MANSUR FAKIR Mansur
Fakir, who is one of the foremost exponents to carry on Lalon Fakir's
legacy in Bengal, and who recently won the Sangeet Samman 2012 Award,
conducted a workshop at EZCC, with the support of the Sahajiya
Foundation, from June 5 to 8, 2012.The workshop not only taught Fakiri
songs and their theory, but also dealt in detail on what sets Baul,
Fakiri and Darbeshi songs apart. In this age of urbanization and
commercialization, the fact that so many people turned up to learn
Fakiri songs, was proof that the more complicated our lives become,
the more people turn to these songs, to come closer to their
heritage. Songs composed by Lalon like 'Barir Kache Arshi Nagar' and
'Pare Jabi Ke' are very popular songs of him. The evening 22nd Dec'12 is
going with the presentation of Darbeshi songs and Lalangiti by the
world famous fakir and the members of the 'Sahajiya' Foundation.
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Sufi Music from around the World (2011) 04 - Gorbhanga Fakirs 28th September 2011 at Barbican, London EC2.
“The Estatic Journey: Music from around the Sufi World”, Part of Transcender Festival.
Country: India. Style: Sufi Music - Gana & Bangla Qawwali.
Lineup: Vocalists/Dotaras (2-string lutes), Harmonium, Dholak, Jhuri (small cymbals).
The
group comes from Gorbhanga in West Bengal (north of Kolkata, near the
Bangladesh border). They are Bauls, the traveling minstrels of Bengal.
The group play Gana (devotional songs influenced by Bakti and Sufism),
and Bangla Qawwali (influenced by the Pakistani Sufi style).
The Fakirs of Gorbhanga (Bengal)
At the occasion of a special Event (THE SUFI NIGHT) at La Cité de la Musique in Paris in October 2011... Thanks to Edith NICOL.
Art for changeIndia Blooms News Service
Folk
art forms have been with the rural communities for centuries but now
the artists have been encouraged to develop them into new forms to
ensure commercial success and empowerment, finds Baishali Mukherjee
Residing
in a far away village in Nadia of West Bengal, nobody knew Golam Fakir
as an artist six years ago. Belonging to a marginalised community and
without formal education, Golam used to carry dead bodies from the
police station to the morgue. His is a fascinating story of
transformation- from a nonentity despised by many in the neighbourhood,
to a celebrity singer Baul geet, a form of Bengal’s folk song, in a span
of six years. He has performed all over India
and has travelled to UK, Switzerland, France, Tunisia, Scotland and
China. His income has gone up from around Rs 200 a month to Rs 30,000
now. Golam narrates his experience through this journey in his own
fashion, “I never thought of anything beyond my two meals few years
back, and now I’ve the opportunity to travel across the globe and
perform on stage with great musicians and performers, and represent my
country in front of the global audience. It fills my heart when people
appreciate and applaud Baul music,” he says.Moyna
Chitrakar is a patua (from patachitra) artist who specializes in scroll
painting of Bengal. Her story too reflects how women have been
empowered through exposition of their art. Moyna and her husband Malekh
used to earn about one thousand a month six years ago. Today her family
earns many times over. She has travelled with her paintings and other
diversified products to different parts of India attending fairs and
festivals. She even went to China to attend an industrial fair in
Shenzhen. With her money she has also constructed a two storey house in
her village where tourists can stay. Moyna is a confident woman today
and says, “We can concentrate on our work now as we don’t need to worry
about our next meal anymore.”
Crafting
this change since 2004 is banglanatak dot com, a social development
organization in Kolkata. Elucidating the process of change, Amitabha
Bhattacharya, director, says, “Culture is a great enabler. It fosters
social inclusion. Oral and performing art traditions are an asset for
developing rural enterprise.” New markets are created and new brands can
be developed to promote traditional performing and visual arts and
crafts, he points out. “Heritage becomes a means of livelihood and
empowerment. The motto is ‘To preserve art, let the artists survive’,”
he adds.
The ministry of
culture, West Bengal, supported the initiative between 2005 and 2009. In
December, 2009, the European Union provided support to the project
named Ethno Magic Going Global (EGG) to take ethno art to the global
arena. The project has created a tremendous impact leading to socio
economic development of the beneficiaries and their communities. With
identity being changed from ‘daily unskilled labour’ to ‘artist’, they
are now coming forward to participate even in the development process.
Revitalizing
and reviving these heritage skills as means of livelihood necessitates
mobilizing changes in mindset and attitudes as the folk artists become
‘cultural service providers’. A comprehensive training and capacity
building programmes was undertaken after the formation of a Self Help
Group to help innovate new ways of rendering the traditional art forms.
The aim was to establish a guru- shishya parampara- where skilled
craftsmen pass on their knowledge to the practicing artists.
Winds
of change have now started blowing elsewhere too. Recently, LNG
Petronet, one of the fastest growing companies in the Indian energy
sector, has come up with the documentation of Swang- a popular form of
folk theatre in rural Haryana and Punjab and an integral part of their
rich cultural heritage. It aims at introducing the form among the
connoisseurs to facilitate its preservation and promotion.
However,
awareness about this form of performing art is low among the urban
youth or even among the modern theatre groups. According to Kishan
Kumar, a theatre activist of Rohtak, Haryana, the government organizes
Swang to raise money from the public for repair or construction of
schools or roads. Its popularity may be gauged by the fact that around
rupees two to three lakh was raised from a single performance of Swang
in Haryana. “If made into compact and short productions, Swang can prove
to be a popular entertainment form,” feels Kamal Tewari, chairperson of
Sangeet Natak Akademi in Chandigarh.
Taking
the cultural revival a step further, banglanatak dot com has also taken
the initiative to incubate and enliven the age old art forms of Bihar
from becoming moribund. Apart from the Madhubani painting no other folk
form of Bihar is well-known today. Efforts are
on to rejuvenate the feisty cultural inventory of Bihar that includes
folk songs like Sohar, Nirgun, Kajri, and Byaas, dance like Jhijia,
dramas like Ramleela, Nautanki etc, tribal dance like Santhali dance and
crafts like sujni (embroidered quilts) and sikki (grass weaving). More
than a thousand individuals with knowledge about these art forms have
been identified under a project.
Apart
from art forms, the scope for developing ethno-cultural tourism offering
authentic experience of indigenous life is also being explored. From
places like Gorbhanga, a village located in Nadia district that houses a
band of Baul artists, Pingla, home to around 300 patuas in West
Midnapore district and Jangal Mahal in Bengal, to Tinsukia in Assam and
also Goa, are being developed as community led ethno-tourism
destinations by exploring the traditional artistic skills of local
population as primary resources. The important
impact of developing tourism in these places will be restoration of
peace in the disturbed areas of Bengal and Assam through inclusive
growth of the aboriginal people of those areas. In
today’s world of intolerance and unrest culture can prove to be a
potential tool for establishing universal peace and brotherhood. For as
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once said “Hatred is something peculiar. You
will always find it strongest and most violent where there is the lowest
degree of culture.”
MANSUR FAKIR
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