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Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Friday ICGC Brown Bag: Arshiya Sethi on politics and the recognition of dances of Assam

Encounter Politics and the Problematic of Performance and Patronage in the National Recognition of the Dances of Sattras of Assam  

By Dr. Arshiya Sethi, 
Visiting Scholar, Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Date:     Friday, October 5, 2018
Time:    12:00pm in 537 Heller Hall
Place:   537 Heller Hall
Series:  ICGC Brown Bag

Abstract:
The National recognition accorded in November 2000, to the Dance of the Sattras, the Vaishnav monasteries of Assam, I argue, was an act driven more by political expediency rather than the artistic valorization of the dance. This national recognition, accorded to the dance form of Sattriya, on 15th November, 2000, came about, when bullets were tearing the silence of tense nights in Assam, a state located in the north-east of India, which had for over three decades, has seen violent federal contestations between state and non state actors. When the discord led to secessionist posturing, taking advantage of a new leadership in Delhi, the ‘Assam Accord’ was signed in 1985, between the Government of India and some of the protesting parties from Assam. Amongst other things, this Accord promised to honour the cultural aspirations of the people of Assam. It was in that flow of events that the dances of the sattras of Assam, the Hindu Vaishnav monasteries of medieval origin, were given national recognition. I make my case by emplotting the political events on a time line, which leads up to the moment of recognition.

Further, this talk excavates the political linkages of this dance, right from pre colonial times, to now, and explores the influence of patronage on the artistic practices of the sattras. The recent, recognition, in the name of the nation, has impacted the form in subtle and more persuasive ways, imposing  prescriptive paradigms of a national view of aesthetics that aligns with the privileged and protective status of 'classical'. Most importantly, it has compelled the dance of the sattras into a dual existence- reflected in its monastery life with ritual valences, and a stage life, of artistic splendour but compromised essentials. The contestations and negotiations on a federal stage and between the ritualistic platform and the modern stage, define Sattriya’s more recent story.

Biography:
Arshiya Sethi is an independent scholar based in Delhi, India. Till earlier this year she was a Fulbright Nehru Post Doctoral Fellow, at the University of Minnesota, working on “Governance and the Making of the Cultural Meme”. Her doctoral work was on Dance and Politics This is her second Fulbright. During her earlier grant she was attached to the Lincoln Centre, New York, as a Fulbright Arts Fellow from 2003-2004. Dr. Arshiya Sethi, formerly dance critic for the English daily, the Times of India, presented the archival National Programme of Dance and Music, and later became Advisor for Doordarshan, the National Television broadcaster. She was part of the project team that built up the India Habitat Centre as Delhi’s premium cultural venue. She has mentored other tangible and intangible cultural properties in India. She writes on cultural issues for books and journals, and runs the Kri Foundation, that works on Arts, Activism in the Social and Development Sectors and in the generation of knowledge.

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