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Tag Archives: iGRMS

Saving the Tribe

05 Monday May 2014

Posted by opus125 in India, Tribal India

≈ 2 Comments

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bhopal, iGRMS, India, Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, Poorvotsav 2014, Tribal India

Poorvotsav 2014 Bhopal

Tree frames lit in hues of Jasmine, Green and Reds silhouette cloth backdrops of tan and neem  Above, lilac, saffron and gold hang like coloured prayer flags.

The air is cool now.  Jupiter rides high above a quarter moon. An hour before, the harsh glare of sweat exploded in downpour over the old city. Lightening forks distantly, a madrassa of white skull capped youth find their mosque as dust blows over the blackened complexion of a prone street dweller by Kamla Park. Then the rush of rain flushes the air as I find shelter and coffee at Park View Fast Food Restaurant .

Poorvotsav 2014, Bhopal

Now,  as I admire the strength and agility of tribal dance I wonder whether good intentions are enough to save Tribal Culture.

A series of dancers where hats bound by strands of upright flowers. I am struck by the unity of design as much as by the variation f nature. The hats are not the factory designs of microscopically perfect regularity. Flower stems, like nature, have their own fractal chaos, that reminds me of the recursive ascension to mount Meru depicted in a Hindu temple roof, or the internal search within the  unadorned inner sanctum, garbhagrha, or  “womb room”, to be reborn again.

Poorvotsav 2014, Bhopal

The central energy of folk art is spiritual in an increasingly material world. This, wrote Doctor Narmada Prasad Gupta, has resulted in material and spiritual seen as antithetical opposites, like black and white. The natural and simple life is being lost because we have lost the purity of life that sees material and spiritual as an organic whole.

It is easy to be romantic of the past. It is easy to blame British or Muslim invaders “corrupting” a tribal purity. Others, like Vardana Shiva, suggest the masculinised Aryan invasion, conquered the more inclusive Matrisitc cultures that preceded them.

The village is no longer distant from the politics poverty, exploitation and manoeuvrings.

Tribal life found strength in its diversity, which modernity threatens to homogenise. The masculinised cultures likes to simplify, but nature, and the tribes dependent on her,  thrive in diversity.

So I am torn.

The wonderful beauty of tribal dance, performed so stunningly at the 3 day Poorvotsav, a North Eastern Tribal Dance Festival, at ,the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya (Igrms) Bhopal leaves me in awe and sad.

Poorvotsav 2014 Bhopal

The explosion in interest in Tribal art is a beautiful here in Bhopal.  However, unless the elite see beyond nature destroying production the Tribes will not survive.

Tribes thrive in the rich natural havens of mountains, rivers and trees. In our technologically destructive world, where life styles corrupted and ruined

Every day in the City of Lakes green farmland is being shredded into another apartment block.

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While showing wonderful dance and art in a city centre is marvellous and important does it support the thousands of practitioners of the art in a distant village? A short recording does wonders to promote an art to an unknowing urban audience yet also risks losing the hundreds of subtle variations of a dance unrecorded elsewhere.

Then there is the onslaught of Bollywood, as beautiful as that is in itself.. The travelling performers of Rajasthan for instance have complained people want renditions of the latest glitzy movie and no the unglamorous traditional performers.

I am in awe every tribal performance I visit here.  The bright red frocks sashed in tan are beautiful. The men in black tunics and white pyjama are a delight. The incredible musculature of a woman aching backward stuns me. Without the support of her hands another dances on her stomach.

As I return home, a lift offered me by a local near to my Shahpura home, he asks me if I attend church, pointing out the Campion church near home. I politely decline but thank him for the thought.

My thoughts ask instead how we can inclusively keep alive – indeed help make thrive – the knowledge, experience and folk sensitivity that is Tribal India.

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Images for this post are supplied from the IGRMS, Bhopal.

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Museum of Mankind: Bhopal’s Tribal Paradise

28 Friday Feb 2014

Posted by opus125 in India, Tribal India

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Tags

iGRMS, India, museum of mankind bhopal, Tribal India

Tribal Dance 155res

When I first arrived in Bhopal, I was thrilled by Madhya Pradesh verdant green,  large wildlife reserves shared by MP’s Tribal people. An eco-tourists dream, Tribal’s represent 20% of the states population. So it is no surprise to find the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya Museum of Mankind in the capital city Bhopal. A beautiful laid back 200 acre open air anthropology exhibit over looking Bhopals Upper Lake.

The iGRMS is the largest museum of its type in India. It includes life size huts life reconstruct tribal life from all of India scattered over a wide area and. the indoor Museum of Mankind, exhibiting human evolution, culture and India’s Tribal people. A small cafeteria offers you chai to seep into tranquillity. Themed ‘Diversities of India’s cultural patterns and the underlying unity’, the museum celebrates the ‘simultaneous validity’ of various valuable cultural patterns evolved over thousands of years. A gallery of tribal history from the four corners of India, it is appropriately located in Bhopal, as twenty percent of Madhya Pradesh population is Tribal. IGRMS Bhopal, Tribal Village

The Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya is not only a living working model of tribal life, but hosts cultural performance and dance, exhibitions, artist workshops and educational programs. It is ideal for families, and students. More like a park than a museum it’s a beautiful spot for a picnic. In my frequent visits  to Bhopal I have enjoyed spectacular performances of Tribal and Kathak dance. In 2012 hosted Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya a workshop for traditional and herbal therapies used by Tribal people, a three day Tribal dance Festival and a Festival of traditional Indian dance.

Sadly this beautiful centre is missed by most tourists .The regular cultural evenings are poorly advertised meaning that tourists do realise that Bhopal is a cultural centre. Close to the State Museum of Madhya Pradesh, off Science Centre Road, in Shymala Hills, TT Nagar, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Also annoying spelling errors mar the indoor museum – common even in Government buildings and document. It has the feel of a work in progress. Still, on the whole, it is beautiful and engaging.

Hours are from March to August 11.00 to 18.30 and September to Feb 10.00 to 17.30. Open every day except Mondays and National Holidays.

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Entrance Fee:

10 rupee for adults 5 rupee for children to 12 years or students with an identity card. Foreigners pay 100 rupees. Group discounts may apply for recognised educational organisations. Festivals and cultural evenings are usually free. Close to the Museum of Madhya Pradesh, off Science Centre Road, in Shymala Hills, TT Nagar, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.o the Sta Slightly out of the way, in this very rural of cities, a car or auto-rickshaw is probably a best choice from the Bittan Market, or 12 Number, from Main Road, cross TT Nagar Road, and continue into Science Centre Road. Your trip should be life changing, not just a holiday! For a life changing eco-tourism experience, click here.

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