Eighteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

On 26th January 1950 the constitution of the Republic of India became effective. To my understanding some phrases in the preamble of the constitution have politically shaped the identity of the post-colonial Indian peoples. Through the passage of political understanding and participation in parliamentary democracy the constitutional phrases -‘Justice, social, economic and political’, ‘Liberty of thought’, ‘Equality of status and opportunity’, ‘Fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual..’ transform ‘the people of India’ into ‘the peoples of India’. Since the 19th Century, Indian Nationalist thinkers and connoisseurs started acknowledging Indian Folk practices through the lens of European Modern art. After independence, under the developmental schemes of the Govt. of India, Folk and Tribal communities in India were given distinctive traditional identities. Post-colonial art institutions in India tried to include the country’s Folk practices on their own term. Needless to say, it was no sincere acknowledgement but a surreptitious form of exploitation. Jaynagar-Majilpur’s clay doll tradition, a century-old craft practice in West Bengal-the substantial theme of my PhD research- where I have heard the voice of a subaltern resistance against the seemingly generous institutional inclusion. This paper includes research using both anthropological and historical methods. My questions are – Why do we need a community to be in, even though not being communal? The idea of nation gives us identity. But why do we need a given identity?