian Folklore and North Indian folk theatre. The introduction incorporates a detailed review of relevant literature from both the fields contextualizing it with major concerns in the field of folklore and theatre studies. The chapter ends with a brief discussion of the major theoretical models or tools such the theory of Cultural Performance, Subaltern Agency, Bakhtin’s theory of Folk performance as carnival etc. Chapter 2: Situating Nautanki in the History of Indian Folklore and Theatre situates the tradition of Nautanki into the disciplinary domains of Folklore and Theatre Studies by making a critical study of the history of folklore studies and the history of theatre. Looking at the historical trajectory of both theatre and folklore in India enriches our understanding of how Nautanki shares features of both the domains of cultural history. The chapter concludes with a critical discussion on the distinguishing features of Nautanki as part of folklore and as a form of Indian theatre. Chapter 3: Forms of Femininity: Women’s Representation in select Nautankis engages with textual corpus of the Nautanki tradition. I have chosen popular Nautanki narratives such as Bhakta Puranmal, Lajjawati, Bhakta Hardaul, Nautanki Shahzadi, and Mission Suhani to discuss the theme of women’s representation in the Nautanki tradition. The chapter situates the women’s representation in the Nautanki tradition vis-à-vis the socio-cultural background of the north Indian patterns of man-woman relationship. The chapter shows with evidences extracted from religiophilosophical resources how there is a continuation and break reflected in Nautanki’s representation of women. The continuation can be located in the uppermost layer of the Nautanki narratives where there is visible impact of patriarchal patterns of kinship and gender relations. While the break is most often reflected in the improvisations of the characters or roles, the non narrative portions of Nautanki texts such as the folk songs and tales incorporated during the performance. Thus the world of Nautanki, as the chapter shows, is a contested terrain where contrasting images of women are available portraying them simultaneously in strong female roles as well as suppressed and exploited females. Chapter 4: Folklore as Counter-cultural Discourse: Exploring Themes of Resistance in Select Nautankis looks at some of most popular Nautanki narratives such as Sultana Daku, Phulan Devi and reads these characters from the lens of Subaltern agency. Both the Nautankis show the revolting spirit of the subalterns, the underprivileged of the society. Their characters visualize a world where the ideals of equality and dignity of life enshrined in the Indian constitution are very hard to achieve by the less privileged section of the society and for realizing these ideals a tough ideological battle needs to be fought. Later on the chapter also looks at idea of folk nationalism in the narrative corpus of Nautanki tradition. This section shows how, during India’s freedom struggle, the common mass was protesting against the exploitative British Raj. This section thus shows the active involvement of a folk tradition in the history of our national struggle. Chapter 5: Nautanki Today: Surviving to Struggle, Struggling to Survive is chapter which focuses on the contemporary world of Nautanki and looks at various problems that folk traditions in general and Nautanki in particular is facing in today’s technologically mediated world of mass entertainment and communication. The chapter also engages critically with the possibilities inherent a folk tradition like Nautanki as means of mass communication. The chapter is written mainly with the aim to debunk the idea of the demise of folk traditions in a world dominated by technologically advanced means of mass entertainment and mass media. Chapter 6: Epilogue/Upsanhaar sums up the discussion listing out the insights that I have gained about the role and significance of a folk tradition such as Nautanki during the course of this study. One of them being the potential of a folk performance tradition as a media of mass communication. The other major outcome of the study being the enriched understanding about the potential of folk tradition as tools of social protest by the marginalized section against the oppressive structures of the society. The chapter, thus, gives a brief account of the critical discussion around the concerns and themes that have gone into the making of my argument in support of my objectives listed out in the first chapter.