Question

Why are folk arts diminishing?? What is the reason behind this sudden decline?

Answer 1

Sensuous and stirring, 

Indian folk music

 is intimately tied to seasons, the rainy months of saawan traditionally associated with glorious kajris. Currently, however, rural India isn`t ringing with these. Singer Malini Awasthi spoke with Malini Nair about the worrying decline of folk music`s popularity — and the 

Son Chiraiyya project

 targeting this trend:


What’s driving Son Chiraiyya, the `golden bird` project?


Urbanisation and migration have left the entire context of folk music lifeless. Every single folk song was once rooted to an occasion, an occupation. There`s one song for rain, another for drought, one for weddings, another for childbirth. Look at how closely these songs followed the farmer`s life — one celebrated harvest, another marked the planting of saplings, even a song women sang while weeding grass. There were songs of potters or kumhars, oil-pressers or telis.

Now that folk music has been reduced to just a stage art, it`s important our children understand its relevance — or what little of this heritage we have will slip out of our hands.


How will you introduce young people to folk music`s heritage?

Girija Devi and i plan to take this music to the schools and colleges of Uttar Pradesh. We will take a troupe of musicians with us across the state, singing and demonstrating. We`ll have two of the biggest names in folk music ethnology, Vidya Bindu Singh and Jagdish Piyush, talking to young people. This will also bring back to the limelight Hindi dialects like Awadhi, Bundelkhandi and Bhojpuri, all of which have gone from our homes. Children simply don`t connect with these things any more.


But why is folk music not visible enough now?


We have to bring it onto the big stage. We have no dearth of good folk talent but it simply doesn`t find visibility. Even at large cultural events, the folk artiste will be called in for a token show, then bundled off with the smallest fee, the worst accommodation and little respect.


There was a time when radio, Doordarshan and even the commercial stage promoted folk music. There is simply no backing any more. Of course, the government is doing its bit to document these songs but the work sits in some library and does not connect with people. How can folk art survive without the people`s connecting? It has to be sung, performed, enacted.

What role will a famous classical singer like Girija Devi play in this?


She has an incredible wealth of songs for every occasion which she`s imbibed from the soil of Benares and eastern UP. She stands tall in the world of music. Simply having her on any platform lends it gravitas. She will be a part of every big Son Chiraiyya event.


So, will you focus on urban pockets in your campaign?

Quite the contrary — it`s the villages where folk music is disappearing faster. Sadly, it`s now considered inferior and backward to dabble in folk music in many rural areas. They don`t want to be associated with something urban India is not interested in. For instance, in the village of Nizamabad in Azamgarh which makes great black pottery, the potters` songs have nearly disappeared.


Interestingly though, folk musicians find distant audiences cherishing such music?


Certainly, especially in nations where there are large sections of NRIs from the north. Some of our top-ranking folk singers are so busy. Their diaries are full because the older generation of migrants doesn`t want filmi stuff — they want the real music they remember from their youth.