Special articles Conceptualising Popular Culture ‘’ and ‘Powada’ in

The sphere of cultural studies, as it has developed in , has viewed the ‘popular’ in terms of mass-mediated forms – cinema and art. Its relative silence on caste-based cultural forms or forms that contested caste is surprising, since several of these forms had contested the claims of national culture and national identity. While these caste-based cultural practices with their roots in the social and material conditions of the dalits and bahujans have long been marginalised by bourgeois forms of art and entertainment, the category of the popular lives on and continues to relate to everyday lives, struggles and labour of different classes, castes and gender. This paper looks at caste-based forms of cultural labour such as the lavani and the powada as grounds on which cultural and political struggles are worked out and argue that struggles over cultural meanings are inseparable from struggles of survival.

SHARMILA REGE

he present paper emerged as a part tested and if viewed as a struggle to under- crete issues of the 1970s; mainly the re- of two ongoing concerns; one of stand and intervene in the structures and sistance of British working class men and Tdocumenting the regional, caste- processes of active domination and sub- youth, later broadening to include women based forms of popular culture and the ordination, it has a potent potential for and ethnic minorities. By the 1980s cul- other of designing a politically engaged transformative pedagogies in regional tural studies had been exported to the US, course in cultural studies for postgraduate universities. This is of course a long-term Canada and Australia [Blundell et al 1993]. students. Most of the available frames for project; the present paper is only an attempt The consequent Americanisation of cul- doing cultural studies drew heavily upon to work out through a region-based case, tural studies was marked by a decreasing the American tradition. The focus in such one theme, namely that of popular culture. concern with issues of the political economy courses was invariably on popular culture, of production, dissemination and consump- understood largely as mass mediated cul- Making Culture Popular tion and an unprecedented concern with the ture and on the negotiations involved in fragmentation of cultures and identities. the new forms of cultural consumption. In the 1970s, the issues of class and The last decade and a half also saw The popular, caste-based forms that were culture as they had emerged in the post- unprecedented academic interest in the being documented, seemed to have no war period of Americanisation had come study of popular culture. This interest is place in this kind of cultural studies. Labour to be studied [Williams 1961; Thompson in part a result of the new insights into the concerns in the cultural were so completely 1968; Hoggart 1969] but were yet to be social construction of the world of art and absent that a culturalist turn appears as if collectively christened as cultural studies. the equivalence of texts and theoretical inevitable and natural. Such a turn in the The name was later derived from the Centre positions that privileged the audience over academia is more than dangerous, espe- of Contemporary Cultural Studies at the the creator. The study of popular culture cially in the context of globalisation and University of Birmingham. As Stuart Hall became central to the emergent discipline Hindutva politics, wherein globalisation (1991) has argued the Centre never rep- of cultural studies in the American Acad- comes to be viewed in extra-economic resented a single school of thought but was emy. As Cultural Studies became a viable terms of either cultural invasion or cultural a space for ways of thinking out cultural discipline, the notion of the ‘popular’ hybridisation. The regional and caste-based issues as they emerged in society. In this became distanced from Williams’ concep- forms of the popular are not only com- sense there was no abstract subject matter tion of the ‘popular’ in a capitalist society pletely blanked out in such a culturalist that defined the Centre but what distin- as “never existing outside the relations of frame but also all forms of transformative guished it theoretically was its conceptual domination and imperatives of commodi- politics are reduced to ‘cultures of resis- problematic of culture as being neither fication and yet in these relations the masses tance’. Yet a reading of the formation of distinct from nor reducible to social pro- are never only passive” [Mulhern 1995]. cultural studies revealed that its bound- cesses. Most of the projects emerged from In highlighting the important notions aries and frames have always been con- a critical political involvement with con- of participation and subversion, such a

1038 Economic and Political Weekly March 16, 2002 conception of the ‘popular’ had made an of European society and ideological de- condemned as one more variety of Euro- important break from the earlier tradition bates centred round the possibly corrupt- centrism. Radical, left-wing social history, of ‘Kulturkritik’ which had sought to ing influence of the popular forms of in other words, has been collapsed into defend culture from the ills of modernity, entertainment. The term ‘mass culture’ cultural studies and critiques of colonial industrialisation and commercialisation. By came up in the 1950s to describe the culture discourse…” (p 84). There is an exclusion the 1980s subversion had been replaced associated with the ‘lonely crowd’ and of class and the materialist critique of by ‘subversive pleasure’ in the study of eventually as the importance of the mass capitalism from the agenda of such a popular culture, so much so that studies media increased not only as a major form scholarship and the implications are seemed to suggest that the ‘popular’ as a of entertainment but also as ‘ Ideological critical for the academy and politics. site of contestation was as if outside the State Apparatus’ [Blundell et al 1993], the Postfoundationalist studies which put capitalist logic. Culture as a contested term became synonymous with culture forth timeless or undifferentiated con- terrain came to mean a complete equation transmitted by the mass media. The study ceptions of the ‘Indian’ as against a of the cultural to the political, so that if of the ‘popular’ came to be predominated homogenised ‘western’ do often give a an earlier economic reductionism had seen by descriptions of the folkways thereby student a false sense of radicalism, of taking culture only as a political instrument, a overlooking the tensions between the an oppositional stance. The impact that newly emergent cultural reductionism cultures of the popular and the elite; the these perspectives have on those of us dissolved the possibility of politics. As exchanges, albeit unequal, that redefines pursuing feminist and dalit studies is Mulhern (1995) has commented such a the content of the categories even as the particularly dangerous. The gains of the position of cultural reductionism para- categories themselves are kept [Bourdieu women’s rights movements and the anti- doxically arrives at the same position as 1984]. The institutional reproduction of caste movements which had appropriated ‘Kulturkritik’. Both the positions arriving the ‘distinctions’ between the elite and the aspects of the colonial administration as via different routes tend to underline a popular has rarely been the concern of resources [Sarkar 1997] would be com- complete submission to consumer capital- either those studying the folkways or those pletely lost in the binaries of the western ism. The political outside of cultural prac- celebrating the ‘popular’ in the 1980s. and the indigenous. Dirlik (1997) has tice and political society beyond the par- Interestingly, at a time when ‘consumer argued that there is a parallel between the ticularities of cultural differences came to capitalism’ is being forged and is re- ascendancy in cultural criticism of the idea be overlooked. Hence as the study of the negotiating the notion of the ‘nation’, the of postcoloniality and an emergent con- ‘popular’ became a viable discipline it lost popular has again been discovered, albeit sciousness of global capitalism in the its significance as a left political enterprise in its new avatar. The term ‘popular’ is in 1980s. Postcolonialists repudiate structures [Mcchesney 1996]. The study of the ‘popu- the present context of cultural studies, and totality in the name of history but lar’ became what Mcguigan (1991) calls so completely synonymous with the end up as Dirlik argues “a self-referential ‘cultural populism’; the experiences of ‘mass mediated’ that even the cultures of universalising historicism…(projecting) common people came to be viewed as resistance of the marginalised come to be globally what are but local experiences” analytically and politically more important most often conceived only in their mass (p 339). Aizaz Ahmad (1997) underlines than culture with a capital ‘C’. But in mediated forms. the persistence of three themes in the wide arguing thus, the earlier distinction be- spectrum of postcolonial criticism: the tween ‘mass’ and ‘popular’ culture was Of Colonial Discourse and notions of hybridity, ambivalence and eliminated and what followed was an Modernity: Cultural Studies contingency; an assumption of the col- uncritical endorsement of popular plea- in India lapse of the nation-state as a horizon of sure. It is important to note that such logic politics and a persistent underlining of the was well suited to the populist concept of A boom in cultural studies in the globalised electronic culture, seen some- ‘consumer sovereignty’ of the New Right. American academy is matched by a boom times as a form of global entrapment and The postmodern turn in the study of the in studies of third world histories and other times as yielding the pleasures of popular and in cultural studies had arrived cultures, drawing upon the theoretical global hybridity. A postcolonial cultural as the critical tension between ‘popular’ perspectives provided by poststructuralism criticism wavers between ‘cultural differ- and ‘mass’ culture which was lost in a and postmodernism. This saw a rise of the ences’ and logic of identity politics and celebration of popular cultural consump- later subaltern and postcolonial projects. ‘cultural hybridity’ and logic of contin- tion and the spheres of production and Most of these postorientalism studies soon gency replacing all historicity. Thus, the consumption came to be conceived as if became a distinctive amalgam of culturalist rise of the subaltern subject and the autonomous from each other. The term critiques [O’Hanlon and Washbrook 1992]. postcolonial critic has meant that vary- cultural studies became a cultural com- Culture, power and history came to be ingly the ‘indigenous’ and ‘hybrid’ be- modity, free to circulate in the global conceived as ‘Derridean supplements’ come as if autonomous spaces that can be economy of discourse [Allor 1987]. [Dirks and Ortner 1994]. Sarkar (1997) adopted and discarded at will. More sig- It may be worthwhile to recall the on- has succinctly argued how the adoption of nificantly, these thoroughgoing critiques tology of the terms ‘popular culture’ and the postmodernist perspectives has meant of Eurocentrism sideline the critique of ‘ mass culture’. ‘Popular culture’ had been a ‘decline of the subaltern’ in the later capitalism, as if the two can be separated. discovered in Germany around the same Subaltern Studies. Domination comes to It would serve well to recall Dirlik’s (1997) time as industrial capitalism was being be conceptualised in cultural discursive comment that without capitalism Euro- forged and related to the ideas of nation- terms, as Sarkar (1997) remarks “Enlight- centrism is like any other ethnocentrism. hood. The term was used to designate the enment rationalism thus becomes the In the 1980s feminist theorisation in the uneducated and undifferentiated sections central polemical target and Marxism stands academies of the first world too, took a

Economic and Political Weekly March 16, 2002 1039 cultural turn. Many of the debates on the Colonial discourse analysis is so central The present paper seeks to conceptualise category ‘woman’ ended in a nominalist that it is possible to delineate the major the popular as those forms and practices, position or alternatively in the revaluing trends in doing cultural studies in India in which have roots in the social and material of femininities. There were even appeals terms of their varying analyses of moder- conditions of the dalits and bahujans. A to collapse feminist studies into cultural nity. At least three such trends can be documentation, both historical and con- studies. Mcrobbie (1996) for instance outlined; the rejection of modernity [Nandy temporary of such regional and caste-based argued “The failure to face up to the limits 1983; Chatterjee 1994 for example), the cultural practices suggests that there has of reason, truth and knowledge is predi- interrogation of modernity [Niranjana et been a marginalisation of these practices cated on a fear to let go” (p 9) and she al 1993] and the consumption of moder- by bourgeois forms of art and entertain- then advises us to do precisely that – to nity [Appadurai 1997; Breckenbridge 1996 ment [Srinivasan 1985; Banerjee 1989; let go and to study “How social relations for example]. ‘The rejection of modernity’ Rege 1995]. Yet following Hall (1981) it are conducted within the field of culture school underlines the alien and dangerous may be argued, popular practices are neither and how culture in turn symbolises the nature of western modernity and the popu- just traditions of resistance nor just forms experience of change…(to listen to)…the lar is thus seen in terms of the precolonial, on which the bourgeois forms are super- sounds in the kitchen, the noises in the multiple, internal and authentic tradition imposed. They are at once emancipatory home and the styles and signs on the streets.” and community. The pre-modern thus and imprisoning, containing and resisting Despite this depressingly apolitical din of becomes the only possible means of resis- and relatively more or less affected and noises and flurry of the subversive pleasures tance [Joseph 1998] and the popular as- unaffected (in different spheres) by capi- of consumption and constitution of oppo- sumed to be a homogeneous mass be- tal. The popular is appropriated by moder- sitional identities, there were some impor- comes always and already resisting. ‘The nity and appropriates modernity, albeit tant insights developed by feminists. Some interrogation of modernity’ school theorises unevenly, such that different forms come feminist research in cultural studies sought culture as an integral part of a network of to be produced as popular for different to develop a historical understanding of social and political relations and thus makes sections of people at different points of cultural forms and experiences, labour, the a significant contribution to the theorisation time. The category of popular persists but home and the nation. Black and third world of the popular. Modernity is historically the ways in which it relates to everyday feminists explored the gendered dimen- located and interrogated for signs of power lives, struggles and labour of different sions of the cultural and political repre- founded by new technologies and forms castes, classes and gender, alters the con- sentations of the colonies and race. Some of communication, as they define the terms tent of the category. This paper views the of this work has contested the celebration of identity [Vasudevan 1996]. This school caste-based forms of cultural labour, such of difference by drawing sharply the his- states intent as that of going beyond “the as the ‘lavani’ and the ‘powada’ as grounds torical connections between race, class, dominant social science frame in India on which cultural and political struggles gender and imperialism. In India too, the which saw caste and community as em- are worked out and argues that struggles period saw some path-breaking feminist barrassing obstacles for the new nation to over cultural meanings are inseparable from theorisation [Vaid and Sangari 1988; Tharu overcome…and in which culture was struggles for survival. It seeks to map out and Lalitha 1991; Chakravarti 1998] which viewed as national culture and national the ways in which the lavani and powada sharpened feminist renderings of the re- identity” (Brochure of CSCS 1998). Yet produced by women and men of the lower constitution and reformulation of patriar- much of the work of the centre has viewed castes come to be produced as the popular chies, thereby promoting a rich flood of the popular in terms of the mass-mediated for the people. The ‘moments of discovery literature on gender in colonial India. Yet, forms, no doubt contributing to the and rediscovery’ of the popular forms are as Sarkar (1997) cautions us, the framework conceptualisations in the study of cinema especially focused upon in order to under- of colonial discourse threatens to margin- and art. Nevertheless the relative silence line the dialectics of cultural struggle and alise the earlier work and feminist studies on caste-based cultural forms or forms that the ways in which cultural distinctions are of modern India have come to be predeter- contested caste is surprising, since several produced and reproduced differentially for mined by Foucauldian and Saidian frames. of these forms had contested the claims different castes, classes and gender. The The arrival of cultural studies in India of national culture and national identity. popular is not outside the relations of power and the place of the popular therein need ‘The consumption of modernity’ school, and domination and hierarchies and ten- some deliberation. As Ghosh (1996) has explicitly rejects the adjective ‘popular’, sions within the popular need to be high- underlined the arrival of cultural studies, since it is seen as having undergone a lighted. It is in this context that the present largely outside the institutional folds, holds complicated set of shifts, expansions and paper focuses on the tensions between the the potential of engaging in a critique of critiques. The term popular is replaced feminine lavani and the masculine powada. “naturalised ideologies, universalist theo- with the notion of ‘public culture’. The ries and of theorising fragmentary resis- notion of public is delineated from its The Lavani1 of Eros and the tance” [Ghosh 1996:12]. Cultural studies history of civil society in Europe and is Powada of Courage in a postcolonial context, drawing upon seen as constituted by cricket, tourism, poststructuralist methodologies generated food, cinema, the contestations between Key commentators on the ‘shahiri’ or a critical examination of representations the state and the middle classes. Consump- folk tradition of Maharashtra have argued and their linkages with structures of power. tion is thus viewed as a modality of social that the powada is the man and the lavani However, such critiques have directed life, thus separating the spheres of con- the woman; the powada is the ballad of attention away from the economic and sumption and production. Those who bravery, the lavani may be of the spiritual, political structures and have focused on cannot enter this world of consumption do devotional or erotic kind. The earliest the culture of modernity [Joseph 1998]. not obviously figure much in this analysis. traceable lavani dates back to the 17th

1040 Economic and Political Weekly March 16, 2002 century. While over 300 powadas of the of the primacy of the political powada over other departments of the state. early Maratha period (1640-1700) have the cultural lavani [Kelkar 1974]. They were employed in homes, stables, been traced [BISM collection no 311 (5) One of the early collections of the granaries, cattle houses, dancing houses, and 286], the ‘shringareek’ or the erotic is of the erotic lavanis; most of the very stores, communication and construction lavani, with explicit descriptions of the erotic lavanis in the collection are dated works [Gavli 1981a]. The Peshwa state sexual have been traced to the to the Peshwa period. It is interestingly often gifted some of these women slaves ‘GathaSapatshati’. The ‘GathaSapatshati’ titled ‘Andharatil Lavanya’ (lavanis for to officials in lieu of their salary. Fukazawa is a collection of Prakrit verses composed the dark); suggesting thereby their erotic (1991) notes that the caste of the slaves by the masses about their everyday lived character. There is in Marathi, a popular played an important role in the kind of practices, including the sexual and dated proverb, about the relationship between services forced upon them. It emerges, between 1 AD and 7 AD [Morje 1974]. the lavani and the Peshwa rule. The prov- therefore, that the sale of women of the Some scholars have traced it to the Domb erb ‘Lavani Va Bai chya nadane Peshwa lower castes was necessary for the later and Matangi songs performed by the Budalee’ (the Peshwa rule collapsed due Peshwa state. The revenue was collected women of these castes [Dhond 1988]. In to the lavani and women) blames the lavani mainly through the taxes levied on the sale the Dnyaneshwari (13th century AD), there performers for bringing about the decline of these slaves and their labour was ap- are references to the performances of the of the brahmanical rulers of western India. propriated in the different ‘karkhanas’ of Domb and Matangi songs at the court and An analysis of the erotic lavani of this the Peshwa government. Chakravarti in the marketplace. It may be argued that period suggests that it was produced as a (1998) underlines as significant, the fact while in the Gathasaptashati of the popular form and became one of the modes that the errant women of the lowest castes prakritjan the early lavani appears as an of constructing the sexuality of women of were made available to men of the higher expression of the everyday desire of the the lower castes. The bodies of lower caste castes through the intervention of the state. common people; in the Dnyaneshwari it women were constructed in the lavani as The female slaves of the Peshwa state is described as a performance having ‘the either arousing or satiating male desire. seem to fall into two categories; the explicit aim of provoking wealthy men This construction was crucial to the pre- ‘kunbinis’ (bought for domestic and ag- into parting with their money’. It appears colonial Peshwa state in the appropriation ricultural labour) and the ‘bateeks’ bought that by the 13th century, lavani perfor- of the labour of lower caste women – for their sexual labour, either by individu- mances had entered the realm of exchange. through the institution of slavery. als or for the dancing houses of the state. The powada is referred to in the The reign of Bajirao I (1796-1818) saw The kunbinis who performed domestic Dnyaneshwari as a form of eulogy. The the pauperisation and increasing indebted- labour could not have been from the ‘ati- form is seen as emerging from the cultural ness of the peasantry. One of the worst shudra’ castes, while the bateek came from practices of the bards and genealogists famines was in the year 1803 and this it both the shudra and ati-shudra castes. Road who belonged to the Gondhali (bard), has been noted had lead to an increased building and ammunition work both re- Gavli (cowherd), Mahar, Mang, Sali-Mali sale of women of the lower castes. [Gavali quired labour and there are records of the (weavers and gardeners) and Bhat (bard 1981]. A prominent feature of the slavery Peshwa ‘daftar’ (now at an archive in ) and genealogist) communities. Most of of the period was the predominance of which imply that kunbinis who had illicit these powadas celebrated the brave deeds female slaves. The Peshwa state’s involve- relations outside of caste were to be ban- of the maratha heroes in battle. ment in the trade of female slaves was an ished to do such work The first attempts of collections of the important source of revenue. A preliminary reading of Andharatlya folk literature began around the mid-19th Under conditions of famine, a major part Lavanya, the collection of erotic lavanis century. In 1868, several magazines like of the revenue was raised through the trade composed during the later Peshwa period the Vividhdyanvistar, Nibhandhamala and in female slaves. Conventionally, there conveys an impression of an overtly ex- Kavyaithihas Sangraha published such were two major means of procuring slaves; pressed female sexuality. But further collections. Primacy, both in collection one by abducting women in wars and the analyses reveals that these lavanis endorsed and publication came to be given to the other by enslaving lower caste women the dichotomy of the bateek (whore) ver- powada. These magazines explicitly stated charged with adultery. Since Bajirao II did sus the soubhagyavati (wife). The lavanis the need to recollect the past if a new future not wage even a single war, majority of that overtly express the insatiable desires was to be framed. The powada became a the female slaves were lower caste women of women are composed in the voice of major means of recollecting the golden charged with adultery. Absconding slaves the lower caste whore, while those that past of the maratha warriors. One of the were arrested and forced into enslavement express ‘virah’ (the pain of separation) are early collections ‘Ballads of the Marathas’ by the state. The Peshwa state levied a tax composed in the voice of the wife. The [Shaligram and Acworth 1890] suggests from the private buyers too. It may be bateek is constructed as having intense that the powada was a symbol for expres- noted that adultery by women of the upper bodily needs, seeking sexual pleasure from sion of group loyalties. However as castes was punished by excommunication all men and as expressing the desire to O’Hanlon (1985) argues, by the late 19th from the caste [Oturkar 1950, Gavali 1981]. watch the intercourse in a mirror. The wife century, the powada became one of the is constructed as in awe of the virility of grounds on which conflicting social and The Lavani of Eros and the husband and her sexual expression is cultural identities were worked out. It is Sexual Economies underlined by the desire for motherhood. only in the second decade of the 20th cen- The only note of complaint by the wife is tury, collections of lavani too were under- The women of the lower castes enslaved about a husband who is not a man enough taken. Vishnushastri Chiplunkar justified by the Peshwa state were employed in the to father her children [Andharatil Lavanya the priority given to the powada in terms courts, ‘natakshalas’ (dancing houses) and 1956; 18, 41, 141, 155, 165, 177, 178, 189, 249].

Economic and Political Weekly March 16, 2002 1041 As noted earlier, adultery by the lower of the historiographical traditions that arose castes and he did not see any integration caste women was the major grounds on in the late 19th century sought to establish between the brahmanic religion and the which their sexual and productive labour the historical superiority of the nation; popular culture. It is important to note that was appropriated and the lavani of the understood as both the maratha country Bhagwat’s account was published in the period was one important mode of con- and India. As Omvedt (1976) has argued, Vividhadnyan Vistaar, which had rejected structing them as adulterous. Thus, the much of the historiographical traditions of Phule’s ballad. Eknath Annaji Joshi’s lavani, which was produced as a popular the period arose in response to and in the powada too was accepted by the Dakshina form of entertainment of the bahujans, at context of the non-brahmin challenge, the prize committee fund, which had rejected the court of Bajirao II, was also as an roots of which are located in the life and Phule’s work. The work of Joshi is an ideological justification of the enslave- works of Jotiba Phule. Brahmins and non- example of the way in which a popular ment of women of the lower castes. The brahmins turned to the figure of Shivaji form comes to be sanskritised, the meter public performance of the lavani was a part in seeking an interpretation of the past of the powada is replaced with that of the of the ‘tamasha’ or the folk theatre. A [Omvedt 1976, O’Hanlon 1985, Vartak ‘shloka’ .The entire powada is a typical performance began with ‘gan’ (de- 1999]. Phule’s powada presents Shivaji as piece in the voice of Dadaji Kondadev, the votional offering to Ganesha), a gavlan (a the leader of the lower castes and attributes brahmin teacher of Shivaji, calling upon comical act performed by ‘effeminate’ male his achievements to the strength and skill Shivaji to rescue India from the Muslims. artiste through exaggerated feminine ges- of his shudra and ati-shudra armies rather The powada is in fact entitled ‘The Advice tures) followed by the performance of than his ministers. The powada became the given to Maharaja Shivaji by Dadaji lavani and mujra, The vag (or spontaneous vehicle for the claims of groups of lower Kondadev’ (1877). Shivaji is assimilated theatre) of the satirical – is a later addition. castes in the 19th century to stand as the directly to the tradition of classical Hindu rightful leaders of Maharashtra society and mythology and is made to sit in the line Powada of Valour and as representative of its tradition. of great ‘kshatriya’ heroes. The daitya or Politics of Identity Phule’s powada is composed in eight demon kings, invoked by Phule as the sections and as Phule, himself declares in original and just rulers come to be com- The powada as the male form of ex- the preface, the powada has the explicit pared with the Muslims and Shivaji is then pression has been labelled as “not emo- aim of reaching out to the mang, mahar, called upon to take the role of ‘narsimha’. tional but of bravery; not soft but straight- mali and kunbi, i e, to say all the shudra Brahminical conservatism is assimilated forward as against the feminine lavani and ati-shudra castes [Phule 1869]. Phule in the new forms of political activity, which is beauty, eros and emotionality put reinterprets Duff’s (1800) history of the namely, nationalist struggle and in doing together” [Kelkar 1974:23]. The Peshwa marathas; especially in his reading of the so, the popular cultural form of the powada period saw the composition of over 150 role played by Dadaji Kondadev and saint comes to be appropriated. It is important powadas in the praise of the Peshwa state. Ramdas in the life of Shivaji. Referring to note the way in which the upper caste The earlier powadas about the valour and to Dadaji, he remarks “The fish swims in distinction of Joshi’s powada over Phule’s bravery of the Marathas were lost from water; does the fish have a guru?” thereby powada is underlined through the use of public memory [Varde 1930]. Most of the minimising the role of Dadaji just as he the panditi or the sanskritised style of popular powadas of the Peshwa period clarifies that it is for the love of the people composition. The powada thus comes to were composed in praise of the that he established, a temple of Bhavani be produced differently as representative ‘brahminical rule’ of the . There Mata at Raigad and accepted Ramdas as of the popular shudra tradition in the case are instances of additions and deletions his guru. In Jotirao’s powada, Shivaji of Phule’s powada and as representative being made in the compositions of the emerges as the ‘kulwadi bhushan’, the of a pan-Indian, brahminical Hindu tradi- shahir Anantphandi; in which he holds pride of the shudras. In the other powada tion in the case of Joshi’s powada. It is Bajirao-II responsible for the downfall and composed by him, he critiques the brahmin- apparent that the powada had emerged as for the dire poverty of the people. The ridden policy of education. He critiques a ground on which political identities and powada as a vehicle of group identity was the educated brahmin teacher who has no struggles came to be worked out. The discovered in the second half of the 19th qualms in shaking hands with the British powada of the earlier period as we have century and sought to revive the earlier but who condemns the Mahar students as noted, was composed mainly by the glorious history and culture of the marathas polluting [Phadke 1991]. Rajaramshastri gondhalis of the lower castes and the theme in overtly political, and contradictory ways. Bhagwat, a Sanskrit scholar and reformist, centred on bravery and valour. The second O’Hanlon (1985) has juxtaposed three questioned the division of society based half of the 19th century saw not only the accounts of the period; all centring on on birth. Bhagwat argued that Shivaji collection of powada but also a rise in the Shivaji. Phule’s powada ‘A Ballad of the represented the second rise in pre-emi- publication of powada in the literary and Raja Chhatrapati Shivaji Bhosale’, nence of the marathas. He emphasised the political journals. The brahminical appro- Rajaramshastri Bhagwat’s ‘The Commu- role of brahmins as religious advisers and priation of the powada, invokes the popu- nity of Maharashtra’ and Eknath Annaji the absence of caste divisions and overall lar to underline the cleavage between the Joshi’s ‘The Advice given to Maharaja concern for good of the community pan-Hindu tradition and the Muslim or Shivaji by Dadaji Kondadev’ were all [O’Hanlon 1985]. Bhagwat sought to the British. The powada as the popular published during the period 1860 to 1890. establish the notion of a united Maharashtra invoked as a form of expression of the Caste antagonisms certainly existed prior with its own identity – drawn upon local masses and becomes a vehicle of under- to the British conquest but there were no traditions as against a homogenised Hindu lining the caste contradictions as they were concerted efforts to build a united chal- tradition. For Phule, the marathas were being distorted, enlarged and polarised. lenge to the brahminical dominance. Much strictly the community of non-brahmin The lavani as the expression of eros and

1042 Economic and Political Weekly March 16, 2002 devotion remained outside the purview of second to the performance of the lavani, By the early 1890s, tamasha theatres had these political processes and with the now emerged as central to it The emer- been established in and Pune and emergence of the bourgeois theatre many gence of the bourgeois theatre and its a contract system emerged, as theatre of the lavani performers faced a threat of exclusion of the female performers had owners became middlemen employing the marginalisation and extinction. come to mark as immoral and licentious troupe members on salaries or against an the performance of the lavani. The theatre advance payment. The theatres also Desexualised Theatre and the of the male performers came to be marked organised ‘baithaks’ – or private sittings; Sexualised Lavani: Emergence as cerebral as against the sensuous lavani. the audiences of which were regulated by of the ‘Sangeet barees’. It may be argued that this may have been the contractors. one of the major reasons for which the Only the wealthy could have access to After the Peshwa rule ended with tamasha of the period turned to the vag or these private baithaks, which were asso- Bajirao’s surrender at Vasai – the tamasha the spontaneous theatre over the lavani. ciated with the authentic unadulterated performers were forced to seek new patro- The history of for this lavani. The nachees or the dancers claim nage and many troupes moved to the period [Adharkar 1991] records attempts that these private baithaks have been princely state of Baroda. The major eco- by women of the lower castes (probably the major mode of ‘saving the tradition’ nomic changes of the period saw the entren- displaced tamasha performers) to start from the near complete influence of the ching of market forces in agriculture and theatre companies in which women en- cinema. the expansion of the bureaucracy of the acted both male and female roles. These It is thus important to note that in a period colonial state. These processes had lead to attempts by popular artistes to stake their in which the powada became a bearer of the emergence of a class of middlemen and claim to the newly emergent Marathi thea- contested political identities, the emergent the middle classes both of whom produced tre were severely criticised and ridiculed. bourgeois theatre had considerably directly and indirectly, the lavani as popu- It is possible therefore that the ‘sangeet marginalised the lavani of eros by lar for certain classes while declaring it as barees’, a reformulated version of the stigmatising it as immoral and vulgar. This immoral for others. The processes that tamasha emerged as an offshoot of these lead to considerable reformulations in the produced the ‘popular’ were intertwined companies. Women of the Kolhati caste content and form of the tamasha or the folk with the self-definition of these classes. formed most of these sangeet baree troupes theatre. The tamasha centering around the Vishnudas Bhave presented the first – the kolhati caste is referred to as ‘ugadya vag or spontaneous theatre was considered theatre performance of a Marathi play at mandichi jaat’, literally meaning, the caste to be more moral and a political expression the court of the raja of Sangli. This her- of those whose women move around with as against the sangeet barees which were alded the emergence of a new theatre of their thighs bare. The women were known considered to be immoral and a expression the middle class and the upper castes, to be the breadwinners of the family and of ‘aatishbaaji’ or sheer entertainment of which came to be placed in opposition to dancing and prostitution have been re- a sensuous kind. It is apparent that there the folk theatre or the tamasha. The Bombay corded as their caste-based profession. is a continuous and uneven struggle to Times claimed “Bhave’s plays are of native There is also a mention of their knowledge disorganise and reorganise the lavani. There origin – from the early classic dramas of and practices of cures for sexually trans- are tensions between the emergent bour- Hindoostan. They are void of everything mitted diseases and impotency. There were geois theatre and the tamasha that comes approaching licentiousness and indecorum now at least two kinds of tamashas; the to be pushed to the periphery. In the pro- and are images of the moralities in which ‘dholki-phad’ tamasha in which the vag cess the content of both the elite and the the Christian church in older times used or the spontaneous theatre was central and popular is reformulated, the emergent elite to rejoice” (Bombay Times, March 8, 1853). the sangeet barees which centred on the theatre marks its distinction from the folk The two decades following the 1860s saw performance of the erotic lavani. The via a process of de-sexualisation, so that several English and Sanskrit plays being sangeet baree performance evolved its own only men perform on the stage. The popu- translated into Marathi as the patronage of form – including a lavani each of the ‘ada’ lar tamasha is recast into the overtly po- the Marathi theatre by the newly educated (expression), ‘baleghati’ (emotion) and litical and theatrical dholki-phad tamasha middle class marked an increase. It may ‘chakkad’ (erotic) mode. The performance and the overtly sexualised sangeet-barees. be noted that male performers called the was marked by ‘daulat jadda’ or bidding It is during this period that the vag went ‘stree party’ performed all female roles in by some persons from the all-male audi- up the cultural escalator and in fact the the plays and this in a sense rendered this ences for the ‘nachee’ or the dancer to initial three decades of the 20th century theatre as moral. The dichotomy between perform a lavani of their choice. are marked as the golden period of the vag. ‘nachee/nartaki’ (dancing girls/dancer), Men manage the dholki-phad tamasha The performance of the lavani comes to ‘tamasagir/kalkaar’ (folk-performer/artist) – while the sangeet barees are planned, be equated to immorality and ‘ranjan’ (sen- intensified as the lower castes were being financed and organised mainly by the suous entertainment) and the structure of displaced from their hereditary sphere of kolhati women. These women do not marry the performance is recast as more and more the performing arts by the emergence of (are not permitted to by the caste panchayat) sangeet barees come to be employed on the bourgeois theatre. The growing popu- while the women of the dholki-phad a contractual basis by the theatre owners larity of the theatre and its mark of morality tamasha are most often married to troupe and the audiences intervene in the perfor- lead to a series of changes in the structure members and are relatively subjected more mance by bidding for the performer. This of the tamasha. The performance of the to familial patriarchal regulatory controls. recasting becomes the distinctive ‘immoral’ ‘vag’ (spontaneous theatre of the satirical They look down upon the sangeet barees feature of the sangeet barees as even other kind), which had, no doubt, been a part as ‘immoral’ and not representative of the popular forms mark their distinction from of the tamasha performance, but only ‘true tamasha tradition’. them. Exclusion of women from stage

Economic and Political Weekly March 16, 2002 1043 performances ceases to be a high cultural and mangs, converted it into saleable goods, tamasha theatres faced the threat of clo- value yet the marking of the lavani per- and took it back to the audiences in the sure, with the increasing encroachment by formers as vulgar and veiled prostitutes small towns at double the price. The film the cinema both regional and national. The continues. The cultural distinctions which actresses in the tamasha genre most often contractors demanded that the nachees reveal themselves in the struggles over the came from outside the kolhati caste, and dance to the film lavani and add erotic and forms of culture between the bourgeois only a few tamasha artists (Usha Chavan, provocative dance steps, as in the films. Marathi theatre between the vag and the Leela Gandhi, Sarla Yevalekar and Madhu The raw material that went from the kolhati sangeet barees become ways in which Kambikar) could make a space for them- women to the films, came back to them existing and new forms of power and selves in the Marathi cinema. The lavani ironically in a form that they could hardly control rooted in caste, class and gender from the Marathi films constructed the recognise as their own. Some troupes were hierarchies come to be legitimised. Capital lavani dancer as a ‘pakhru’ (bird) ‘bijlee’ recast as musical orchestras, in which the has a stake in the culture of the popular (lightning), and ‘jawanichi baag’ (garden lavani was absent. The lavani dancers now classes since it holds the potential of of youth) [Khebudkar 1980], the focus attired in trousers and caps danced to film resistance [Hall 1981] and it may be ar- being on a native, wild and rustic sexuality numbers. In the 1960s after the formation gued that in a caste-based society where which was to be tamed and reformed by of the state of Maharashtra, there was an in sexual regulation and control are crucial the hero (invariably either the patil’s son expansion of the Marathi cinema and to the maintenance of caste and class bound- or school master, i e, always upper caste. several tamasha troupes were forced to aries, the stakes are further intensified. The After the 1960s, the sugar lobby in become part-time troupes [L Joshi rise of the bourgeois theatre and the Maharashtra had consolidated its economic 1977:164]. Many of the nachees of the emergence of a contract system in the and political gains [Attwood 1993, Lele dholki-phad tamasha revealed that they tamasha saw an active destruction of the 1990]. As the Marathi cinema acquired had to perform seasonal agricultural labour ways of life in which the performances finances from the newly emergent capital- and domestic services in towns in order were rooted. ist forces in agriculture, the lavani began to make ends meet. From the late 19th century, a distinctly to use the metaphors of wells, pump sets, working class district had begun to emerge engines, sugarcane, mangoes, coconuts, The Political Appreciation of the in Bombay. The tamasha had become the and papayas to describe the bodily features Tamasha: The ‘Jalsa’ working class man’s theatre [Chandavarkar of the lavani dancers (HMV series of film 1998]. Narratives of the senior tamasha lavanis). These lavanis in the double The Satyashodhak Samaj was established artistes reveal that there were more than entendre objectified and fragmented the in 1873 and the Samaj took up issues of 19 tamasha theatres in the working class bodies of the nachees the well referred to untouchability, oppression of women and quarters of the Bombay city. The early the vagina, mangoes to the breasts, ripe the peasantry, blind faith and the oppres- years of the regional talkies (1930s) were sugarcane to virginity, etc. This exagger- sion by the village brahmin. These issues marked by the mythologicals and the social ated sexualisation of the lavani dancers came to be debated in the newspapers like and thus targeted to the middle class and their construction as wild, too hot to the Dinbandhu, Vijayi Maratha, Kaivari audiences .In the context of the restrictions handle or uncontrolled become ways of and Deccan Rayat. The message of these on imports during the war period, prefer- consolidating caste and gender hierarchies. debates was conveyed to the masses through ential access to the raw stock was given The dichotomy of passive and pure wives a new genre of tamasha – the jalsa. It has to the Hindi cinema which was emerging as against wild and impure lavani dancers been noted that people from the as the national cultural form. In the post- is underlined and the inability of lower neighbouring 10 to 20 villages gathered war period, the revival of the regional caste men to control the sexuality of their to participate in the jalsa. It is important cinema sought to produces the lavani as women is reiterated thereby continuing to to note that this audience included women the popular regional culture .The films ‘Jai legitimise the hegemony of the dominant as against the traditional tamasha [Shinde Malhar’ and ‘Ram Joshi’ – were highly castes. The patriarchal caste ideology that 1973]. The content was altered such that successful at the box office and the Marathi orders the sexual division of labour also the traditional gan (offering to Ganesha) cinema revived by creating the tamasha regulates the division of sexual labour. was replaced with a verse in praise of the genre of films as the regional popular. The The popular cultural forms of the ‘kasbi’ creator; the gavlan (the traditional dia- same period however saw a ban on the (performing) castes were so produced that logue between Krishna and the milkmaids) tamasha groups by the Bombay state in the the women were framed as ‘kabnurkarin’ was transformed into an encounter of the 1940s. The lyrics it was argued were lewd (pigeon) and were framed in the sphere of non-brahmin hero with the daughter of the and that prostitution was being practised the erotic (in the male gaze) and were brahmin priest of the village. This became in the name of art [Jintikar 1948]. As the denied familial spaces. On the other hand, the mode of critiquing brahminical prac- Eastman-colour Hindi films wooed the the upper caste women – whose reproduc- tices. The key element of this jalsa was the urban audiences, the tamasha genre sought tive and domestic labour is appropriated vag (the spontaneous theatre) which was to claim regional popularity. The adapta- within the space of the familial, were instructive – in praise of modern science tion of the tamasha genre by the Marathi constructed as ‘gharaandaaz’ (pure and and education and was built around the cinema marks out clearly the drain of moral) and passive and thus denied the mockery of oppressive religious practices. sexuality of the female lavani dancers of space of the erotic. Omvedt (1976) notes that the jalsa played the kolhati and other lower castes. The The overt sexualisation of the lavani a prominent role in forming and spreading Marathi cinema, dominated by brahmins dancers in the Marathi films had serious a popular Maharashtra culture of religious and marathas, drew its raw material from consequences for the lavani performers in and caste revolt. In , where the lavani tamasha of the kolhatis, mahar the sangeet barees and tamasha. The the Satyashodhak jalsa were concentrated,

1044 Economic and Political Weekly March 16, 2002 they were intrinsically linked with the other recasting of the tamasha, the political movement. This movement saw tenant rebellions in 1920s. The organisers ‘Chatrapati Mela’.2 a combined front of Communists, dalits of the jalsa, Vichari and Anandswami were A new genre of Ambedkari Jalsas and socialists – and a distinct tradition of also the major organisers of the tenant is noted in the ‘Shahiri’ tradition of powada emerged within each of these rebellion. Maharashtra in the period 1920 to 1956. ideological positions. Though the powada The jalsa often took up issues of en- With their message of opposing caste- is produced as the bearer of an authentic forced widowhood, tonsure, prostitution based oppression of brahmanism, these Marathi identity, the powadas reveal the and education. One of the famous com- jalsa also addressed issues of dowry, in- contesting claims to a regional identity of positions from the jalsa, which critiqued debtedness, prostitution in the name of Samyukta Maharashtra and the tensions the brahmanical practice of tonsure, was religion and the need for education, within a homogenised Marathi identity. Dear father, I am your dear and loved one, organised effort and struggle [Kirwale Shahir Amar Shaikh, Shahir Annabhau How can you force me to shave off my 1992]. The ranjan (entertainment) motif of Sathe and Shahir Gavankar represent the hair?…. the tamasha was dropped, thereby exclud- trends in Communist tradition, Lokshahir Why don’t you change your mind and ing female performers and a central role Vaman Kardak represents the Ambedkari arrange a ‘pat’ (second) marriage for me was accorded to the ‘songadya’, the come- dalit trend while Shahir Vasant Bapat instead? dian. The series of political progressive represents the socialist trend. This composition especially assumes appropriations of the genre could not result Lokshahir Kardak gives primacy to importance in the light of the fact that there in any reformulation of the nachee’s role annihilation of castes and is critical of an was a rebellion of the barber community and to that extent, the patriarchal ideology alliance with the Communists, though under Phule’s leadership and they had of the dominant castes and classes was several of his compositions demand a refused to shave the head of widows again reiterated. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s redistribution of resources [Salve 1997]. [Chakravarti 1998]. Another interesting refusal to accept any financial grant from Consider for example the following two popular composition in the jalsa was Pathe Bapurao – a famous vag performer compositions; entitled ‘The notice given by Rukmini and of the period (a brahmin) on the grounds Oh the women in red with her lover in the reply given by Vithoba’ and was about that the money was earned at the cost of Moscow. the brahminisation of the ‘bhakti’ cults in lower caste women’s dignity is understand- Beware or else you may be fooled! Maharashtra. The composition entitled able – yet the complete absence of women And; ‘The world leans’ critiqued the rich men is the new jalsas, poses a problem. The who bid for the sexual services of the popular cultural forms had been politically Tell us oh Tatas and Birlas, Where is our share of foodgrains and wealth tamasha dancers. The accounts of the jalsa appreciated and recast but the role of the [Jadhav 1997] do not mention women performers and in lavani dancers is not reformulated but fact it seems that jalsa, highlighted their excluded. Thus the Victorian theatre Annabhau Sathe from with the Commu- difference (reform character) from the emerges as the epitome of civilised culture nist Party claims, tamashas via the exclusion of women as against the licentious and immoral folk With the red flag, performers. It is important to note that in forms of the natives; the Marathi bour- comes a new generation of workers, the jalsas there was a focus on the dialogue geois theatre emerges in the emulation of they move on ahead, between the group of brahmin women Victorian while labelling the tamasha as to change the lives of the oppressed (enacted by men) and the non-brahmin obscene and constitutes the ‘vag’ as su- they shall emerge victorious in this battle (Annabhau Sathe Samagra Vagnmay, hero of the village (these dialogues were perior to the sangeet barees of the Kolhati ASSV1999). a sharp mode of criticism of brahmanism) women. The Satyashodhak and Ambedkari but such a division of roles between hero jalsas are distinctively political against Annabhau’s performance began with a (non-brahmin) and a group of women ‘ranjan’ (entertainment) content – via the salute to Tilak and Phule and Ambedkar (brahmanical), made invisible both the exclusion of women. Such a chain reveals – the Hindutva claims of Tilak sit awk- cross-caste brahmanical patriarchies and – therefore the dangers of seeing sangeet wardly with the tradition of Phule and the revolutionary potential of non-brahmin barees as a form of women’s culture and Ambedkar [Salve 1997]. His powada women (an imaginary inversion of the therefore resistance to patriarchy. The include those in praise of both Lenin and practice; the interrogator played by non- communist and the socialist movement in Babasaheb Ambedkar. Annabhau Sathe brahmin woman critiquing a group of Maharashtra also politically appreciated locates the struggle for Samyukta brahmin men reveals the point that is being the tamasha genre in their ‘kalapathak’ and Maharashtra as a struggle of the working made). The jalsa received the patronage of in fact in the Samyukta Maharashtra class against the non-Marathi capital. In Shahu Chatrapati and several meetings movement, this genre became central to his famous composition entitled ‘My Maina of all the jalsa were held in Kolhapur. the expression of the Marathi identity. Got Left Behind in the Village’; Maina the The ‘Kesari’ of the Tilakites ridiculed the beloved became a metaphor for the sepa- jalsa as low culture of the tamasha and The Powada and Contesting ration of Maharashtra from Mumbai. Says would refer to the composers as tamasgirs Claims of Identity Annabhau, and not as jalsa shikshaks (teachers) as My maina is left behind in the village they were called in the Satyashodhak tra- The Samyukta Maharashtra movement, my heart yearns for her, dition [Shinde 1996]. The non-brahmin the movement for the formation of shapely,dusky and virtuous, challenge by Jedhe and Javalkar in Pune Maharashtra state based on a common she has a broad mind, in the 1930s sought to resist the hegemony linguistic identity marked shahiri, the folk infact, she is the Sita of my Ram of the Ganapati festival through yet an- form as a strong cultural base for the (ASSV, 1999)

Economic and Political Weekly March 16, 2002 1045 Annabhau interprets Shivaji, as a demo- powada of Shivaji is firmly established in in the name of ‘our culture’. Note that all cratic and just ruler of the masses. He the middle class mind through the com- the issues, from obscenity in the media to writes; positions of the middle class, upper caste trafficking were rendered as cultural. The composers; symbolisng him as the icon of Michael Jackson show, the Miss World He distributed all the land amongst the Marathi male bravery and later as the show and the Enron project are posed as tillers. saviour of religion. The coin- fund-generating and therefore economic. All the parasites were finished. cidence with the ‘sons of the soil’ and The powada as authentic local, discrete Annabhau Sathe died in dire poverty and ‘savior of Hindus’ phase of the Shiv Sena from the global is invoked to generate a his monumental contribution remained is not accidental. The powada of the ‘vir sense of community in times of free market marginalised [Korde 1999]. rasa’ (bravery) comes to be synonymous economy. The socialists recast the powada in the with popular pride, self-respect and ag- The concept of culture is used to under- ‘kalapathaks’ (performing arts troupe) of gression of a Marathi and later a Hindu line the characteristics that distinguish one the Rashtra Seva Dal. Vasant Bapat per- identity. It is marked as distinct from the group from another as also to refer to some formed the “powada of the courageous effeminacy of the congress and elitism of set of phenomena, which are different from men” in the Kalapathaks. It is important the socialists, communists, dalits and (and higher) than some other set within any to note the lavani in praise of the sensuous muslims are rendered anti-Hindu and anti- group [Wallerstein 1991]. The popular beauty was performed through shadow national [Thakeray 1990]. The vir rasa cultural form becomes at one level an play. In the Maharashtra Darshan, a the- plays a major role in challenging young assertion of unchanging realities amidst a atrical presentation of the culture of men to recuperate their masculinities and world that is ceaselessly changing. At Maharashtra by the Rashtra Seva Dal in this needs further exploration. another level, the distinctions within the tracing the great shahiri tradition of The powada, the masculine form emerged popular become justification of the in- Maharashtra – Bhau Fakkad the noted dalit as an unadulterated, authentic and political equalities to keep these inequalities un- composer is deleted. expression of a Marathi and Hindu iden- changing. Thus the powada as character- Vasant Bapat’s powada ‘The Sun of tity. The lavani, the feminine form remains istic of Marathi/Hindu culture as against Freedom has Risen’ claims “Hindu associated with ranjan and is produced as others – becomes an assertion of unchang- Muslim, Sikhs Parses, do not fight amongst the commercial –popular by its appropria- ing reality even within the context of free yourselves…Lets love each other lets be tion by the tamasha genre of Marathi market. The differentiation within the brothers” [Bapat 1988]. In another com- cinema. Cultural distinctions between the powada and between the lavani and the position, Shivaji comes to be invoked as political powada and commercial lavani powada, which mark one over the others a Hindu King between Annabhau’s shahiri in the slums, as more political, authentic and moral, Allah’s name on their lips Kardak’s shahiri on the outskirts of the becomes a justification of the inequalities but the devil in their thoughts village and Bapat’s shahiri for the middle – too keep them unchanged. The con- why spare them – classes legitimise forms of power and ceptualisation of popular culture for a just hack them – Oh soldier control that are rooted in caste, class and project of radical cultural studies cannot For they are the progeny of Afzulya, gender inequalities. Bapat’s presentation be limited to social histories of texts and Hack them, in the name of Shivaji Raja of these popular forms in an aestheticised audiences. It requires that histories of the Come – Take this vow – now! form – really set the base for its appropria- caste- and region-based popular forms, [Salve 1997] tion by the electronic media. We need to capital and politics; the struggles over Thus in marking the powada as a unifier note the different levels at which the notion meanings and resources be traced and of Marathi identity, the internal tensions of the popular is being deployed. analysed. Such struggles in the form of in the contesting ideologies of the different Globalisation has had a dramatic effect rural dalit and adivasi sahitya sammelans trends in the genre are glossed over. Powada on the tension between particularism/uni- (literary meets) have been active since 1987. is invoked as the symbol of the cultural versalism that is at the core of the notion In the last two years, ‘sakal’ (integrated) integration of Maharashtra and special of culture. In the discourse of globalisation and ‘vidrohi’ (rebellious) sahitya powadas came to be composed for the All media emerges as the legitimate bearer of sammelans and cultural movements have India Radio. Shahir Vasant Bapat – recast commercialised symbolic forms – such sought to negotiate the differences the powada and the lavani for the middle that any cultural integration is seen as between the left, dalit, feminist and class and the upper caste audiences. This possible only through the media, i e, it is adivasi cultural activists and to initiate the could be called an aestheticisation of the disembedded from its territorial base and cultural front. EPW popular forms; a trend which both the re-embedded in a communication media Hindutva forces and the audio market frame. The Hindutva forces have sought Notes consolidated upon. Both Sathe and Kardak to contest this discourse of globalisation remained marginalised within the main- at a populist level which seeks the cultural [Sections from this paper have appeared in stream literary tradition while the theatri- Rege (1995) and Rege (2000) . An earlier version integration of ‘authentic Hindu commu- of this paper was presented at a workshop organised cal performances of the powada of Shivaji nity’ as one opposed to all that is mass – by Vikas Adhyayan Kendra, at Vagamon in – by ShivShahir Babasaheb Purandare, mediated and so western. So that the September 1998. Suggestions and comments by with blessings from Hindutva forces ran globalisation becomes a cultural Ram Bapat, K N Panikar, Gopal Guru, Vidyut to packed theatres of the middle class au- invasion, separated from the economic. Bhagwat and Sandeep Pendse have helped in the diences. These compositions reached the reworking of the paper. This work is a part of a Advertisements of shoes were burnt on the long-term project on ‘Dalits and Public Culture middle class homes and public ceremonies grounds of obscenity, and bar maids and In Maharashtra’ which began in 1995 with a via the emergent cassette industry. The sex workers regulated in Bombay city, all documentation of the tamasha and at present

1046 Economic and Political Weekly March 16, 2002 seeks to document the dalit popular writings, Dangle, A et al (ed) (1998): Lokshahir Anna Nandy, A (1988): Science Hegemony and Violence, gatherings, meetings, jalsas and gayan parties in Bhau Sathe Nivadak Vangmay (Marathi) Oxford University Press, . the region.] Maharastra Rajya Sahitya aani Sanskriti Niranjana, T, V Dhareshwar and P Sudhir (1933): Mandal, Mumbai. Interogating Modernity Culture and 1 Analysis of the lavani is largely based on the Deshpande, S (1994): Arthath Mazya Jeevanacha Colonialism in India, Seagull Books, fieldwork done at Narayangaon and Pune and Phad (Script of a Marathi play). Calcutta. on Rege (1995). Dhond, M (1988): Marathi Lavani (M) Mauj O’Hanlon, R (1985): Caste, Conflict and Ideology: 2 A detailed analyses of the same has been done Prakashan, Mumbai. 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