Hello Readers!

India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) is back with news on our work between July 2019 and October 2019!

Dive-in for updates on our programmes—Project 560, Arts Research, Arts Practice, Arts Education, Archives and Museums, and for news on our many events—film screenings, lectures, exhibitions, and more. Click on our Point of View section for an engaging interview with neuroscientist and musician Deepti Navaratna, an Arts Research grantee who explores the musical legacy of the Royal Carnatic Orchestra of the Mysore Court.

Please visit our website or find us on Twitter, facebook, and YouTube. We are also on instagram now. Follow for regular updates!

We hope you enjoy the contents of this newsletter and we would love to hear from you! Write to us at contactus@indiaifa.org with any feedback or query.

Warmly,
The IFA Team

The Project 560 programme at IFA is committed to a long-term, continuous engagement with the city through multipronged strategies including grantmaking and collaborations. We received 40 proposals and conducted interviews with the shortlisted applicants under three categories—for Neighbourhood Engagements, Curated Artistic Engagements and Arts Projects (Research/Practice), at the IFA Office. The interviews were conducted by an expert panel along with the IFA team.

We are delighted to introduce you to our recent grantees under Neighbourhood Engagements and their projects:

Suchitra Deep, an urban designer received a grant for a creative workshop over two days that seeks to build a collective identity for the neighbourhood of Malleswaram through the memory mapping technique. Using visual story-telling, drawing, writing, and recording oral histories, participants will examine ideas of ownership, identity and belonging as well as their relationship with change. The outcome will be a set of memory maps on Malleswaram.

Gayatri Chandrashekhar, a journalist and singer received a grant for the creation of a performance exploring the history of the ‘Egyptian’ neighbourhood in Jayanagar Third Block. Through in-depth personal interviews of the residents, this project attempts to elicit their memories and current relationship with the locality. The outcome will be an event that will include a theatre and music performance, and storytelling.

Anaheeta Pinto, a communications consultant received a grant for an artistic engagement involving the children of Richards Town, Bangalore, including students of the Clarence School on Pottery Road and the children of the Pourakarmikas who work in the ward, led by a local artist and a design firm. The children will be encouraged to explore the environs surrounding Richards Park and their connections to the neighbourhood. The outcome of the project will be a three-day artistic intervention culminating in the creation of artworks on the walls along the railway track on Pottery Road.

Our grantees organised a variety of events and activities in and around Bangalore city:

In search of Begum and her mahal
Lekshmi Mohan R, now known as Sunil Mohan received a grant in 2018 for the creation of a performance based on the life and times of ‘Begum’ who lived in a prime locality in Bangalore in the 1980s. On July 30, 2019, Sunil and his team organised a performance of the play titled Freedom Mahal at Ravindra Kalakshetra. This play theatrically imagined and reconstructed the life and times of Begum and her space through the diverse kinds of oral narratives that have been gathered. Part-historical, part fictional in nature, the play acted as a prism that enabled the audience a peek into Begum and her world from different viewpoints. In doing so, this play brought to life the undocumented and neglected history of transgender people in Bangalore. Read more about the performance in The Wire.

Aravani Arts Collective at Ulsoor cemetery
Poornima Sukumar received a grant in 2018 for a year long series of curated artistic and cultural engagements in Bangalore that explore the city through the lives and perspectives of the transgender community, which has formed the Aravani Arts Project collective. Aimed at embracing certain rituals of the transgender community in Bangalore, on September 15, 2019, members of the collective organised a unique event titled Karagadha Kathegalu - Stories about a form, space and people at Ulsoor cemetery.

A member of Aravani Arts Collective addressing the audience at Karagadha Kathegalu - Stories about a form, space and people at Ulsoor cemetery, Bangalore in September 2019

Local history, skit, song and dance
Gayatri Chandrashekhar received a grant in 2019 for the creation of a performance exploring the history of the ‘Egyptian’ neighbourhood in Jayanagar Third Block. On September 22, 2019, she organised an event at Vijaya High School, exploring local histories of the neighbourhood through storytelling sessions by the residents, theatre and music performances, and video screenings.

Residents of Jayanagar sharing stories of the neighbourhood at Local history, skit, song, and dance at Vijaya High School in September 2019

A walk through Richards Town
Anaheeta Pinto received a grant in 2019 for an artistic engagement involving the children of Richards Town, Bangalore. On September 29, 2019, she along with illustrator Paul Fernandes and Aditya Fernandes, organised a walk with children through Richards Town and made sketches of their observations to paint the newly rebuilt railway wall on Pottery Road.

IFA Grantee Anaheeta Pinto along with illustrators Paul and Aditya Fernandes, and members of the Richards Town Residents Association, at a walk through Richards Town with children of the neighbourhood in September 2019

The Arts Research programme at IFA supports research into the histories and expressions of artistic practices in India. Under this programme, scholars, researchers and practitioners receive support for projects that investigate marginalised or relatively unexplored areas; create spaces for dialogue between theory and practice; offer new readings and frameworks for artistic practices; and use interdisciplinary approaches to break new conceptual ground. At IFA we encourage projects in Indian languages including English, in order to contribute towards discourse-building in multiple language contexts.

We are happy to report the overwhelming response to our Request for Proposals sent out in April 2019! We received 397 queries and more than 130 applications in multiple Indian languages. We will convene a panel of experts to review the shortlisted proposals, and then make the final grants by the end of November 2019. Stay tuned!

The Arts Research programme for the year 2019-2020 is supported by Titan Company Limited.

The Arts Practice programme supports critical practice in the arts and accepts proposals all year round. It encourages practitioners working across artistic disciplines to question existing notions through their practice. We are delighted to introduce you to our recent grantees and their projects:

The Arts Practice programme is temporarily closed from July 08, 2019 to November 30, 2019. This is because we organised Past Forward: Celebrating Critical Practices, a festival celebrating the works of our earlier grantees this year and have already expended our budget for projects under the programme. We will open invitations for queries and proposals again from December 2019 for projects starting in April 2020 onwards.

Gyandev Singh, a light designer received a grant for the creation of an interactive technology with projection and lighting, towards formulating a new language of scenography for dance and theatre performances in India. Being responsive to the performer’s movements on stage, the technology will enable elements of unpredictability and spontaneity into performances, making lights a ‘co-performer’. The outcomes will be the interactive technology apparatus and a dance performance that employs this mechanism.

Sri Neelakanteswara Natyaseva Sangha, a cultural organisation in Karnataka received a grant for the creation and dissemination of a theatrical production titled Olangana, a Kannada adaptation of the play Interior written by Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck. Involving a guest director and 15 alumni of Ninasam, the play aims to dislodge the centrality of text and bring in a new performance vocabulary into contemporary Kannada theatre. The outcome will be a performance scheduled to open at Ninasam in February 2020 and will subsequently be performed in 15 to 20 cities and small towns across Karnataka.

Ram Ganesh Kamatham, a theatre actor, director, and playwright received a grant for research into the narratives of Indian seafarers who left home as labour aboard British ships in the early part of the 20th century. Engaging with these stories of sailors and with a focus on the underrepresented maritime history of South India, the research will investigate into notions of home, belonging, and identity for the seafarers. The outcome will be a script towards a performance.

The Arts Education programme titled Kali Kalisu, (‘Learn and Teach’ in Kannada), focusses on integrating arts with the curriculum in government schools in Karnataka. It attempts to achieve this objective through grants made to artists and teachers; and facilitating training workshops for teachers and administrators.

After a careful reading of proposals received from the call circulated in May 2019, we conducted interviews with 14 shortlisted applicants and finalised grants to all of them by setting a new record in this programme.

Read about their diverse projects, covering movement and science, theatre and puppetry, playback theatre and more, which will be carried out in a range of districts across the State:

Sunitha R, a visual artist received a grant for a series of arts-based exploratory learning modules at the Government High School, S M Krishna Nagara, Gadag, Karnataka. The project will involve eighth grade students in various visual, math and science integrated activities centred on the ecology of a tree exploring its nature and structure, habitation of animals and insects on it, as well as its importance in the environment. The outcome will be an exhibition and a publication titled Maravembudu Ondu Jaivika Vyavasthe ('tree is an organic ecosystem').

KV Nayaka, an activist received a grant for a series of arts-based exploratory learning modules at the High School section of the SSEA Government Pre-University College, Gauribidanur, Chikkaballapura, Karnataka. The project will involve ninth grade students in various visual arts and theatrical activities centered on the struggles for independence and later, land, that was witnessed in Vidurashwatha and Nagasandra villages in 1938 and 1984 respectively. The outcome will be a performance and a publication titled Putta Paadagala Nade – Nela Samskritiyede ('small steps towards land and culture').

Syed Fakruddin Huseni, a visual artist received a grant for a series of arts-based exploratory learning modules at the Government Model Primary School, Hongasandra, Bangalore, Karnataka. The project will enable fifth grade students to explore the world of matchboxes including their design, typography, reason and purpose of using specific designs, and their geographical journeys. The outcome will be a matchbox museum set up in the school.

Rani Manjula Devi G, an assistant teacher received a grant for a series of arts-based exploratory learning modules at the Government Higher Primary School, Haandi, Chikkamagalur, Karnataka. The project will involve fifth to seventh grade students to study, analyse and sing the Shatpadis – six lined poetic stanzas - from the Jaimini Bharata composed by the 16th century Kannada poet, Lakshmisha from the region. The outcome of the project will be a performance.

Mounesh Vishwakarma K, a stage performer and a press reporter received a grant for a series of arts-based exploratory learning modules at the Government Model Higher Primary School, Kalladka, Dakshina Kannada, Karnataka. The project will involve 30 students in various engagements to understand, analyse and critique different aspects of the performing arts and enable them to write about it. The outcome will be a bi-monthly arts newsletter created by the students.

Teachers' training programme in Coorg

A three-day teachers' training programme was held at District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) in Kudige, Kushalnagar, Kodagu from August 27 to 29, 2019 for government schools across the district. This programme is aimed at sensitising participants to the many pedagogical possibilities in arts integrated education, with discussions on local literature and poetry, and workshops on theatre, music and craft. Such events are held through the year in various parts of Karnataka by faculty members and resource persons of arts and education—many of whom have been associated with IFA, facilitated by our Programme Officers for Arts Education, Krishnamurthy TN and Radhika Krishna Bharadwaj. Through this training programme, we reached out to 52 teachers, 237 peer teachers and 13,072 families.

Teachers’ training programme in Kudige village at Kodagu district in August 2019

Kala Yatra

This component is designed to enable grantees to share their work with schools and the local communities. Through this, we hope that together, they will develop comprehensive approaches for integrating the arts with the school curricula, strengthening arts instruction and improving the students’ academic performance. This experiential ‘Yatra’ also realises the importance of discovering a new environment and introducing participants to sustainable engagement. To facilitate this, four taluks will host 40 meaningful interactions between grantee teachers and artists and members of visiting schools. Each ‘Yatra’ includes a theoretical (slides, case presentation, talk) and practical session each (group exercises, personal activities). Between July and October, three such ‘Yatras’ have been completed in government schools located in Kushtagi, Channagiri and Belgaum.

The first such Kala Yatra took place in Kushtagi taluk, Koppal district from July 23 to 25, 2019, the second in Channagiri taluk, Davanagere district from August 01 to 03, 2019 and the third in Belgaum district from August 28 to 30, 2019. In all, we were able to collaborate with 52 schools and reach out to 495 teachers, 10,818 students, 116 villages and 16,467 families.

Kala Yatra, designed to enable grantees to travel and share their arts education projects with different school communities, at Belgaum in August 2019

National School Grants

We got an overwhelming response to the Request for Proposals sent out in June 2019. We received 45 enquires and 20 proposals from Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamilnadu, Delhi and Karnataka covering a broad spectrum of topics. We will convene a panel of experts to review the shortlisted proposals, and then make the final grants by December 2019. Stay tuned for updates!

The Arts Education programme for the year 2019-2020 is supported by Citi India.

From 2013 to 2018, IFA ran the Archival and Museum Fellowships initiative. During this period, our work between the years 2015 and 2018 was supported by Tata Trusts. The aim of these fellowships was to energise archives and museums as platforms for dialogue and discourse. It provided practitioners the opportunity to generate new, critical and creative approaches to public engagement with materials in museum and archival collections. These fellowships enabled the creation of multiple narratives and histories, based on resources that would be difficult to access otherwise. During these five years, 35 fellowships were made across seven archives and museums each. With the initiative having completed five years, as is the practice at IFA with each of our programmes, it was felt necessary to review the initiative and reimagine its future trajectory.

A conference titled Old Routes/New Journeys was organised in New Delhi in March 2018, in collaboration with Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi; and supported by Tata Trusts, Titan Company Limited and Ambedkar University, Delhi. This conference brought most of the IFA fellows, host institutions and outcomes together for the public and experts in the field. This was followed by a programme review by a panel of experts from the field – Rustom Bharucha, Joyoti Roy, Naman Ahuja and Shuddhabrata Sengupta. With the help of their recommendations, the newly articulated programme – the Archives and Museums programme (AMP) has been formulated.

The objective of the Archives and Museums programme, launched in April 2019 for a period of three years, is to continue to energise museums and archives as platforms for dialogue and discourse. Instead of fellowships, the programme will offer grants. The focus will be on both institutions and individuals to become co-producers of knowledge and expertise. The programme will select and work in collaboration with eight institutions – four archives and four museums.

The Archives and Museums programme (AMP) will offer three kinds of grants in association with the chosen institutions – Scholarly Grants, Creative Grants and Technical Grants.

Scholarly Grants: These grants will aim at creating content and supporting the knowledge bank of the institution, culminating into tangible outcomes such as books and catalogues. The grants will be for Rs 4 lakh each, and will cover both research and final outcomes.

Creative Grants: These grants will aim at supporting the creative outcomes of interpreting the collections through exhibitions, films, workshops or other public engagements. The grants will be for Rs 4 lakh each and will cover both research and final outcomes.

Technical Assistance Grants: An additional grant for technical assistance such as building inventories, digitisation, photography, online support, etc will be made in conjunction with the aforementioned Scholarly and Creative grants. This technical assistance will be awarded when it is deemed necessary and essential to the scholarly or creative outcomes. These grants would be made available to the institution or to the technical expert directly. The grants will be up to a maximum of Rs 3 lakh.

Archives and Museums interested in collaborating with IFA on these grants could write to Suman Gopinath at suman@indiaifa.org for more details.

Watch out for ‘Request for Proposals’ that will open soon!

The Archival and Museum Fellowships initiative for the years September 2015 to August 2019 is supported by Tata Trusts.

The IFA Archive is now online with materials from grants made between 2009 - 2013! The team is currently working on uploading materials from 2008 - 2009 and 2007 - 2008 online.

Explore a grant from the Archive with us!

Discover a Bengali Language Initiative grant made to researcher Indrani Majumdar Das Sharma in 2011 - 2012 to document and digitise Bengali Gramophone records from a particular period of time along with the books and plays that were performed in the recordings.

From Indrani Majumdar Das Sharma’s collection of discs - a song from the play Atmadarshan, sung by Angurbala

The IFA Archive is open every Friday, between 02:30 and 05:30 PM (unless it is a Government holiday). For more information, write to spandana@indiaifa.org

The IFA Archive is built with support from the Lohia Foundation.

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We organise grant showcases that take the form of presentations, performances, panel discussions, film screenings and more, for multiple audiences across the country. These grant showcases help create dialogue and in turn, become exciting spaces of discovery and discussion. Our staff also participated in various seminars to talk about our programmes, projects and the vision of grantmaking and arts philanthropy. Below is an account of these activities over the last few months:

IFA Film Festival in Amritsar

IFA Film Festival was organised in collaboration with Majha House on August 30 and 31, 2019 at Guru Nanak Bhawan, Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar. Over the course of two days, 10 IFA supported films in a variety of languages and cinematic forms exploring diverse themes across music, dance, theatre, photography, cinema, and interplanetary travel were screened. In addition, filmmaker and IFA Grantee Shabani Hassanwalia took part in the festival and interacted with the audience. Read more about the film festival in The Tribune.

Curated Presentations in Bangalore

Listening: Inside, Outside, presentations on engagements with specific communities in Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh by Avner Pariat and Sharbendu De was organised on September 06, 2019 at The Park, Bangalore.

Avner presented his research into stories of the tiger as a cultural, social and political symbol in Khasi cultural practices in Meghalaya and Sharbendu presented his work with the Lisus, a forest-dwelling indigenous community inside Namdapha National Park and Tiger Reserve on the Indo-Myanmar border of Arunachal Pradesh.

Through their presentations, both of them shared experiences of working with communities from the ‘inside’ and ‘outside’; explored what constitute these spaces, their blurring; and implications of occupying them as artists.

Avner Pariat and Sharbendu De received grants from India Foundation for the Arts, under the Arts Research programme. Sharbendu’s grant was made possible with support from Titan Company Limited.

Sharbendu De presenting his work at Listening: Inside, Outside organised at The Park, Bangalore in September 2019

Film Screening in Hyderabad

The premiere screening of Songs of Our Soil by Aditi Maddali was organised on September 27, 2019 at Lamakaan in Hyderabad. This was followed by a discussion with the filmmaker Aditi Maddali and writer - scholar Dr Gogu Shyamala. Read more about the film in The Hindu.

Aditi Maddali received a grant from India Foundation for the Arts, under the Arts Research programme, made possible with support from Titan Company Limited.

Film maker Aditi Maddali and writer-scholar Gogu Shyamala addressing the audience after the premiere screening of Songs of Our Soil at Lamakaan, Hyderabad in September 2019

Documentary Film Festival in Bhubaneshwar

The Indian Documentary Film Festival Bhubaneshwar organised by the Film Society of Bhubaneshwar took place from September 27 to 29, 2019 at Guru Kelu Charan Mohapatra Odissi Research Centre in Bhubaneshwar. Three IFA supported films - In Search of Aseemun by Taran Khan, Every Time You Tell a Story by Ruchika Negi, Amit Mahanti, and Songs of our Soil by Aditi Maddali - were screened. Filmmakers and IFA Grantees Aditi Maddali and Amit Mahanty were present at the festival to share their experiences with the audience.

Members of our staff travelled to many places to participate in discussions on arts and philanthropy.

Arundhati Ghosh, Executive Director, IFA was invited to be part of the curatorial team of the International Theatre Festival of Kerala 2020 (ITFOK) organised by Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi.

Arundhati Ghosh, Executive Director, IFA was in a conversation with Saba Dewan on In Search of Umrao: Exploring Desires and Destinies at Gender Bender 2019 organised by SandBox Collective on August 22, 2019 at Bangalore International Centre.

Arundhati Ghosh, Executive Director, IFA was also invited to participate in Urban Lens Film Festival 2019, organised by Indian Institute of Human Settlements in Bangalore on September 22, 2019. She spoke in a session curated by Shabani Hassanwalia, along with Disha Mullick, Sophy V Sivaraman and V S Kundu on The Future of Documentary Practice in the Digital Age: A Funder’s View.

Menaka Rodriguez, Head of Resource Mobilisation and Outreach, IFA participated in Malraux Seminar 2019 on Culture in Urban Spaces by Indo-French Forum at India Habitat Centre on September 26, 2019. She moderated a panel titled Devising artistic events in public spaces. How to best mobilise and coordinate with a network of actors, partners and sponsors? featuring Varun Gupta, Ashok Adiceam, Vanessa Mirza and Stephane Segreto-Aguilar.

Menaka Rodriguez, Head, Resource Mobilisation and Outreach, IFA (centre) moderating a panel at Malraux Seminar 2019 on Culture in Urban Spaces by Indo-French Forum at India Habitat Centre in September 2019

Menaka Rodriguez, Head of Resource Mobilisation and Outreach, IFA was invited to be part of a conversation titled Funding the Arts along with Dipankar Panth at Shoonya - Centre for Art and Somatic Practices in Bangalore. This session was held as part of The Platform, A Festival of Dance at Shoonya on September 29, 2019.

ARTS SERVICES
The Arts Services initiative at IFA enables corporates and organisations to support specific arts projects and experiences that we see value in, and which are close to their hearts. This initiative is not part of our grant programmes, but arises out of our impulse to connect supporters with artists in collaborative projects. It also enables us to raise more resources for our grantmaking.

CATALYST
Catalyst—Arts, An Inspiration for Excellence is an initiative that continues to bring to corporate houses, a wide range of accomplished artists from the worlds of theatre, literature, visual and performing arts, to share their creative journeys and pursuit of excellence in a year-long engagement. These artists include Raghu Rai, Malavika Sarukkai, Aditi Mangaldas, BN Goswamy, Ratna Pathak Shah, Sanjna Kapoor, Romi Khosla, Arundhati Nag, Jitish Kallat, Atul Dodiya, Rahul Ram, Varun Grover, Benjamin Gilani, Astad Deboo, Anju Dodiya, Reena Kallat and Lillete Dubey. Catalyst also includes a version that can be customised to offer arts workshops along with talks.

For more details on Catalyst or if you would like to bring this programme to your company, please write to Joyce Gonsalves at joyce@indiaifa.org

We will be happy to work with you on diverse Arts Services, which include the conceptualisation, design and management of arts courses, talks, and workshops and for different audiences. For more details on the Arts Services provided by IFA please write to menaka@indiaifa.org

SMART (Strategic Management in the Art of Theatre)
SMART, a series of three-day workshop modules to be conducted across India seeks to sharpen the thinking and working processes of theatre groups. It poses questions and possibilities that will push groups to optimise their strengths, overcome constraints and make a significant and positive impact on the internal functioning of the group as well as impact the local theatre ecology.

For more details on SMART by IFA please write to darshana@indiaifa.org

UPCOMING EVENTS
For exciting upcoming events featuring grant showcases across the country, stay tuned! We look forward to seeing you at the following event – do spread the word!

IFA is delighted to be collaborating with RMZ Foundation in presenting CONTINUUM, an exhibition featuring the works of Abul Kalam Azad, Alakananda Nag, Anitha Balachandran, Avik Mukhopadhayay, Dhruv Jani, Pallavi Paul and Sahej Rahal, Sarbajit Sen and Soumya Sankar Bose. The exhibit includes photographs, video projection, animation projection, gaming projection, graphic narrative and film screenings. The exhibition is on view between November 09 and 28, 2019, 11: 00 AM to 06:00 PM (closed on Tuesdays) at The Gallery, RMZ Ecoworld, Bellandur.

For more details on these events, do sign up for our emails here, follow us on facebook, Twitter or instagram for regular updates, or simply tune into our website at www.indiaifa.org/events

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Arts Practice
IFA is not accepting any new queries or proposals under the Arts Practice programme now. This is because we organised an arts festival celebrating the works of our earlier grantees this year and have already expended our budget for projects under the programme. We will open invitations for queries and proposals again from December 2019 for projects starting in or after April 2020. For more information, please write to the Programme Officers Sumana Chandrasekhar at sumana@indiaifa.org and John Xaviers at john@indiaifa.org

Experience the Joy of Exploration. Become a Friend of IFA with an Annual Donation of Rs 5,000/- upwards!

Become a Friend of IFA and set out on an exciting journey with IFA with an Annual Donation of Rs 5,000/- through the many worlds of the arts and culture! As a Friend of IFA, you along with 400+ Friends of IFA, will experience the arts and culture through specially curated events, engage in discussions and debates, and enjoy exclusive sessions on the arts and culture! Connect with artists, musicians, dancers, actors, researchers, filmmakers, performers, educators, archivists and fellow art enthusiasts!

As a Friend of IFA, your passionate support will bring to life projects that examine our pasts, enable us to make collective sense of our present, and dream of shared and vibrant futures, together. Your contribution will help projects reach diverse publics—as books, films, performances, educational materials, exhibitions and more!

IFA has been able to facilitate more than 600 arts projects, disbursing Rs 25 crore over two decades across India—because of you. Every donation you make helps us extend support to the field.

To learn more write to menaka@indiaifa.org

To make your contribution online, click here (please do not use special characters ~,!,@,#,$,%,^,&,*,(,),., while filling the form)

To make your contribution by cheque, click here

We look forward to your support.

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Goodies

Set of Six Coasters
Have you picked up your set of six coasters, featuring eye-catching details from select IFA projects over the years? Glimpse at the work that we support during a brief respite as you enjoy your cuppa and go through 2019! From a multimedia artwork tracing the introduction of books to women in India, a graphic narrative documenting the stories of migrant labourers in New Delhi, a film essaying the life and works of artist K Ramanujam, an installation of ceramics exploring aesthetics, a dry plate collodion photography project capturing changes in two villages to an installation in a historic building in Bangalore.

Get your set soon for Rs 550/- (inclusive of domestic courier charges) online or write to us at contactus@indiaifa.org and support our work. Your purchase will go back towards grantmaking.

Have you picked up your set of six coasters, featuring eye-catching details from select IFA projects?

Publications

Painters, Poets, Performers: The Patuas of Bengal
Painters, Poets, Performers: The Patuas of Bengal by Ritu Sethi yet is a visually rich and informative book on the history and evolution of Patachitra—literally, 'painting on cloth'; it provides an outline of this narrative tradition of pictorial storytelling and its multi-talented, polymath makers in Bengal and Odisha.
Please click here to order your copy for Rs 500/- (exclusive of courier charges) now!

This book is supported by Infosys Foundation.

Embroidering Futures: Repurposing the Kantha
In 2012, we published Embroidering Futures: The Repurposing of Kantha, edited by Ritu Sethi. This book traces this journey of kantha from its origins to its current avatar, through the tales and recollections of collectors, inheritors, designers and producers of this unique piece of embroidered cloth. The publication is now available to read online. Click here to read the PDF for free!

This book was supported by Infosys Foundation.

ArtConnect
ArtConnect, a magazine on the arts and culture, is now available to read for free online.

Between 2008 and 2013, IFA published 13 issues of ArtConnect featuring lively, compelling writing and artwork across a host of disciplines and genres, from female impersonators in Company Theatre in Kannada; Marathi Little Magazines; violence in Kannada cinema; gender and the Indian documentary; to the visual culture of early Urdu magazines! Please note that while each issue is priced at Rs 100/-, Volume 7 is Rs 150/- You can avail of special anniversary discounts on Limited Edition collections. All the proceeds from the sale of publications go back into grantmaking!

To know more, write to contactus@indiaifa.org

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IFA: How did you encounter the history and evolution of the Royal Carnatic Orchestra of the Mysore Court, now known as the Mysore Police Band?

Deepti Navaratna: On one of my visits to the Mysore palace in 1995, I saw some policemen playing Carnatic music using both Indian and Western instruments – mridangam, veena and clarinet, xylophone respectively. This piqued my interest since the sound of their music was familiar yet different. However, apart from the magnificent backdrop of the well-lit palace, their performance was a lonely affair. There were no rasikas nodding their heads. Visitors just floated in and out without paying any heeds to the performance. Despite this, they played on dutifully and beautifully! For several days, I wondered why the police played in a band and sought answers from my Mysorean ‘culture-vulture’ relatives. To my surprise, most Mysoreans didn’t know that the current police band is the vestige of the Royal Carnatic Band, though both the English and Carnatic bands played regularly as part of the yearly royal Dasara celebrations. Policemen doubling up as musicians intrigued me further. I wanted to know if this was part of the government protocol. They are so unconventionally ‘Carnatic’, fully removed from mainstream Carnatic prestige circles, where things are ‘proper’ and ‘elite.’

Later in 2016, while I was doing Masters in Contemporary Music at the New England Conservatory, a colleague of mine said ‘The Beatles discovered Raaga music and showed it to the world’. This cliché of the West handpicking traditional gems in the East somehow annoyed me. I remembered the Mysore Police Band and started researching its history. The very first East-meets-West musical encounters happened not in the 20th century with bands like Shakti or in the Ravishankar era - but back in the hay days of Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar in this soil, not abroad. It all came together in my mind – I had to study the Carnatic orchestra, its music and its history to tell the story of the very first and significant encounters between Western Classical music and the music of South India.

Official photograph of the Carnatic Orchestra which won the Karnataka Kalashri award in 2001

IFA: Can you elaborate on the current state, relevance, and evolution of the Mysore Police Band? What are your comments on the cultural transactions between Western and Indian music?

Deepti Navaratna: The police band operates out of its ‘Mounted Police office’ close to Bannimantap near Mysore. Their performance venues are governmental functions, Mysore Dasara, and in-the-city performances. This is fully removed from the Carnatic performance circuit and community in Mysore. It is very clear they are not considered ‘serious’ music. My study argues that such exclusion stems from a certain discomfort at owning a very hybrid history to Carnatic music that is currently being sold as ‘untouched’ and ‘pure.'

The back-stories on the Carnatic band speak eloquently about the sustained intercultural transactions that have impacted both Western music and Indian Classical music. Back in those days, cultural transactions between both styles were definitely not symptomatic as today. At present, we find musicians getting together to put together concerts or concert series at the most, and that is it. In the history of the Mysore Court, one finds instances of people who moved across continents, assimilated in an alien culture, adding their own distinct hue to the larger canvas of Mysore. European composers and conductors were brought to Mysore, who participated in a more organic influencing of each other’s cultures. Venkatagiriyappa, a celebrated Veena player actively arranged music for the Carnatic Orchestra, after having learnt Western Classical music. Sheshanna, adroit Veena player, played piano and harp, after understanding Western tonal vocabulary. The Majarajas themselves led the way by inventing raagas based on Western tonal vocabulary. Some 30 odd raagas invented by the Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar are not merely ‘sisters’ of allied Carnatic raagas, they embody an alien grammar of Western music brought into the world of raaga construction. The band today plays some of that music, interestingly, unaware of its importance in the historical sense. Less known and to be dissected is the impact Indian Classical music had on Western music in that era, given that JC Wodeyar commissioned several works across the globe – concertos, piano music and such.

The Mounted Police quarters near Mysore

IFA: Tell us about the band's journey from 'exotic' trailblazer to 'ignored colonial relic' against the backdrop of sociopolitical and cultural transformation in South India. Please elucidate on the class and caste backgrounds of the practitioners; and the experimentation that the band was open to, under royal patronage.

Deepti Navaratna: In my opinion, the Royal Orchestra was very diverse in its demographic - different races, ethnicities and cultural backgrounds truly came together under the royal patronage. The remarkable point to note is that these musicians felt ‘free’ to use their musical knowledge in ways not done before. Perhaps there was no fear of being criticised and shamed for trying to ‘dilute’ the ‘sacred’ and for supposedly ‘messing with’ something that was composed ‘perfectly’ in the past.

The Mysore and Tanjore Court (under Serfoji) enjoyed these very fertile and open mindsets towards cross-cultural experiments and encounters. Many experiments failed, some lived on as raagas, some became ‘Classical’ kritis, some lives forgotten, some celebrated – the tapestry of lives, experiences, and music is beautiful.

Deepti Navaratna and bandmaster Tandavamurthy (centre) with band members of the Carnatic Orchestra

IFA: The post-Independence cultural project of erasing and cleansing Carnatic music of European composers and local musicians in the Mysore court, resonates with and is enmeshed in both the 'nationalist' and 'regional' consciousness agenda. Do give us details about this cultural amnesia and how it connects with the recent controversy that erupted with the 'Christian appropriation of Carnatic music.'

Deepti Navaratna: When the state melded into the nation, when traditional became synonymous with Classical - only for Hindustani or Carnatic musical styles (it did not happen with traditional folk forms, who were and are traditional enough, but well!) – a subtly reimagined history was sold to the new nation. The past was imagined as an unbroken chain of musical enterprise, where Carnatic composers were depicted as ‘chaste’ musicians who never heard world sounds, shut themselves off from reality and composed in the pious ‘confines’ of their minds. We were sold the notion of this ‘pure’ music that has met with ‘six sigma standards’ of transmission right from the Sama Veda to the now. However, the truth is that Carnatic music has evolved with many musical influences, Persian, Western and Oriental musical styles. Even Muttuswamy Diskhitar, one of the Carnatic Trinity, was quite well travelled and was familiar with musical styles of many cultures. He tried to engage with the music of Western bands by creating a new genre called ‘Nottuswara’ compositions. These compositions used Western tunes ‘reappropriated’ with fully religious Hindu text. This act is not any different from the current Christian appropriation efforts. However, the history of world music is testament to such transfection of melodies with different text, either for artistic composition or for evangelical / religious conversion purposes. The agenda behind such appropriation should be considered, had Dikshitar used it to convert people to Hindu faith, then it would have amounted to misappropriation.

Band Members of the Carnatic Orchestra

IFA: What is your take on the effort of ethnomusicologists such as Gregory Booth - especially in his book Brass Baja: Stories from the World of Indian Wedding Bands and if you drew any similarities on the perception of Indian brass bands today, from his work?

Deepti Navaratna: Gregory Booth’s work is an inspiration to this project in many ways. From extolling pageantry and pomp in the British era, the brass bands are now almost considered ‘mass’ bands or ‘crass’ bands. They are grouped with musical styles receiving the least attention or adulation in India today. Sadly, the Police Band has started taking up playing for large parties and everyday ceremonies in the name of pulling it out of the government tag. This is neither elevating its class in today’s musical hierarchies nor raising its sustenance potential in any way.

Deepti Navaratna interacting with the English Band

IFA: What are some of the challenges you have faced in your research, and how have you tried to overcome the same? Do tell us about the kind of material that you have accessed - photographs, documentation, notations and recordings.

Deepti Navaratna: My primary sources are band members, archives of the Police Band and palace records about emoluments paid to the band, salaries of band members, gazettes released about hiring certain composers from Europe. The biggest challenge has been gaining access to archives. The Oriental Institute, Mysore has huge archival collections, but none of it is easily accessible. The Carnatic band has no library or archives of music arranged during its stint at the Royal Court. This is a big hindrance in trying to investigate matters. Visitors get shooed away or are made to wait – it is a very irritating and hair-tearing experience, despite my connections and carrying visiting card, as a central government official. Indians sadly don’t know the value of heritage; some serious common sense is missing in organising and creating access for public.

A band member of the Carnatic Orchestra

Deepti Navaratna received an Arts Research grant from India Foundation of the Arts, made possible with support from Titan Company Limited.

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