Shruti Ghosh

This foundation project implemented by IFA will investigate the cultural memory of exile and identity formation in Chhota Lucknow, situated in Metiaburuz, Kolkata. It will attempt to understand the narratives of displacement of a community that was the custodian of the Nawabi culture of Lucknow in Kolkata, undergoing systematic marginalisation over several decades while clinging on to the fading cultural memory of Lucknow and Wajid Ali Shah. Shruti Ghosh is the Coordinator of this project. 

Shruti is a Kathak dancer, teacher, choreographer and independent researcher based in Kolkata. She is a former Dance Teacher and Performer at SVCC, the Indian Cultural Center, Embassy of India, Kazakhstan (2018-2020). Her research interests include film dance, music, and various performance practices. She has presented her work at several national and international conferences. She has contributed book chapters, essays and articles in Aainanagar (2018, 2020), Bengaluru Review (2019), Dance Matters Too: Markets, Memories, Identities (London: Routledge, 2018), Salaam Bollywood: Representations and Interpretations (New Delhi: Routledge, 2015), Dance House Diary (Melbourne, 2013). She has collaborated with national and international artists for dance, theatre and film projects and has performed in India and Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, London and various parts of Kazakhstan. Currently, she is performing her solo choreographic piece Khol Do (based on Sadat Hassan Manto’s story). Given her vast experience Shruti is best suited to be the Coordinator for this Foundation Project by IFA.

The project will employ a multidisciplinary approach using archival and ethnographic research to study Chhota Lucknow as a physical and symbolic space that embodies the narratives of displacement, exile and identity formation. It will explore how the cultural memory of ‘home’ - a specific image of Lucknow where Wajid Ali Shah figures as the central protagonist - can be studied in this context. Furthermore, it addresses how the community negotiates with the gradual and systematic marginalisation of their identity, gross neglect of their cultural heritage by the state, and the de-historicisation of their cultural legacy by the neo-liberal market. This project emphasises the spatiality of Chhota Lucknow and the mnemonic realities of the community rather than understanding the space through the persona of Wajid Ali Shah. It will also study particular aspects of Kathak compositions, specific renditions of thumri and ghazal that evolved with the community over time. 

The outcomes of this project will be a multimedia exhibition, audiovisual documentation, a lecture demonstration and an essay. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA, along with the final reports, will be documentation from the multimedia exhibition and lecture demonstration, audiovisual documentation, and the essay.

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Arts Research Program as it employs a multidisciplinary approach to study the lived histories of displacement, identity formation and cultural memory of a community that has been systematically consigned to the margins of mainstream history. 

IFA will ensure the timely implementation of this project and that funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the project’s progress at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is complete and deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation report to share with Trustees. 

This project is made possible with support from BNP Paribas India.