For the implementation of a Foundation project by IFA, which will result in an audio-visual documentation titled Influential Shahirs: Narratives from Marathwada, an archive of eight shahirs – poet performers - four men and four women in Maharashtra. These shahirs inspired by Dr B R Ambedkar’s ideals of social revolution, have been a source of great inspiration for the masses and their songs have helped to sustain the Dalit movement in the rural areas of the region. Yet little is known about the poets or the compositions, as their work has been completely ignored by the mainstream establishment. This project seeks to recognise, acknowledge and archive their work and their role in the promotion and sustenance of a long socio-political movement. The outcome will be a series of eight articles and eight audio/video recordings of live performances. The Principal Investigator's deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the eight articles, the audio/video recordings and transcripts of the songs. This is a collaboration with the People’s Archive of Rural India - PARI. Project funds will pay for honorarium, travel, stationery and books and resources.
For a series of artistic engagements where womxn artists, rural and urban, will inhabit cyberspace at midnight for 25 nights, through live and pre-recorded videos of their performances, conversations and feminist readings. The theme of these sessions will be to celebrate occupying space and claiming agency. The outcomes of the project will be these sessions and a condensed five-minute video. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be the recordings of the 25 sessions and the five-minute video. Grant funds will pay for professional fees and honorarium.
For the excavation of decades of email archives, and interviews with the excavators, in an attempt to trace human journeys through its digital footprints over the years. The outcome of the project will be a creative essay made using excerpts of emails, images and graphic attachments. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be audio and video recordings of interviews and the creative essay. Grant funds will pay for professional fees, honorarium, materials, communication and stationery.
For working with the Archaeology Museum in Deccan College, Pune, which has a rich collection of antiquities and specimens, sourced from excavations and explorations carried out across India over the decades. This fellowship supports a series of public events around the museum collections, with the intention of making the museum a social space—one that will encourage people to think, talk, communicate, meet, learn, and enjoy. This will also be supported by a strong online presence. The outcome will include an experiential exploration of some of the museum galleries, a series of interactive events designed for audiences of different age-groups, an exhibition, talks, and an online presence that will aim to create a virtual community. The Fellow’s deliverables to IFA with the Final Report will be images of the process, audio/video recordings, texts, and a publication, if any.
For the creation of a performance based on the abhangs - devotional poetry dedicated to the deity Vithoba - of women warikari saints of Maharashtra. Through intensive travel and research, this project seeks to interpret and perform in the public domain, primarily through music, about 10 to 12 poems of the women saints whose works currently exist only as textual documentation. The outcomes will be two music concerts and recordings of the 10 to 12 songs. The Grantee's deliverables to IFA with the Final Report will be translations of the chosen songs, audio recordings of the studio recorded songs and video documentation of the performances.
For research into the changing practices and ecology of the performance form of Tamasha across Maharashtra. Building on earlier work also supported by IFA, this project entails revisiting, after nearly fifteen years, villages in the Konkan, western and northern Maharashtra, Vidarbha and Marathwada regions to document photographically the cumulative impact of socio-political and economic forces on the art form and the lives of its performers. The outcome of this project will be photographs with field notes.
For the creation of a production based on a Marathi script titled ‘Flat Number F-1/105’. Through active collaborations among the director, actors and the playwright, the performance seeks to address issues around identity through a reflection on the aesthetic and political perceptions of ‘colour’.
For critical reflection on the relationships between theatre, history and society through the study of modes of production and consumption of nataks in Maharashtra in the early colonial period.
For the editing, designing and printing of Tamasha: Ek Rangadi Gamat, a book in Marathi on the Tamasha folk theatre form. The book––one of the outcomes of an IFA-supported documentation project––will contain about 250 photographs accompanied by text that describes the different forms of Tamasha prevalent in Maharashtra as well as the lifestyles of its performers.
For research into the history of Marathi Farce in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The project will take into the account the social critique implicit in this form of theatre, as well as study female impersonation which was a characteristic of all Marathi theatre of this period. The research will lead to the writing of a monograph, translations of two Farces, and the creation of an archive of documents on the subject.
