Poverty spoken through the arts

by Dilshan Boange

On April 6, this year the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA) held another one of their Café aeries sessions that offer a forum for issues on poverty to be presented by experts from different fields of study creating an open space for dialogue. This session featured Dr. Ajay Josh, an Indian academic and critic from the sphere of drama and theatre who presented a talk about the depiction of poverty in his home state of Maharashtra in works of Marathi theatre and also cinema.

One of Ajay's opening remarks was that given the similarities of culture and economic factors related to both India and Sri Lanka he presumed that much of what is the plight of rural agrarian Maharashtra would not seem alien to a Sri Lankan audience.

The start consisted of a demographic introduction to Maharashtra and how its urban rural nexuses are formed between the different strata of people and the economy's divides as urban and rural. At the height of the suffering of the rural agrarian community in Maharashtra there had been no less than five farmer suicides a day for a period of around ten years said Ajay much to the shock of the audience. Citing multiple issues linked to poverty in Maharashtra's rural people Ajay said that 'factors' and 'actors' who form the cycle of debt and borrowing keep the farmers in a dungeon of poverty. The drought factor and the village moneylenders play a pivotal role in deciding whether a farmer and his family can survive.

Going into the social structure that is involved in this scheme it was shown that political parties, moneylenders, and religious establishments occupy decisive positions in determining the fate of the hapless farmers when they are struck by drought. When struck with crippling debt the farmers find corporate bodies moving in to buy their lands for a pittance and therefore 'market politics' can lead them to suicide it was stated.

Maharashtra

The arts reacted strongly to these issues said Ajay who cited how works of theatre and cinema in Maharashtra portrayed these matters empathically. Firstly the audience was given a brief introduction about the Marathi film Gabhricha Paus which has the English title The Damned Rain, written and directed by Sathish Manwar who incidentally is a former student of Ajay's. A few clips of the movie were then screened to show how the rural settings in Maharashtra can be found is with relation to the context of the topic of poverty of the farmers and their desperation.

The next work that was discussed was a national award winning play written originally in Marathi by playwright Makarand Sathe, which had been translated to English by Ajay. The play is named 'TE PUDHE GELE' and the translated title is 'They moved ahead'. After giving the audience a synopsis of the play and the background in which it was written Ajay did a reading of an excerpt of one of the more impactful and crucial points of the story. The audience did feel something of a collective gasp owing to the shocking turn of events that transpires. Interestingly the subject of rape was used by the playwright as a metaphoric depiction of how the helpless are exploited to the bone in the context of rural poverty.

Following the reading of the excerpts of the play the audience was presented with another reading by Ajay. These were however of a journalistic and academic basis. The reading was from his book Pen, People, Performances which had been launched on world theatre day in Ajay's hometown of Pune, and had also been launched here in Sri Lanka at the Colombo International Theatre Festival as well. The selected excerpts from the book related to the topic of poverty but not entirely on the previous lines of poverty among the rural people, but also poverty that affects certain marginalised groups in urban Maharashtra.

The floor was then open for an interactive question and answer session between the audience and Ajay. One of the first questions to come up was the politics of artistic representation of an already exploited community 'packages' their plight into 'art' and creates a distance between society and seeking a solution. Ajay agreed that art does make voyeurs of the audience towards the affected but when the question of what solution can art provide to the problem came up, Ajay said that he disagrees that art should prescribe the solution per se but must fulfil its role of creating awareness and empathy so that society itself would be motivated to seek the solutions. This line of discussion arrived on how professionals involved in developmental and poverty alleviation should approach the matter of poverty issues being depicted through art forms like theatre which becomes a very socially engraining activity.

Gauged

However, in the course of the discussion it was brought out that the role of the artist should not be confused for the role of the activist in respect of their roles in society.

To this area of the dialogue that developed the moderator of the session Hasini Haputhanthri added that the position of the artist and his attitude towards the issue can be gauged by whether the work seeks to challenge or reinforce the status quo that keeps the social issue going? Are the structures of power challenged or reinforced is the pivotal question that allows us to discern whether a work of art that portrays a certain issue can show any possibility of creating motivation in the audience to seek solutions.

On the matter of how influential is theatre as a means of mass communication towards a cause, Ajay gave some very insightful kernels of thought when he said that in India street theatre played a role in galvanising the masses to rebel against the British back in the days of colonial rule. However whether today the same effect can be achieved when it comes to matters like the plight of the oppressed how empathetic are we? On this introspective question a member of the audience said aren't we today anesthetised? Ajay's own reply was that it seems worse. "We are stones." He said expressing his opinion of how the collective response from society towards issues of the oppressed is getting little active solution seeking even after becoming aware of the issue.

The session thus ended with a quick recap of the salient points that were discussed and much food for thought being created about what possible solutions society should seek to offer as activism after engaging with the arts that bring out the issues in means that strike the conscience of society.