ON PAGE ON STAGE

ON PAGE AND ON STAGE: CELEBRATING DALIT AND ADIVASI LITERATURES AND PERFORMING ARTS

The picture used for the ‘On Page On Stage’ site was taken by Jacinta Kerketta in Germany in 2020.

The Research Network ‘Writing, Translating, Analysing Dalit Literature’ was created in 2014 by Dr Nicole Thiara, Centre for Postcolonial Studies at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), UK, and Dr Judith Misrahi-Barak research centre EMMA at Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 (UPVM), France, following the award of an AHRC grant. In 2020, we were awarded an AHRC Follow-on grant for impact and engagement, which allows a series of festival events to be organised that focus on Dalit and Adivasi literatures and the performing arts in India, France, and the UK. During the first period of network funding, it became apparent that further collaboration is needed to ensure that work by socially precarious and culturally marginalised artists becomes visible and is valued in both national and global contexts. It emerged that drama and poetry were among the most marginalised of genres, and received the least attention from scholars, even though these genres are amongst the most significant in Dalit and Adivasi activist circles and the most prominent in voicing resistance to continued caste discrimination and social exclusion. Even more significant was the insight we gained into the widespread perception amongst Dalit and Adivasi writers and performing artists that their literary and artistic output requires larger and more varied audiences in order to sustain its creative and experimental development.

The network proposes to co-create and co-organise international public events which, for the first time on this scale, will share Dalit and Adivasi performing arts widely, providing a platform for the dissemination of arts which are often marginalised. They include poetry, music, drama performances and films, and public discussions with practitioners of both folk and contemporary performative art forms with the support and contribution of academic researchers who will introduce performances and conduct workshops and interviews. In partnership with various international organisations and institutions – the Paris Libraries (Ville de Paris), Nottingham’s New Art Exchange, Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature, Hyderabad Literary Festival, Adishakti, Adima, and Shaheen – the network hosts events in order to engage as wide a range of audiences and communities as possible, including Dalit and marginalised communities in and outside of India.

This project supports invaluable folk traditions and endeavours to sustain the development of a variety of artistic practices, the experience of which will encourage and enrich new audiences and contribute to the development of a world in which caste discrimination is eroded and equality in the widest sense fostered and advanced.

To learn more about On Page and On Stage events, please use the tiles below.

To learn more about CADALFEST events, click here.