For the innovative dissemination of an archive of recordings, photographs, footage and books relating to biraha (songs of separation). Ten musical camps will be organised in rural West Bengal, Assam and Bangladesh, apart from presentations/performances in cities. The camps will give different communities of musicians wider exposure to the songs from their region as well as similar and related songs from other regions.
For the development and staging of three theatre performances that draw on accessible images and texts relating to the history of Naxalite movement. The performances will be seen mainly via live video in an effort to replicate our fragmentary understanding of this movement. Each of the three pieces will be performed on ten occasions and audience responses will be incorporated into subsequent performances.
For research and writing that explores the relationship between the language of contemporary Bengali poetry (1990-2007) and the emergence of a new, urban middle class. The project will engage with the role of television, the Internet and mobile phones, among other things, in transforming the notion of a poetic language. It will lead to a series of essays that is expected to introduce new ways of reading and new tools of analysis into literary studies in Bengali.
For research towards two novels––in Bengali and English––on the journey of a refugee colony to urbanity in post-partition Calcutta. Envisaged as a border-crossing genre, the proposed novels will explore the interface between ethnography, history, memoir and fiction. Dwelling on the texture of the ordinary and familial history to construct an archive of pain, anguish and hope, the novels are expected to challenge nostalgic accounts of the afterlife of the Bengal partition.
For the production of Bishar Blues, a film on the fakirs of Bengal, examining their music and their deeply spiritual everyday life as a living practice of radical syncretism. Bishar, the deviant branch of Islam practised largely by the lower castes, does not sacralise the Shariat, and its history in Bengal is replete with the assimilation of Buddhist, Tantric and Vaishnavite traditions and practices. In a context where Islam is increasingly under attack from different quarters, the film seeks to open up a crucial debate on secularism.
For the making of a film exploring the cultural history of Tibetan Buddhism in Sikkim through the sacred dance theatre of Chham. The film will examine this ritual dance as it shapes and is shaped by its religious and cultural contexts, as well as the mutations in its traditional meanings through modernity and education. Titled The Listener’s Tale, the film seeks to be a witness to the contradictions and counter-forces that sustain this ancient art practice, the plurality of meanings it generates, and the active dialogue between the consciousness of the performers of Chham and its spectators.
For the publication of a book that documents the history of print advertising in the Bengali language, analysing its various forms and modes, and the media through which it was displayed and printed. The book will also catalogue commercial artists and their contribution to text and visual, and the impact of advertising on the material culture of Bengali households and patterns of consumption. In addition, a visual archive of over 3,000 documents will be made available on the Internet to trigger further research in the area.
For conducting theme-based museum education workshops for junior- and middle-school children in eight schools in Kolkata with a view to integrating museum visits with the teaching of history in the classroom. Following preparatory research in the Indian Museum, Kolkata, educational packages and multimedia presentations will be developed as workshop aids.
For the making of a non-fiction film based on the Bengali text Hutom Pyanchar Naksa. The film seeks to use the text––which documents the excesses, decadence and cultural richness of the nineteenth century Bengali bhadralok––as an entry point to explore the silences in the narratives of colonialism and modernity. Envisaged as a dialogue between past and present, the film will involve extensive documentation and interpretation of public life in contemporary Kolkata and of various subaltern art forms like khisti, kheud, charak and sang, revisiting places and practices mentioned in the text.
For the production of the Seagull Theatre Quarterly (STQ) and the creation of marketing and fundraising capabilities that would enable the journal to become self-supporting over time.
This Grant was amicably cancelled based on reasons mutually agreed upon by the Grantee and IFA due to unavoidable circumstances.
