58543289 10214073560894925 9189244939685330944 N

Bidesiya

75 views

I am Satkirti Sinha, an international researcher and scholar, and at present completing my Masters in Drama and Theatre from Royal Holloway, University of London. The research over which I am working is known as Bidesiya folk style from Bihar, India, which talks about the stories of forceful migration of Bhojpuri people to the Caribbean Islands during the colonial period

Bidesiya is an all-male musical folk form from, Bihar, India. Bhikhari Thakur, the creator of this form, is also known Shakespeare of Bhojpuri. The style started in the year 1917, and it used to convey the stories about migration, infidelity, patriarchal and feudal society. As an international researcher and practitioner of this form, I had started researching this form while doing my Masters in Drama and Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London. While doing my research over this form I was surprised to find out that this theatrical style is still one of the popular cultural forms among Bhojpuri Diaspora community in countries like the Caribbean Islands, Mauritius, Netherlands and Fiji. Therefore to globalize this style as a practitioner, I reinvented this form as per the current views of society regarding migration and other social issues and started amalgamating Bidesiya musical form with different artistic culture

Recently I have concluded a month workshop in San Fransisco, California with Bhojpuri migrants community where for the first time a Bhojpuri show was performed in the USA as an all-female ensemble. In my last shows before the USA in London and Kolkata, I have collaborated Bhojpuri culture with Japanese songs, Malay Dance, Wayang Kulit, Wayang Golek and Brazilian Theatre form of the Oppressed. Being an only global practitioner of Bidesiya style, the show in the USA was my third production and also a part of my fieldwork where I am trying to build an elasticity between Bhojpuri diaspora community and their cultural heritage with the help of this theatrical style. 

After finishing my show and workshop in the USA and India, I am planning my next fieldwork in Trinidad and Tobago,(during the Diwali time) and interested in collaborating with your organisation, so that we could amalgamate Chutney music with Bidesiya art form, and present a new theatrical style which depicts both Trinidad and Bhojpuri culture at one stage. During the collaboration, I am planning to conduct a free 12 days workshop on Bidesiya art form, Bhojpuri culture, Cross Dress theatre and the musical heritage of Bihar.

As a theatre practitioner, I am trying to collaborate with different Bhojpuri Diaspora communities on a global level and Trinidad and Tobago is one of those areas in my research where Bhojpuri descendants want to learn about their cultural heritage and preserve it, not like Bihar, India, where the art form like Bidesiya (which as per Britishers were considered as most sophisticated style of India) is suppressed on the basis of caste segregation.

I am looking forward to sharing my theatrical knowledge with Bhojpuri Diaspora community and help them to relive one of the famous artistic cultures of Bhojpuri language, which talks about the story of their migration from Bihar to Caribbean Islands.

For your reference, I am attaching the video of my last show in the USA and would appreciate your help, if you could let me know regarding the interest of Bhojpuri Diaspora community, in learning about their cultural heritage through this theatrical style.

 

I am looking forward to receiving a positive reply from your side.

Regards

Satkirti Sinha

+447448545882/+918938926198 (Whatsapp)

Skype: Satkirti.Sinha

email: Sat.kirti41294@gmail.com/Satkirti.Sinha.2016@live.rhul.as.uk

 

 


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply