Reviving Traditions: Puppetry and story-telling among the Santals of eastern India

Abstract

Storytelling is a mode whereby communities construct their identity drawing upon their histories and memories. Through such narrations, they remember, recreate and pass on their stories, customs, struggles and successes, thus (re)creating traditions. This paper focuses on chador bador, the performative art of storytelling with puppets of the Santals of eastern India, and its transformation in the 21st century. Such puppet shows were usually held in the period before the harvests, and during the Dasain festival by itinerant groups of villagers and were accompanied by songs of a jocular nature, flutes and drums. Once widely prevalent, the artform became increasingly rare during the 20th century, and has been revived only in recent years thanks to the efforts of the Santal communities as well as urban intellectuals and governmental agencies. Today such puppet shows are recognised as an intrinsic aspect of the Santal cultural heritage. Together with performances of oration and singing, chador bador puppets are also displayed in museums and heritage parks, where they have been transformed into visual art objects. The paper analyses whose voice is represented in such performances and museum displays and examines the political activism and communicative strategies which inform them today.