Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T20:12:39.975Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Price of Gold and Light: Power and Politics in Hey Ananta Punya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2012

Abstract

Hey Ananta Punya, a dance-drama adapted and choreographed by the Bangladeshi choreographer Warda Rihab was performed in Kolkata, India, in December 2009. Rihab plays the main character Srimoti, a dancer at the court of King Ajatashatru. Srimoti embraces Buddhism but is not allowed to practice since Ajatashatru decrees Hinduism to be the state religion. In the narrative, Hinduism, the predominant religion of India, represses Buddhism, which is a minority religion in the subcontinent. Even though on the surface the dance-drama deals with Hinduism and Buddhism, the performance is complicated by the knowledge that the choreographer and most of the performers are Bangladeshi Muslims. In the context of Hindu-Muslim conflicts and India's political and economic hegemony in South Asia, the performance can be considered as a critique of India's policies. In considering the choreographer's background and the dance-drama's narrative, aesthetics, and location of performance, I analyze the various structures of power that a Bangladeshi female choreographer operates within during her training and performance in India. Hey Ananta Punya is significant because it points to the complex web of issues involving politics, history, and religion that have been a part of dance in Bangladesh for the past few decades because of India's influence in the field, particularly through Indian-government scholarships for advanced dance training. In the paper, I use Michel Foucault's theory of power as systems of interrelated networks and knowledge as a system of power to show how dance as a form of embodied knowledge can function as a tool in shaping, disseminating, and expressing ideology.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Munjulika Rahman 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Translated by Nice, Richard. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Chakra, Shyamhari. 2007. “A Melange of Dance Forms,” The Hindu, October 26. Accessed April 10, 2010; http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/fr/2007/10/26/stories/2007102650470200.htm.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1995. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Clinic. Translated by Sheridan, Alan. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Hobsbawm, Eric, and Ranger, Terrence O., eds. 1992. The Invention of Traditions. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Monishita, Dyuti. 2008. “Dancing Dreams,” New Age, November 14. Accessed April 1, 2010. http://www.newagebd.com/2008/nov/14/nov14/xtra_inner6.html.Google Scholar
Muñoz, José Esteban. 1999. Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Rihab, Warda. 2010. Interview with author. Tape recording. Dhaka. April 14.Google Scholar
Tagore, Rabindranath. 1987. “Pujarini.” In Rabindra Rachanabali (Chaturtha Khanda), 2931. Kolkata: Bishwa Bharati Publishers.Google Scholar
Tagore, Rabindranath. 1989. Noti-r Puja. In Rabindra Rachanabali (Naban Khanda), 223–51. Kolkata: Bishwa Bharati Publishers.Google Scholar