Project status: Ongoing since 2012

Project objective: Creating a new diction in a folk tradition and aligning ourselves with it
Number of people involved: 4
Stage of research: Final, Phase 4
Next Plan: A. Series of Workshops B. A full-length (52 minutes) documentary film
Requirements: Fund for sustenance of a few select artists and workshop expenses (~1.2 Lakhs, 6 months)
Requirements (Level 2): Ample budget for the proposed film (~2.5 Lakh, 4 months)

Communication as Religion: Study note into Patachitra

C Parthapratim

The fertile land of India and its geo-physical advantages have been inviting millions of people across the
world since the remotest antiquity. The influx of people has brought in vibrant shades in philosophy,
culture and artefacts that conjured up into the multicultural identity of the nation today. It has been
truly the melting pot of the world. However, in the wake of the newfound nationalism so hell bent on
finding an enemy within and on flaunting the combat gears that has been adversely affecting nearly all
the major institutions of the Indian Republic including its judiciary, its an absolute imperative to locate
the true Indianness in unambiguous terms. Smothering the multifaceted perspective of the typical
Indian outlook, sacrificing the pluralism, will do no good to India.

HISTORICAL PREMISES
Eminent historians, eventually most of them are accused of having a leftist bent of mind, have already
identified this new exclusive and antagonistic nationalism as an aftermath of the two fantastically crude
theories dished out by the European Orientalists. First, there was one Mr. James Mill who in his book
History of British India, volume 1 published in 1817, observed that two different nations and two
apparently antagonistic cultures were then cohabiting the same space and time namely, the Hindu and
the Islamic. A few years later then, there was Prof. Max Muller (1823-1900) who in his great reverence
for Sanskrit literature and Culture got a bit carried away and went on to propose that Aryans were
indigenous to this part of the world, to be precise the British Indian territory, so that they never
migrated to India but from India to civilize the other countries. That made the majority of the Central
Asian people who came in for various reasons look like simple invaders and placed them at par with all
other imperialist tyrants including the Englishmen. Such an artificial theory of invasion also undermined
the base of Sufi Culture that was erstwhile deeply penetrated in the Indian lifestyle as it was resonating
the indigenous Bhakti movement or Chaitanya renaissance. Bhakti and Sufism were entwined
inseparably like the double-helix structure. The two artificial theories coupled together were explored
ad absurdum throughout the 19th century, and formed the bedrock of the Antagonistic Indian
Nationalism, which is distinctively different from the already inclusive Indian identity of being the
melting pot. Nevertheless, around the third decade of the twentieth century, the militant Hindu
nationalism was born, ironically of the British divisive ideology, and it was twice removed from the true
India. It gained popularity among a section of the young milieu. All what followed are well-documented
in history. However, a theory is theoretically disproved by the existence of single counter-example.
We look forward to present that single counter-example that would corrode the entire foundation of
the two-nation theory and its derivative militant Nationalism.

Ontologically speaking, it should suffice to prove one or all of the following

That the existence of only two nations, by the working definition of a nation as proposed by Mill,
was a result of devastatingly partial and selective observations. If there are more than one
nations cohabiting in this territory, there is a multitude of them. There are 700 or more
languages spoken in this territory.
That there never was any single nation that is the Hindus; only the Brahminist superiority
complex loves to see non-Brahmins as subjects. In reality, the Hindus comprise of several
conflicting nation by Mills definition. The conflict of interests in the caste divided society has a
long term effect on the nationhood of the Hindu populace.
That if there is any antagonism between the Hindu and Muslim, it can be reduced to conflicts
over property and land holding limited within the upper caste Hindus and the rich Muslims a
section of which cannot still forget that their remote ancestors once ruled this land. The poorer
class, both Hindu and Muslim has hardly any conflict among themselves and they often
interchange their cultural and religious provenances.

In this study, we start with the third possibility listed above.

THE PATUA IN ACTION

The Patua community or the scroll painters from rural Bengal have been telling stories through their
pieces of artworks for centuries. This community has some spectacular characteristics that unfold their
identity as artists and prioritize their being the true Indian citizens at the same time. A Patua, or a
Patachitra painter (albeit not necessarily always painting a scroll consisting of multiple frames) paints an
entire story on long scrolled sheets of handmade paper, hence scroll painters be their name. The
unfolding of the rolled painting is conventionally accompanied by an oral narrative, in fact a song, which
tells the story. The entire form is a strong competitor, if not the predecessor, of a modern day film with
enough entertainment and didactic values. Some of the localised variants also present stand-alone
single frames for a whole story. One such is the Kalighat Pat that has also influenced quite a horde of
modern Indian painters in the twentieth century. Some would even say that the modernist line in the
Indian painting as perceived by painter Jamini Roy (1887-1972) and his followers came into being due to
an acknowledgement of the Kalighat Pat as a viable option to be imbibed. Certain amount of Eliot-ism
(after T S Eliot, 1888-1965) dispensing with the elitism of reckoning folk or traditional as sacrosanct and
hence segregating folk-art on a high pedestal was required to make one Jamini Roy possible.

Kalighat Pat might arguably be the most recent example, but Scroll paintings have always had an
important role to play in shaping the Cultures, the Mughal Harem painting, the Chinese scroll to name a
few. The role played by the Chinese scrolls in transmitting Buddhist concepts to Japan and Korea is well-
documented. Despite being obscurely codified behind the thickets of the local folk-tales told in the
contemporary lingua franca, scroll paintings have always managed to deliver clear and loud messages to
the target audiences. The contemporaneity of the narrators linguistic ploys filtered through the catchy
tunes and metrics of the rhythm played an important role there. In that way, Patachitra is always to be
seen at the synchronic plane. The Patuas role as communicators, disseminators of ideologies, messages
and outlook is underrated by the mainstream media and artists, and save some sporadic moments, they
failed to earn the recognition they truly deserve. They have played between religions, clans and relative
power centres; have influenced many while staying unnoticed. In a way, they are oblivious to religious
differences and their only religion is their job. Communication is their religion. While the rise of militant
right-wing is ailing us, they might play an important role once again. But one needs to communicate
with the communicators first.

We would first try to understand the community and their modus operandi through the following
approaches and accepted methodologies of the respective disciplines:

1. The anthropological approach the myth of creation and other totems and taboos to find their
anthropological affinities. The Patua community has its own myth of creation and an entire set
of myths to support that. However, this myth of creation is surprisingly similar to that of the
Santhal people, would also find resonance in some Chinese myth of creation. This unique
property might tell a lot about their affinities and antagonisms.
2. The geography of their habitats with some historical speculations might be explored further in
order to substantiate their uniqueness. The communities and their folks are sparsely active in
various parts of the country that look like isolated villages. However, connecting them with a
dotted line on the map reveals that their area is like a belt around the Chhoto Nagpur plateau
and is strategically placed in the fringe areas between the mainland that was historically
occupied by the Muslim rulers and the core forest area of the central and eastern parts of India
occupied by the tribal people who successfully resisted the Islamist invaders for long. From the
districts of Murshidabad, Birbhum, Burdwan, Midnapore (east and west), Orissa, Jharkhand,
Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, UP, Bihar and back to Bengal the locus is somewhat like this.
The Patuas operating in the green buffer readily explains a lot about their works and lifestyle.
Our project needs more thorough and convincing data about this speculation that they
mediated between the three parties, namely the Hindu, the Muslim, and the Tribal populace.
The intertwined social identity shared with the tribal groups is somewhat characteristic of the
community which results in the dual religious practices and provide each individual with two
names, one of Hindu origin and another Islamic/Arabic. Belonging to two different religious
beliefs or even having different names is not something new in India. There are actually 600 or
more such communities to be found in various different geographical localities. For example, in
south India there are at least two or three communities that have been reported to follow both
the Hindu and Christian rituals of marriage. It is not uncommon to find a bride draping a white
sari along with a Mangalsutram and marrying in the church. [In the name of God, thou may
now tie the Mangalsutram around her neck!]
3. Finally, what remain to be studied are the technical and formalistic aspects of their works the
materials and technique the drawing skills and styles on one hand and the songs along with
their linguistic analyses on the other.
a. Since the tradition is mostly oral, it was hardly ever possible that songs of one
generation will be handed down to the next in an unadulterated form. So the diction is
mostly contemporary, even when it describes a historical event. Yet, reminiscences of
 the old language sometimes infiltrate. For instance, when one is describing the Saheb
Pat, one that is about the historical event of Santhal Mutiny, certain words and
expressions pop up out of nothing that changes the entire perspective.
b. Most of the scrolls comprise of four or more rectangular frames, most conveniently on
half-sheet size, that is 20X14 including mounting margins. Mostly, the compositions
are vertical, while every single frames space is divided into multiple subspaces. The
most important character or object occupies the largest space irrespective of
geometrical possibilities. The subspaces invariably refer to subplots or events in the
past, near equivalent to flashback or inserts in a movie.
c. Their technical nuances are already well-documented. That they use only herbal and
natural colours like soot black, vermillion red etc. is a well known fact. At present, we
can see the use of six colours in total. Red, black, blue, green, yellow and the white or
off-white from the surface. However, it is not probably known yet about the evolution
of their colours repertoire, i.e. when and in what order more colours were added. In
some of the most recent works, some of the paintings are made using acrylic, fabric,
even plastic paints that are commonly used to paint a house. Yet, as of now, these are
still aberrations only.
d. The drawings are strictly minimalistic, outlined, and hardly ever a Patua would attempt
an illusion of three-dimensional objects. The architectures represented too, are not
geometrically precise, but that never becomes a hindrance. The traditional painters still
prefer finger-painting to brush works. Only the minute design details and the design
motifs framing each space are made with fine brush. We have never seen them using a
calligraphic brush though, though not that they cant.
4. Their working economy is a three-fold story. The scrolls are either commissioned and amicably
compensated by the commissioning party; the scroll continues to remain with the painter(s)
even when they are not showing it to the chosen audiences; or they are designed by the painter
himself and are exhibited in the agora in exchange of small alms. At the third level, they sell the
work altogether to collectors or connoisseurs and take home a lump sum. In most cases the
works for exhibition and sales are designed differently. Hence Patachitra is both a commodity
producing art and a performing art at the same time.

OUR PLANS ABOUT INTER-OPERABILITY

Our plan is to create a series of workshops along with field surveys with the active scroll painter families.
Through this final phase of field surveys we will be able to close the gaps in our understanding about
them and their works. They too must be made aware of the exploitation and marginalisation they go
through since ages. At the same time, through the workshops they will be allowed space to create their
own narratives about themselves, their belief, and their strength of not being subject to any given set of
dogma. They see religion very objectively. We must learn that objectivity with their artistic imageries.
We believe our endeavour will help to create a treasure for the secular India.