Singing from the Village, the Musical Influences of the Children at the School Will Be

LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SINGING FROM THE HEART OF THE VILLAGE A PROJECT SUBMITTED IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN ETHNOMUSICOLOGY BY BONNIE BOST LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA SPRING, 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE AND RECORDINGS REVIEW ...................................... 18 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .................................................................................... 82 CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH FINDINGS ........................................................................... 89 Musical Influences of the Students and Parents at a Dalit Elementary School near Hyderabad, India ........................................................................................................... 90 Village Women’s Songs ............................................................................................. 106 Christian Songs sung by the Village School Children in Telegu Language ............... 115 “Praise Him, Praise Him” ........................................................................................... 126 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS ..................................................................................... 142 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................ 150 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 186 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The Dalits are the lowest of the low in India’s caste system. They are treated as non-citizens and often valued less than dirt. They are viewed as out-castes or untouchables who perform tasks that other Indians would consider unclean such as “working with dead animal skins for making shoes and leather goods, [or] cleaning toilets …” (Sarrazin 2009, 20). Usually, they work as rag pickers, carpet makers, field workers, and common laborers (Weiner 1991, 20). Disdain for this unclean work and the people who do it causes Dalits to be discriminated against, daily. This discrimination comes from the underlying belief that people should be divided and labeled by their hereditary profession, which defines their socio-economic status and self-worth. Just because higher and more privileged society believes that the Dalits are worthless, does that make them so? It absolutely does not. This study, conducted for six weeks, shows the creativity and needs of the Dalit or low-caste children at a village school near Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. The children were mostly sweet and caring and wanted to learn about their world. They face many challenges, and they need the guidance of teachers, trained in solid pedagogy practices, who can teach them to think, reason, and develop their imagination so that these children can succeed and rise above the discrimination in their lives. Despite being “untouchable” to higher Indian society, Dalits have developed their own unique culture, specifically in the village in Andhra Pradesh where this study was conducted. They have their own songs, dances, stories, hopes, dreams, and life-style. It is 2 not unlike that of poorer people in other countries. The conditions can be shocking at first, but the people live how they live. They have not had the opportunities for education, sanitation, and spiritual guidance that others in higher classes may have had. In fact their culture, specifically song, art, and dance, could be the key to helping them see that their own culture is valuable, despite their circumstances. Children in this village are influenced by a variety of musical styles. They dance to cinema music, re-enact political dramas, sing western Christian hymns and choruses, listen to professional village singers, sing Christian songs in Telegu, their state language, and hear their parents sing in the village. However, the folk music of the village women and professional folk musicians seem to be the very core of their musical influence and melodic vocabulary. These musical styles, while not diminishing the importance of other styles like cinema music, are very important because they are songs most often sung at home or during community singing and they are the songs that mothers think are most important for their children to learn. The songs of the village women may be the specific musical key to helping the Dalit people rise above prejudice. These songs are original, simple, responsive, and endeared to their hearts. These songs show the creativity of the people, and with this creativity they may be able to use their own thoughts and ideas to find ways to present their culture in a positive light to society. In fact, one could say that these village women’s songs are at the heart of their musical language meaning that this music relates directly to the center of a people’s worldview and emotions and encompasses their creativity. The children, mothers, fathers, and village elders sing together at night, developing their culture and passing it on to the next generation. With these village women’s songs at the center of their musical 3 influence, the children need more of these kinds of songs which teach academics, creativity, a new social perspective, and spiritual development. It is the hope that the findings of this study will be clues to further research into the best sequence in which to teach these children the musical patterns of melody and rhythm in their own village songs. According to Levitin all children, by the age of five, already understand the schema of their own music (Levitin 2006, 117). The schema or expectations that all people learn about their own cultural music include the musical ideas that are expected and the ones that could be flexible. Musical schemas begin forming in the womb as Levtin’s study suggests (ibid, 116), and these village children already value their own music because it has been with them since before birth. Using their own style of music in the classroom, may promote creativity in learning process for these children because their brains already understand the unwritten expectations of their mother’s village songs. Then they and their teachers can create their own songs to help them learn to read Telegu, Hindi, and English, to compute equations, remember and do appropriate hygiene, and to understand the world around them. Statement of the Problem The general problem for this study concerns the availability of formal, appropriate, and practical academic and music education for children in India, a problem, whose solution is often covered up by the complexities of the economy, government rules, parental beliefs, religious views, and social custom as Weiner has concluded (1991). High caste Hindus and rich Muslims control factories, and Dalit children are often used as cheap labor for these employers (Weiner 1991, 53–54). Another factor is that some 4 parents would rather their children go to work instead of to school because they do not view the schools as teaching practical life skills (ibid, 58). The hegemonic society also wants to keep its social hierarchy intact, so if they educate poorer, lower classes, then they would jeopardize their society’s roles and Hindu beliefs (ibid, 53 – 54). The final factor, government, is caught in between the education system, the society, the religion, the parents, the employers, and the economic system, so it can only try to make working conditions better for children; it cannot repair the underlying problems. Therefore, the government lacks the ability to provide education because of the traditional, religious, and social values that the people have held on to for centuries. In essence, as Weiner points out, it is the underlying beliefs and attitudes of the people and the unwillingness to change that causes the continuance of the status quo. The more specific problem relating to the children in this village in Andhra Pradesh is not only the problem of providing formal education, but also its capacity for change. When education is provided, will it be what the Dalit children need in order to view themselves as important, so that they can change the view of their society on social order? Having spent six weeks at a village school, I see the following problems with education and the musical experiences of the children at this village school. First, the teachers are very poorly trained. They have a short time of training, and then they are in the classroom. Second, when the teachers teach, they simply ask the children to repeat the answers, or tell the students the answer instead of using teaching strategies that stimulate the students’ minds to figure out the answer for themselves. This lack of critical thinking, creativity, and problem solving skills is what keeps the Dalit people in bondage, from an educational perspective. Third, each class has too many students. For example, there are 5 sixty children in one class of three, four, and five year olds. There are not enough financial resources, teachers, and buildings to have smaller classrooms that would facilitate the kind of attention each student needs to succeed. Traditionally, children are taught in a smaller class with a guru or mentor as their guide. Dr. Joseph Palackal, a leading ethnomusicologist and the President of the Christian Musicological Society of India was taught in a smaller school in the Indian village in which he grew up. He was mostly taught by rote, but he was also taught to think of answers for himself. However, he does feel

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