The Academy at UTT for Arts, Letters, Culture and Public Affairs

THE FELLOWS’ GATHERING: ‘Family and Community in Ramlila’

DATE: 2008, April 16 TIME: 5.30 p.m. VENUE: The Fellows Lounge, The Academy at UTT 3rd Floor TTMA Building, Barataria.

The traditional open air folk theatre of Ramlila has been performed in an unbroken tradition in Trinidad since the mid 1800’s. Strong family and community bonds were central to this continuity. Many performance roles became hereditary as the tradition passed on from the older to the younger in the family.

The Naipaul family in Chaguanas is an example of an extended family that was central to the Ramlila performance. As a Brahmin family of high status in Chaguanas, with its members sitting on the panchayat (committee of elders with the highest sanctioning authority in community life), this family wielded enormous power and influence in Chaguanas. It was not unusual then that they would be central to the organization and performance of the Ramlila.

In this Fellows presentation, Pandita Indrani Rampersad (Ph.D) will talk about her ongoing research in dating the first Ramlila performances amongst the indentured Indians in Trinidad. She will talk about the role of community and families in the maintenance of Ramlila and will introduce members of the Naipaul family who will recall their own experiences and the involvement of other family members in the Ramlila performances in Chaguanas. Novelist Balkrishna Naipaul, 67, will relate his immediate and extended family’s involvement as performers and organizers in the Chaguanas Ramlila. He recalls his chacha (paternal uncle) Seepersad Naipaul, father of Sir Vidia Naipaul performing in the Ramlila. Of Balkrishna’s nine brothers and two sisters, six brothers participated in Ramlila as Sita, Ram, and Bharat, and also as organizers. Balkrishna, himself, performed as Sita and Bharat. He will also talk about the relationship between caste and the Ramlila. His brother, Pandit Krishna, will relate his experiences as a performer and an organizer.

FOR RESERVATIONS, PLEASE CONTACT MR GHANSHAM MOHAMMED AT (868) 638-0854 EXT 5021 EMAIL: [email protected]