Introduction

Chapter 1
Introduction

Culture provides a frame of reference and guide to define collective aspiration and
beliefs of a society. Culture creates patterned relationships in the group, which is called
a structure. Culture comprises ideas, values, and behaviour patterns, which are
supposed to be socially transmittable. In a more restricted sense, it constitutes the
‘ideational domain’ which includes the beliefs, values and expectations of the group. It
is a learned behaviour. ‘Culture is cultivation of man’s mind’ and hence cultural
values cultural traditions keep changing. People adopt their ‘sociological relations’,
‘spiritual convictions’ and ‘aesthetic tastes’ as a manifestation of their culture. Beliefs,
values and expectations are not static but dynamic and change either by force of
circumstances or conscious efforts of the cultural groups or by both. Due to contact
with other cultures and people sometimes cultural groups assimilate the properties
judged by the community to be appropriate. This process of cultural transformation
could be quite complex but interesting to understand.

The present study makes an attempt to understand the change in cultural traditions of
communities that have, by and large, lived in isolation till recently, viz. tribal communities,
as reflected in their performing art forms. Tribal, conventionally, are considered to be a
group of people supposedly living in remote places, untouched by modernity, have
little interaction with outside world, have very limited exposure to external environment,
have their own symbols of worship and have preserved and safeguarded their traditions
and customs. It was also assumed that so called modernity would not pollute their way
of life due to their limited exposure to outside world and also with technology. However,
to label them as primitive, uncultured would be quite erroneous. The advent of
communication and exposure of tribal to other communities and societies could also
have triggered some changes in their values, beliefs, culture as reflected in performing
art forms. It is also likely that old traditions and culture will give way to new patterns,
sometimes even at the cost of survival of these forms, that might decay over a period

1
of time, because the cultural values, tastes, interests change due to the exposure of
tribal communities to modern societies and systems.

The change in cultural values and traditions are best reflected in contemporary literature.
Unfortunately, such documentary evidences in written form, among tribal societies are
rare and scanty. Nevertheless, tribal societies do have a rich tradition of performing
arts like dances, theatre and oral narrative traditions, etc.1 The changes in these forms
might also indicate the pattern of cultural change over time.2 Therefore, the present
study uses ‘Madalya’ form of theatre to trace these changes. The proposed study
focuses cultural change triggered off by the process of modernisation that possibly
changed the lives of the tribal in the Dangs district of Gujarat which is predominantly a
tribal district (see, Map 1). It shares its border with Maharashtra. The case study of the
Dangs will be an interesting one as sitting between two progressive States of Gujarat
and Maharashtra; the Dangs has remained isolated and relatively unchanged for
centuries.

1.0 Rationale of the Study

The data presented in this study will show that the Dangs, its people and their culture
have been inadequately studied or understood. Not only that, even into present times,
all manner of misconceptions and biases prevail, notwithstanding the overpowering
evidence of the available Census data and the fact that the people have made
extraordinary progress and have joined the mainstream society with possibly

1
This was indicated by a number of persons in the Dangs with whom the researcher had informal
discussions on the status of culture and performing arts among tribal people.
2
It may be mentioned that the researcher had two very valuable opportunities to document the tribal
theater and tribal performing arts; first, during the years 1993-95 and then in 1998-99, with support
of the Department of Culture, Government of India and West Zone Cultural Center, Udaipur,
respectively. These studies aroused an academic curiosity in me to know more about the status of
performing arts among tribal population and the future thereof. One of the, rather disturbing, indications
that emerged from the earlier studies was the sign of their gradual decay over time, which could
ultimately lead to demise of this rich tradition. Therefore, I thought of exploring the subject more
intensively to explore satiate my academic thirst.

2
 Map-1: Location of The Dangs in Gujarat

3
The
Dangs
concomitant sacrifice of their own old culture and its various attributes. This is a wholly
desirable and expected but little recognized or acknowledged outcome and the record
needs to be set right in that regard.

Ample studies have been conducted focusing on the performing arts of the mainstream
society. The tribal performing arts and the study of changes in them have always been
ignored perhaps due to the immense difficulties of gathering data and challenges of
field work. In addition, tribal studies have not infrequently fallen prey to the evil of
patronization or paternalism, thrusting viewpoints and value judgments on the subject
rather than accepting it on its own terms and trying to recognize and acknowledge the
reality it presented when left unadorned by additions not inherent in the material as
found. This thesis takes care to avoid those pitfalls in its endeavor to develop an
understanding of what actually happens in these societies considered isolated and
‘different from the others’ in the mainstream, the status of their performing art forms as
the articulation of the community identity and do they survive, change or decay? An
attempt is made to comprehend the various aspects of tradition and change in this
inadequately studied and poorly reported community, especially through the tools of
original material collected in the field and copiously available reliable demographic
data made available by the decadal Census of India.

Resultantly, the study offers the serious effort needed to fill the gap in the prevailing
vacuum of serious studies of performing art forms of tribal societies which presents a
challenge to the teachers of performing arts schools and researchers.

1.1 Objectives of the Study

The overall objective of the study is to understand the dynamics of change (growth or
decay) in tribal performing art forms in response to the widespread socio-economic
changes that are sweeping the country. The specific objectives of the study are to:

4
 i. generate information on Mâdalyâ as a theatre form of the tribal of the Dangs
District;

ii. analyze and collate the data thus collected to gain insights into the relevance
and effectiveness of the art form as medium of communication;

iii. analyze the socio-economic context of the form and its associated social groups
with a view to establish a causal relationship between development and change
in tradition of art forms;

iv. compare and revalidate the findings of the first study conducted during 1993 -
1995 and the second study on Mâdalyâ conducted in the years 1998-1999,
with the new data set proposed to be collected during the current study; and,

v. attempt to understand the likely future in terms of growth or decay of the art
form ‘Mâdalyâ’, as well as the tradition that it symbolizes.

1.2 Scope of the study

The region of the Dangs has several performing arts forms classified under the
disciplines of music, dance, narrative traditions and theatre. For reasons stated in the
document, this study addresses itself specifically to the theatre known as Mâdalyâ, as
the theatre tradition of the Dangs, apparently previously unexamined. The other arts
such as dance, music, etc., are briefly explored only to the extent found necessary for
this study, chiefly to place the selected focus area in perspective. This study addresses
itself to the changes in music, songs, musical instruments, performance structure and
conventions of Mâdalyâ to the extent that they are used in Mâdalyâ theatre.

The use of the data of Census of India for this District particularly covering the decades
1960 – 2001 is also within the scope of the work but, where necessary and possible,

5
it extends its reach much further on both sides of the time divide, that is, before 1960
and after 2001 right into the present. This is necessary to overcome the problem of
stereotypical attitudes and beliefs even when enormous data base is available for
forming a correct and well informed view concerning the socio-economic state of the
people in question over an extended period of time. It is proposed not to further
perpetuate the inexcusable neglect of Census data in the study of the social group
and territory in question in this thesis.

This study of tribal art tradition has involved intensive field work spanning over two
decades. The primary sources of data have been the author’s two previous
documentations referred to earlier and the record of the oral renderings of actual theatre
performances written down by the researcher in the course of her field work. Being
the researcher’s own personal original work and the matter of this thesis being in the
nature of a continuum on the unfinished work, both these documents have been used
extensively for this study and are legitimately included in the scope of the work.

The earlier work has been augmented further by field documentation and additional
material gathered during 2007-2010. It should be remembered this is an attempt to
study a theatre tradition that has remained in oblivion till the decade of 1990 and in
absence of any other written source, the documentations of 1995 and 1999 are used
to trace the changes in theatre over two decades. These text sources have been
translated from Dangi to Gujarati with the assistance of local translators and later
transliterated into English. The use of the generated data base including that not
generated initially for this thesis, falls legitimately within the scope of this thesis as the
researcher’s own ‘ongoing work’ and has been so utilized.

1.3 Methodology and Data base

The Dangs was re-visited several times during the period 2007 to 2010 for this study
focusing on Mâdalyâ during which further serious research of gathering and generating

6
additional data and making a record of changes was undertaken with the objective of
creating a database to compare with the old data of the first two studies. The research
for this study was conducted in three villages of the Dangs, namely, Gadhavi, Murambi
and Lavariya situated in different directions of the Dangs district. While Gadhavi is
located in central Dangs, Murambi is near the border of Maharashtra in southern Dangs
and Lavariya is in the vicinity of Waghai at the entrance of the Dangs from the western
side (see, Map 2).

During the research an inquiry was made regarding the present status of existing
Mâdalyâ troupes. Of the previously documented seven Mâdalyâ troupes (1998-99)
only four troupes viz. Gadhavi, Murambi, Waghai-Barada and Jamanyamal could be
traced surviving and were able to give performances.

Out of these four Mâdalyâ troupes, the Gadhavi Mâdalyâ troupe was chosen for this
study because Gadhavi has been selected and studied as a model village of the Dangs
in several post-independence decadal socio-economic studies. The first was a village
survey study by Census of India in 1961. Subsequent socio-economic decadal studies
were conducted in 1971, 1981, and 1991 by Tribal Research Centre of Gujarat
Vidyapith, Ahmedabad. However these were demographic, socio-economic time-span
studies focused on the socio-economic profile of Gadhavi as a village and not referring
to Dangi performing arts. This thesis primarily concentrates on Mâdalyâ and examines
the impact of changing socio-economic conditions of the Dangs on Mâdalyâ theatre
as the performing art form of Dangi tribal.

Both, primary and secondary data have been used in the study. Extensive use was
made of the government records, District Gazetteers, Census data on the District of
Dangs, the record of researcher’s observations made in the Dangs over two decades
in the course of previous research work undertaken by the researcher, etc. Till date,

7
Map-2: Location of villages surveyed in The Dangs in 2010

Gadhavi

Lavariya

Murambi

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Mâdalyâ has remained an oral performance tradition and therefore the question of
having access to any written material or photographs saved as mementoes by family
or elderly Mâdalyâ performers did not exist. There is no reference to Mâdalyâ in any
previous published source other than the unpublished documentations of Performing Art
forms of Dangi Tribal (1993-1995) and a monograph on Mâdalyâ in 1998-1999. These
have served as a prime source of information for this study. Although various studies have
been conducted on different aspects of Dangi society and culture, they have been
piecemeal studies covering only selected areas or performing arts of the Dangs.

The primary data were collected using an open ended but structured schedule and
focused group, besides shooting the skits and extensive photography, through a field
study spanning about six months. The focus of the field work was the information on
current status of Mâdalyâ and perception of the people on its survival, growth or decay.
An attempt was also made to elicit information on preference of the people for alternate
and competing sources of entertainment like cinema, TV serials, etc.

The research process in the field involved organizing Mâdalyâ performances to

document relevant information to build the data base for this study and was thereby
conducted through the following activities:

ƒ Arrange performances of Mâdalyâ.

ƒ Observation, photography and videography of the performances.
ƒ Interviews with performers, community members and the audience.
ƒ Conducting a primary survey in the village.

1.3.1 Performances

Mâdalyâ troupes of the selected three villages, Gadhavi, Murambi and Lavariya were
contacted a month in advance and given a date for performance. The performances
were held in the respective villages to facilitate interaction with the community and the

9
performers. They were requested to perform the same plays which were documented
in 1998-1999 and any new ones the troupe may have created during the previous
decade. The performances of Gadhavi, Murambi and Lavariya Mâdalyâ troupes were
observed, documented and were translated from Dangi to Gujarati with the help of a
Dangi translator.

1.3.2 Interviews

Conducting and recording informal interviews with Mâdalyâ performers, community

leaders, the villagers and audiences of Gadhavi, Murambi and Lavariya village (before
and after the performance) was undertaken at the time of the performance.

1.3.3 Building Photographic Record

Photographing and video graphing the performances was an integral part of the task
and was carefully done, so that the work resulted in most valuable and perhaps in
many ways unique photo documentation of the subject.

1.3.4 Attitudinal Survey

An open ended but structured schedule was used to collect information from two
subsets of respondents after the performance. The first subset consisted of
respondents who had come to watch Mâdalyâ performance. The purpose of the first
subset of respondents was to evaluate the present popularity of the form within different
age group of audiences. The purpose of the second subset of respondents was to
identify the reasons that kept them away from the performance, mainly to identify the
reasons for receding popularity of Mâdalyâ.

Interviews were conducted after the performance was over at randomly selected homes
of whoever from various categories viz. the oldest person in the household, women of

10
the house, youth above 16 years, school going children of the house, retired Mâdalyâ
performers, was available and willing to be interviewed. The data were collected using
an open ended but structured schedule.

This survey conducted in Gadhavi and Murambi villages (4th May – 30th May, 2010)
covered fifty respondents. The respondents were categorized by their age viz. people
below the age of 30 years, 30-60 years and above 60 years. Their views were elicited
through personal interviews and through focused Group discussions, with the help of a
translator. The entire field data used for analysis in the study is primary data, collected
specifically for this study.

1.4 Review of literature

Three different disciplines were examined extensively to develop an understanding of

three varying components of this research. The first was performing arts and especially
theatre studies, the second was tribal studies and the third covered social change
studies. Various published works have been referred to in the study of the subject
matter of this research, including Government records and publications.

Various studies have been conducted and published on the culture and arts of Dangi
tribal by several authors. Among them, pioneering work has been done by Dr. D.B.
Kopper who has published a book on tribal arts of the Dangs based on his keen
observations during his tenure as museum curator of Saputara Museum in 19713. He
describes each discipline of art with photographs, but has not mentioned Mâdalyâ as
a theatre tradition of the Dangs and Dangis.

D.B. Chitale’s book ‘Dang: Ek Samyak Darshan’ is one of the best books written on
the Dangs in Gujarati giving an overview of history, geography, tribes and their rituals,
traditions and customs. By and large it covers majority of performing art forms of dance,
3
Kopper, D.B, (ed.), Tribal art of the Dangs, Vadodara: Department of Museums, Gujarat State,1971

11
theatre and musical instruments but fails to mention Mâdalyâ as a theatre form of
Dangi tribal.4

Dahyabhai Vadhu with his knowledge of local Dangi dialect has compiled ‘Kukana
Kathao’ under the tribal literature series of Delhi Sahitya Academy5. In this
comprehensive work he has translated the stories of Thalivadan, the oral narrative
tradition of the Dangi tribal in Gujarati. It provides an insight into life cycle of Dangi
tribal as narrated in oral traditions of the Dangs.

Dr. Raj Ratna Goswami in his monograph has given an outline of the Dangi socio-
economic structure, religion and aesthetics and arts. The book written from his
observations during his stay in the Dangs as museum curator is interesting and has
photographs, but it is mainly for tourists and not much useful for serious research on
performing arts of the Dangs6.

The Report of the Committee appointed by Gujarat Sahitya Sabha has the sole
objective of justifying inclusion of the Dangs territory in Gujarat State. It is mainly
concerned with establishing the cultural affinity of the Dangs with Gujarat mainly through
critical examination of possible links between the Gujarati language and Dangi dialect.
Prepared by eminent scholars, painters like Kanu Desai and musicians like Pandit
Omakarnath Thakur, it is rich with notations of Dangi songs and drawings7.

The recent publication of a book on Dangi grammar by Fr. Raymond Chauhan is the
outcome of an in–depth research of a missionary staying in the Dangs to preserve,
appreciate and create awareness of an important segment of Dangi dialect - its
grammar. He has discussed an area that even the local people may not be aware of.

4
Chitale, D. B, Dang ek Samyak Darashan, Ahwa: Dang Jilla Panchayat,1978
5
Vadhu, Dahyabhai documented and translated, Kukana Kathao, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi,
New Delhi, 2000.
6
Goswami, Raj Ratan, Tribal Heritage in Western India, Delhi: K.N. Book House, 2009
7
Dang: Gujarat Sahitya Sabha e nimeli samiti no ehaval, Gujarat Sahitya Sabha, 1949

12
His intensive research has been valuable in translating the typical Dangi words and
sentences for this work8.

Given this state of knowledge on tradition of Mâdalyâ the study at hand was seriously
constrained by non-availability of any prior records other than the researcher’s own
previous work referred to above.

1.4.1 Related Texts

For greater understanding of Dangi society and culture, the following studies have
been referred to:

David Hardiman’s scholarly work narrates the socio- political history of the Dangs and
adjoining area of south Gujarat in an attempt to trace the socio-religious Devi movement
and its impact among tribal. It provides a background to study many cultural traditions
and values in the twentieth century but the performing arts are beyond the scope of this
work9 and his chapter in the book ‘History for the Subordinated’, culture and art forms
are not in the scope of this book10.

The marginalization of tribal is traced through ‘Vadilcha Goth’, the oral narratives of
Dangi written by Ajay Skaria. It is completely devoted to oral narratives and provides
an understanding of Dangi world view expressed through stories, yet it does not cover
any other form of Dangi oral traditions11.

8
Fr. Raymond Chauhan, Dangi Bhashanu Vyakaran,St,Xaviers Social Service Society, Shamgahan,
Ahwa-the Dangs, 2011
9
Hardiman, David, The Coming of The Devi, Delhi: Oxford University Press,1987
10
David Hardiman, Histories for the Subordinated, Farming in the Forest: The Dangs 1830-1992,
Oxford University Press
11
Skaria,Ajay, Hybrid histories: Forests, Frontiers and Wildness in Western India, New Delhi:
Oxford University Press, 1999

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1.4.2 Performing arts

Several scholarly studies have been conducted on theatre traditions of India by Indian
as well as foreign authors. Among these studies and publications by scholars of art and
art forms Kapila Vatsyayan is a highly distinguished scholar with her deep understanding
and interdisciplinary approach that links each aspect of society to performing art forms
of India. But tribal theatre has remained outside the scope of her work12.

Farley Richmond and several others have written scholarly books describing all
disciplines of theatre traditions of India. The section on popular theatre traditions covers
a few regional theatre forms but tribal theatre is not covered and remains outside the
scope of the study13.

The most noteworthy work on folk theatre of Gujarat has been done by Sudha Desai.
It provides a guideline of how folk theatre studies can be organized and the aspects
that need to be highlighted in such studies. However this does not refer to any other
folk/tribal theatre of Gujarat 14.

1.5 Outline of the Study

The present study consists of seven chapters including the Introduction one. Chapter
2 provides an overview of the Dangs homeland and its people so that the socio-
economic setting and context of the subject of this thesis is recognized. It deals with
the first two of the ‘three voices’ that need to be heard in order to illumine the subject of
study and concludes with an overview. The first of these ‘three voices’ is the ‘voices
from the past’ which help to understand the historical, political and social background

12
Vatsyayan, Kapila, Traditional Indian Theatre: Multiple Streams, National Book Trust, 1980.
13
Richmond, Farley, Darius Swann and Phillip Zarrilli (eds), Theater in India, Traditions of Performance,
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,1990
14
Desai, Sudha, Bhavai: A Medieval Form of Ancient Indian Dramatic Art as Prevalent in Gujarat:
Ahmedabad: Gujarat University, 1972.

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of the area and subject of study as seen through the eyes of outside observers. The
second voice is the voice bridging past and present as most rewardingly and
authoritatively represented by the copious demographic data thrown up by the decadal
census of India. It helps us to moderate the sometimes extreme views of writers based
on superficial impression or without an adequate effort to come to a proper
understanding of the subject population and to put tradition and change in context and
provide the appropriate platform on which the questions inherent in this study need to
be examined. The ‘first voice’ on the people and culture of the Dangs being quite
unsatisfactory, the ‘second voice’ does the job most satisfactorily since it is based on
cold statistics and the data user is freer to utilize his own judgment and understanding.
Without it, a proper understanding of the Dangis and their remarkable story as it has
evolved over the past few decades would be impossible.

The third voice is the ‘voice from within’, which forms the subject of Chapter 5. As
opposed to the ‘outsider’ first voice, this is the ‘insider’ voice of the people of the
Dangs themselves as projected by the Mâdalyâ narrative and a careful hearing of it is
avoided only at the cost of doing grave injustice to the subject and purpose of this
inquiry. The challenge before the researcher is to evaluate if even this ‘third voice’ and
‘voice within’ is the authentic voice of the people and, if not, what effect that can be
concluded to have had on the theater.

Chapter 3 is devoted to dealing with the performing art forms of the Dangis in general.

Since the Mâdalyâ theatre is at the center of the thesis, this requires to be dealt with in
greater detail. Accordingly, Chapter 4 is devoted to a detailed examination of the
function, form and content of the art form. The coverage includes tools like musical
instruments etc. utilized as being integral to the form as well as the roles of each and
all components that typically constitute a Mâdalyâ performing troupe. This chapter
examines the history, conventions, performers, music and structure of the form in detail.

15
Chapter 5 presents what I have referred to as the ‘third voice’ or ‘voice from within’
which needs to be heard in considering the subject of the thesis. This is the voice of
the people themselves as it emerges from the recorded texts built up out of oral material
carefully collected in the field. It analytically explores the content of numerous Mâdalyâ
texts (presented in the thesis as an Appendix – 1) and Mâdal Geet (Appendix - 2) to
draw conclusions about what it has to say about Dangi society, its culture and customs,
its concerns, joys and pains and about the soundness of the form itself as an efficient
repository of the community’s cultural heritage and collective memory.

Chapter 6 is devoted to addressing the subject of the dissertation from the twin
aspects of tradition and change.

Chapter 7, the final chapter of the dissertation, presents its conclusions.

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