No end in sight for survival struggle for Guru Rewben Mashangva
Source: Hueiyen News Service / Newmai News Network

Imphal, March 29 2012: Even after the government of India honoured him with the National Tribal Award 2011 - 2012, Guru Rewben Mashangva who is a one-of-a-kind folk music artists hailing from Ukhrul district, Manipur has to struggle for his living to support his family.

At the age of 50 and father of 5 children, he has spent 30 years of his life in the pursuit of his love for folk music and his attempt to preserve the folk music of his forefathers.

He has brought about a fusion of folk music with modern musical instruments and has been honoured with several awards from the state government as well as the union government.

Some of the awards that the artist has won are the National Tribal Award 2011-12, Northeast Zone Cultural Centre Award in 2004, Manipur Kala Academy Award in 2005 and Northeast Excellence Award in 2009 .

Meeting the media on Thursday at the Manipur Press Club, Guru Rewben Mashangva said that the mind of the artists are rich but financially the artists are generally poor.

He has been performing for the last few decades, day and night, summer or winter, to keep alive the folk music of the state, in spite of struggling economically to survive in the expensive world of today.

He has been able to devote his time and energy to folk music because of the support of his wife who is a private school teacher who takes up most of the responsibility of running the family.

The folk music artist expressed apprehension that most the artists would be discouraged to pursue a career in folk music as they have to have an alternative means to make a living.

Guru Rewben is the first folk artist of the northeast to have released an audio cassette of his songs by Times Music, but unlike modern songs there are limited number of people willing to buy the cassettes of folk music which results in poor sale of the cassettes.

But he considers the blessing of elders to keep the folk music of his forefathers alive has brought him to the stage where he is today, enabling him to bring recognisation and appreciation of the folk music of his forefathers and the people and the land.

His life has been a story of hope, despair, frustration, nationalism, killings, but most of all the undying faith in the human capacity to do good for one another.

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