ABOUT THE BOOK

Folk performance traditions stand in a precarious position in many parts of the world as the growth of urban centres, modern lifestyles, along with the widespread availability of television, film, and Internet entertainment have pushed them away from the centres of public life. In some cases, the last masters of these arts are advanced in years with no committed disciples ready to follow them. In others, young performers eager to prove themselves lack opportunities to display their talents or simply find their audiences dwindling. What then does the future hold for these ancient traditions and are there ways in which the existing ones can be evolved? How does one think of Folk traditions in an age of television soaps, movies, glossy advertisements, mobile phones, online streaming, video parlours, and YouTube? If folk arts are so adaptable to change, why are so many of them in decay?

This book, a result of two jam-packed days of talks and discussions on the subject of folk performing arts, organized by KnIDS, (Centre for Knowledge Ideas and Development Studies), with support from the Indian Council of Social Science and Research, Eastern Regional Centre (ICSSR-ERC), is a collection of essays which deliver insights into the above mentioned problems and can move discourses on folk performance in new directions. This volume, therefore, does not represent a definitive statement on folk performance; but rather a call for further discussion and more models of all kinds for engagement with these arts by researchers, institutions, performers, and, most of all, audiences.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anita Singh

Anita Singh is a Professor in the Department of English at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. She received the Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Scholar Fellowship (2013-2014). She was a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study at Shimla (2018–2020). Her recent publications are Staging Feminisms: Gender, Violence, and Performance (Routledge, 2021) and the two edited volumes Gender, Space, and Resistance (2013) and Hero and Hero Worship: Fandom in Modern India (2020). She has completed a Major Research Project sanctioned by the Indian Council of Social Science Research, on “Performing Women in Ramlila of Ramnagar”. Dr Singh has published interviews with Indian performers in the Asian Theatre Journal, contributed to four chapters in the Routledge Handbook of Asian Theatre, (2016), and was the Guest Editor for the special issue of the Journal Gender Issues (Springer) 2018. She has also served as the conference Chair for The Future of Women conference held in Malaysia (2018), Colombo, Sri Lanka (2019) and Bangalore (2020) .She is the President of The Asian-African Association for Women, Gender and Sexuality.

Atasi Nanda Goswami

Atasi Nanda Goswami is the Research Coordinator of Centre for Knowledge Ideas and Development Studies (KnIDS). An exponent of folk arts, craft and culture; Dr. Goswami did her Ph.D from Jadavpur University in the field of Cultural Studies and Linguistics. She was a UGC post doc fellow at Institute of Development Studies Kolkata (IDSK). Her books and research papers on Beniputul (Glove Puppet), and Alkap (Folk Drama) are widely acclaimed. She has recently edited a volume 'Lives and Living: Learning to know at the time of pandemic. She has recently convened Two Day Webinar on "Sustainable Development: Taming Consumption, Yearning for Inclusivity" on February 25 26, 2022. She is presently working on a research project on using folk performance as a medium for fight against the superstitions and unscientific practices in rural areas.