Nara's troupe barred from performing at JNU
PR from JNU Manipuri community

Nara's troupe barred from performing at JNU

The cultural troupe of Dr. M. Nara, former Minister of Arts and Culture, Government of Manipur, was stopped from performing at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, on the grounds of depicting Manipuri culture in bad taste, and also vulgarizing the radical political space of JNU. The incident took place at KC Open Air Theatre of JNU on 17th July (Friday) evening. The programme was organized to celebrate Cuban revolution by IPTA, Manipur, and IPTA, JNU.

While the first dance sequence was choreographed by using Manipuri folk and classical dances to engineer national integration of India, visually juxtaposed with different musical sounds and rhythms of the country, the second and the third items, separately performed by Mr. Arun and Mr. Sanaton, respectively, misrepresented Manipuri dance by playing into some Bollywood song and dance sequences. The third item was stopped in the middle of the performance by the visibly disturbed audience.

The performance offended not only the Manipuri community in JNU, but also the JNU community at large. The performance was objected on four counts: first, what was highlighted as Manipuri cultural performance wrongly depicted Manipuri culture and reduced the same into B-grade mujra performance.

Second, the objection also came from the radical group of JNU where the progressive space of the Left movement has been reduced to merely vulgarizing some Bollywood movie songs out of context.

Third, these types of song and dance performances are gender insensitive, depicting women as sexualized commodities. JNU and Manipur which have had a long history of radical women's movements cannot accept such kinds of cultural performances that demean the status of women.

Fourth, while the occasion was to commemorate the success of Cuban Revolution, the performance promoted commercialized culture of neo-liberalism and neo-colonialism!

Unfortunately, the performance vulgarized not only the revolutionary theme and spirit which the Left movement has cherished throughout, but even undermined the pathos driven artistic fervour of a film like Umrao Jaan. Dr. Nara has also downgraded Manipuri dance tradition, reducing those into the plane of some cheap Bollywood drum beats.

JNU Manipuri community urges Dr. Nara's troupe, and also similar such cultural troupes in Manipur, to restrain from evoking carnal sensuous pleasures through cheap musical performances. Even if these performances are conducted in the name of entertainment, these cannot be at the cost of misleading depiction of a culture as well as degrading the status of women in the society.

Dr. Nara should be more sensitive towards representing minority cultures, not to be overwhelmed by personal interests and achievements. It is very unfortunate that such troupes and programmes are allowed to perform in the rest of the country and abroad misrepresenting the culture of Manipur. We believe that such performances will not repeat in future.

JNU Manipuri community
Date: 18th July 2009