Abstract
There is hardly any comprehensive study of the performing tradition with ecology from the South Asian perspective. Addressing the varied ecological setting of Gambhira performance in the borderland of Indo-Bangladesh, the paper maps the dialogism of performance and caste through the reflection of the power-politics, liminality, resistance and identity in the South Asian context. Until very recently, a growing body of work has emerged from South Asia concerning the profound effect of Anthropocene in the climate crisis. Performance’s engagement with the crisis of climate change offer an understanding of ontological categories like ‘nature’ and ‘culture’ where theatre/performance can contribute a meaningful dialogue in ecological impact of human affair and culture. The paper argues that cultural performance is essential to understand the ecological conflict or, more specifically, the ‘political ecology’ of any region. In India, environment is a complicated historical and social construction; every aspect of Indian life, including social, occupational, agricultural, food, water, land, forest, and irrigation, has been essential for caste imposition. Without juxtaposing caste and nature, we would not understand the complicated environmental aspect in India. This case study explores the intrinsic values of ecological inhabitance of the Dalits in the vulnerable region, the theoretical and practical insights of Gambhira performance help us to reconsider the environmental debate in South Asia. Environment for the Dalit is not only a romantic ecological experience in their everyday life; instead, it is an everyday social experience of the vulnerable reality of ecology.
Presenters
Dolon SarkarPhD Scholar, Theatre and Performance Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Civic, Political, and Community Studies
KEYWORDS
Caste, Ecology, Dalit environmentalism and Gambhira performance
