Baiga Dancers of Kanha: Between Eco-tourism and Contemporary Art

The Baiga Artists in their traditional attire.

The indigenous ‘Baiga’ tribal community inhabits the forested regions of eastern and southern Madhya Pradesh. While the geopolitical pressures during the British Raj restricted their sovereignty to especially demarcated reservations, the Forest Protection Act of 1980 resulted in forceful eviction of several tribal communities from the ‘core’ zones of the proposed National Parks. The non-voluntary displacement and staggering government rehabilitation programmes enforced dynamic shifts in the lifestyles, material culture, and art forms of the Baiga people. They have had to adapt with industrial zest and acute foresightedness in order to eke out a dignified survival in today’s times. 

Tribal artists performing at the welcome of lodge guests.

One particularly striking adaptation which I wished to document is the active Commercialization of the karma dance - a prominent form of Baiga performing arts - along with the varied socio-economic implications of the same. Karma,​ a​mong other such similar dances which were once held at auspicious occasions only, is now performed ​in situ at the behest of the Ecotourism Jungle Lodges which have spurted all around Kanha National Park. These establishments invite the Baigas to perform on occasions such as New Year’s Day, Holi and Diwali etc. The performance of ​karma dance at such commercial venues entitles the itinerant Baiga artists to an ensured stream of patronage, both in cash and kind. This has been a clear upgrade from the days past. Where once the damning exoticisation of indigenous cultures could be held responsible for the socio-cultural marginalisation of tribal communities, the same notion now finds itself spearheading the drives aimed at larger social integration, recognition and empowerment of these hitherto sidelined communities. 

The Baiga dance charged with animistic frenzy. 

The young nexus forged between the agents of responsible ecotourism - Jungle Lodges, and the traditional denizens of the forests - the Baigas, now presents a one-off opportunity which has the potential to push the artistic capacities of these tribal communities from the art-historical categories of the ‘primitivist’, ‘tribal’ or ‘folk’ to that of ‘dynamic contemporaneity’. This relationship provides and promises greater exposure to the indigenous art forms of India. It also generates employment for the local people and adds a new dimension in perceiving these tribal groups. In return, the jungle lodges inject much needed revenue into the local economy, provide medical and economic securities to their local employees and help the tribal artists garner a much wider array of viewers, and possibly, patrons. Through an acknowledgement of these communities’ artistic agencies as being relevant to the present, it seems plausible that other culturally sidestepped communities elsewhere in India would get an opportunity to break out of the retrograde and vicious cycles of cultural marginalisation.

Mahua-Jod Open air theatre at Serenity Jungle Retreat.

The cultural arena where one can observe ecotourism and contemporary art uniting in productive symbiosis is that of the jungle lodges of Kanha National Park, Madhya Pradesh. These jungle lodges become a microcosm of the urban civilization amidst the largely rural and remote areas of the country. Correspondingly, the largely urban museums and art galleries of Indian cities are the ones which, owing to their scholarly expertise and conventional legitimacy, define, promote and shelter various expressions of contemporary art. However, if one was to broaden the definitive frameworks of such institutions as being Spatio-temporal complexes that include and represent the contemporaneity of present times, conversely then, the performance sites situated within the premises of the jungle lodges emerge as unique heterotopia which can be said to encapsulate the ‘artistic contemporaneity’ of the Baiga community.