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Maria Schirmer
Jana Sanskriti Center for Theatre of the Oppressed
Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal, India

Our trip to Digambarpur was a long one. Not in kilometers but in time. Unencumbered by traffic we could have made it from the Center, north of Kolkata, to the South 24 Parganas District in 2 or 2 ½ hours but this time it was more like 5. Driving in India is a stressful negotiation with many elements including, cycle rickshaws, auto rickshaws, motorcycles converted into mini flatbed trucks, buses, cars, trucks, regular cycles, pedestrians and various kinds of animals. As we flew along at a heart attack inducing speed (when not actually stuck in traffic the pace on the roads is a race, a race that sadly many people, not to mention animals, lose daily) the polluted bustle of Kolkata gave way to a more agricultural landscape and fresher air. The road was dotted with busy market towns teeming with people. Suddenly we came to a screeching halt. “ We’re here,” Satya exclaimed. Two members of the office staff, two core theatre team members and myself all got out of the car but I was perplexed, here was a few abandoned brick building and a pack of teenagers, who looked equally perplexed (the appearance of a Western women hopping out of a car had given them a bit of a shock), on the side of the road.

Villages in West Bengal (and I suspect in much of India) are not like what I imagine a village to be, tiny and quaint. They are in fact very large in landmass, with houses (most mud with a straw roof, while others are brick) dotted in between farmland. The population is larger then I would have thought too. Digambarpur is about 7000. This is population India style, big. In fact, of India’s one billion plus population nearly 80% live in these sort of agricultural villages. The cities are huge (Kolkata is 14 million) but they make up a small percentage of the nations people. And yet, with so may people considered villagers they still on the margins of society.

Our journey to our final destination involved a couple more steps. First a ride on an aforementioned flatbed motorcycle (brilliant invention by the way) and then a walk in insanely slippery mud, which had the consistency of rubber cement. The landscape was beautiful, lush green from the monsoon rains. The air was crisp and there was a cool breeze so welcome after the humidity of where I am staying. It was easy to feel enchanted. Perhaps that is why politicians are willing to overlook the economic disparity and struggle for basic humans rights rural people face. With scenery so idyllic how could life be bad? But there are secretes hiding in this beautiful place. Alcoholism is high, and with that domestic violence, in large part because of the illegal liquor producers who are in cahoots with the local government. Girl children rarely go to school and are married off young through the humiliating and economically devastating system of dowry, there is no electricity, running water or adequate sanitation. There are government welfare systems in place, food rations, widow’s payments, but not only do they not fix the problem and act as a social Band-Aid, the systems are notoriously corrupt. More recently the government has tried to enact sweeping changes by way of land acquisitions (more like grabs due to the fact that people are grossly undercompensated for their land, if at all) and partnerships with big industry. A notorious example in West Bengal that Jana Sanskriti wrote a play about was in the Singur district, where the government forcibly took land from farmers and gave it to TATA (a massive industrial conglomerate that manufactures everything from steel to salt) far a car factory. This is the government’s idea of development, industrialization that benefits the already rich with promises from the poor. This time the promise was that the famers could now work in the factory. It’s steady wages, they argued, not mentioning that there were only jobs for 40% of the farmers that lost their land.

We were in Digambarpur for a two-day meeting of the Human Rights Protection Committee (see the previous post for an explanation of the HRPC and Jana Sanskriti’s work). The meeting covered everything from education, the theatre work, record keeping and research. What is unique about the HRPC is that it is made up of not only members of Jana Sanskriti’s core team but also spect-actors who have such a long history participating in the Forum plays that they have become a big working family (very big at 13,000, although this meeting was only with about 30). They are also unique in that they are essentially autonomous, meaning that Jana Sanskriti does not dictate what it is they do, although they provide assistance, guidance and resources. The issues they focus on (often women’s issues, education and corruption) are culled from the Forum plays but those plays too are formulated by the villagers. Quite unlike the governments plans for development the work of Jana Sanskriti, and as such HRPC, are not prescriptive. Jana Sanskriti firmly believes in the capacity of those they serve to dictate what is best for their lives and communities. They are only there to facilitate the dialogue and support social change. Human rights I realize are about choice, the choice to live ones life fully, safely and healthy but just how that happens should be up to the community, to the people. Clearly we can see from all the Fellows posts that if we rest our hopes in the State we will be waiting a long time indeed.

Our time in Digambarpur ended with a snack of coconut and muri (puffed rice that is a village staple all over West Bengal) and another very long, harrowing ride home. As we passed the endless crowds of people I wondered just what their choices would be for their lives, where they fully free to have them. And then I though about mine…

Maria Schirmer
Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal, India
Jana Sanskriti Center for Theatre of the Oppressed

As I sit down to write this post, my first post, I am struggling. How do I begin to explain what I am witnessing here, to explain the work of Jana Sanskriti? I started this morning reading the local English paper, The Bengali Post, and discovered a reprinted editorial from The Guardian about Western social/political bloggers that are hired by NGO’s to go on trips to the field and report back on what they’ve, thus raising the awareness of not only the organization and but cause. Sadly this can often become online “poverty tourism,” that exacerbates a global North, global South divide. The reader can pity and then what? So how can I explain the situation in rural villages here in West Bengal without perpetuating this problem?

In a quote from one blog an American women who recently went to Bangladesh writes, “right now I’m trying to make sense of the luxury it is to be able to brush my teeth with tap water without fearing that I might catch a disease that could possibly kill me.” Frankly, my first though was, exactly. But I did not come half way across the world to relish in my modern comforts and bemoan those who have so little. It is arguable whether my life is so much better. My suspicion, which is proving to be true, was that the mythology of Jana Sanskriti while situated squarely in the local could be translated elsewhere. So while their work deals with issues of violence against women, political corruption, poverty (and much more), in a rural Bengali context, these are issues that plague all nations, certainly including my own.

Jana Sanskriti Center for Theatre of the Oppress uses the techniques developed by Augusto Boal to enact social change. Boal was an innovative and influential Brazilian theatrical director, writer, pedagogue and politician. Theater of the Oppressed is a political, theatrical form originally used in popular education movements, growing up alongside Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Theater of the Oppressed is a system of games and creative techniques that aims at developing, in the oppressed citizens, the language of the theater, in order to help them fight against their oppressions and to transform the society that gives rise to those oppressions. Jana Sanskriti has been very successful in developing this work. Since its founding in 1985, Jana Sanskriti has grown from a group of five members to working with thirty groups throughout West Bengal and has affiliations with other organizations across twelve Indian states. Jana Sanskriti works with the most impoverished people within their society, those whose socio-economic status is deemed so low that have no voice in their own governance. Through the use of Theatre of the Oppressed, Jana Sanskriti allows the communities they serve to enact their own participatory democracy, giving voice and empowerment to those who are cripplingly poor. Their main tactic from the Theatre of the Oppressed arsenal is Forum Theatre, in which a social problem is posed in the form of a play. The audience is then invited to come on stage and act out solutions, turning the spectator into a “spect-actor.” Boal’s theory is that after acting onstage one will act in life. Does this work? For Jana Sanskrit, yes it does. They have 13,000 member Human Rights Protection Committee (HRPC) made up of spect-actors that work in all the villages Jana Sanskriti has a presence. The HRPC takes the issues and ideas brought up during the forum plays and uses them to create concrete change, be it working with local politicians to improve village food distribution or working to enroll girl children in school. Recently I visited a village for a two day HRPC meeting and witness first hand the commitment these people have towards improving their community. (More on this trip in a later post)

I have been here for three weeks and I am still trying to grasp that magnitude of Jana Sanskriti’s work within the context of a greater human rights debate. My first thought is they have the answers but perhaps I am just being seduced by kind hosts, spicy food and the cool breeze that comes with the monsoon rains. There will be many more struggles, and many more posts. Namaste.