202
active participation of people from all caste and social status in Gajan can be found,
but presently this art form losing its rich cultural characteristics in our society.
In my fieldwork and perception study, I felt that very few Gajan artists are passed
Madhyamik Examination and Higher Secondary Examination, and most of them
are all most illiterate or very little literate so richness of this folk culture decreasing
automatically and government never take any initiative to organise any workshop to
trained these artists. Most of the artists cannot take Gajan as their only profession
because scope of earning through performance is very low, and moreover they can
perform Gajan in a specific time not throughout the year so rest of the time they
remain unemployed and so they engaged themselves in different types of seasonal
work like working in field as agricultural labours, selling vegetables and hawker
sometimes they do hard jobs in day time and rehearsal in night, and this restlessness
is the main reason that they loss their melodic voice and capacity very fast; in a
nutshell poverty is the main reason behind the present status of this cultural heritage
of rural Bengal.
11.12 The Future of Gajan and Gajan Artists
An organisation named SEVA (Socio-Economic Voluntary Association) organises
some workshop to train Gajan artists to restore this cultural art form of rural Bengal;
they also formed Kulpi Block Gajan Unnayan Samity in Karanjali village, and with
the following objectives, this organisation will take up the activities:
• To get recognition of this unique folk culture from government and facilitate
some groups of Gajan and help them to take part in government programme.
According to Shree Karuna Bhowmik, officer-in-charge department of information and culture, Gajan has attained no governmental recognition till date so he
send a draft including the condition of Gajan artists and Gajan to the district
officer of information and culture, 24 Parganas (south), and request him to move
forward this matter to higher authority to survive the folk culture of rural Bengal.
• To established and introduce Gajan in different government departments as well
as public media like television, radio, newspaper, etc.; throughout the year, various departments of government organise social awareness programmes,
Banamahotsav and many more festivals, and if Gajan performance become the
part of cultural programme, then it gets coverage by local television channels and
local newspaper that create interest towards educated people of rural Bengal to
involve mentally to restore this indigenous folk culture of rural Bengal.
• To prepare a directory containing the names, address and specialization subject
of performers, writers and artists of Gajan Dals, so if governmental organisation
or any private organisation can easily contact with these artists if they want any
performance from them. In present time cinema industry, band music cultures
are very develop and also deal with versatile subjects, so if any sequence needed
a Gajan song, they can contact these artists, and by this artists will got recognition and their financial status also improved. As example we can say Baul songs
M. Ghosh and L. Satpati
active participation of people from all caste and social status in Gajan can be found,
but presently this art form losing its rich cultural characteristics in our society.
In my fieldwork and perception study, I felt that very few Gajan artists are passed
Madhyamik Examination and Higher Secondary Examination, and most of them
are all most illiterate or very little literate so richness of this folk culture decreasing
automatically and government never take any initiative to organise any workshop to
trained these artists. Most of the artists cannot take Gajan as their only profession
because scope of earning through performance is very low, and moreover they can
perform Gajan in a specific time not throughout the year so rest of the time they
remain unemployed and so they engaged themselves in different types of seasonal
work like working in field as agricultural labours, selling vegetables and hawker
sometimes they do hard jobs in day time and rehearsal in night, and this restlessness
is the main reason that they loss their melodic voice and capacity very fast; in a
nutshell poverty is the main reason behind the present status of this cultural heritage
of rural Bengal.
11.12 The Future of Gajan and Gajan Artists
An organisation named SEVA (Socio-Economic Voluntary Association) organises
some workshop to train Gajan artists to restore this cultural art form of rural Bengal;
they also formed Kulpi Block Gajan Unnayan Samity in Karanjali village, and with
the following objectives, this organisation will take up the activities:
• To get recognition of this unique folk culture from government and facilitate
some groups of Gajan and help them to take part in government programme.
According to Shree Karuna Bhowmik, officer-in-charge department of information and culture, Gajan has attained no governmental recognition till date so he
send a draft including the condition of Gajan artists and Gajan to the district
officer of information and culture, 24 Parganas (south), and request him to move
forward this matter to higher authority to survive the folk culture of rural Bengal.
• To established and introduce Gajan in different government departments as well
as public media like television, radio, newspaper, etc.; throughout the year, various departments of government organise social awareness programmes,
Banamahotsav and many more festivals, and if Gajan performance become the
part of cultural programme, then it gets coverage by local television channels and
local newspaper that create interest towards educated people of rural Bengal to
involve mentally to restore this indigenous folk culture of rural Bengal.
• To prepare a directory containing the names, address and specialization subject
of performers, writers and artists of Gajan Dals, so if governmental organisation
or any private organisation can easily contact with these artists if they want any
performance from them. In present time cinema industry, band music cultures
are very develop and also deal with versatile subjects, so if any sequence needed
a Gajan song, they can contact these artists, and by this artists will got recognition and their financial status also improved. As example we can say Baul songs
M. Ghosh and L. Satpati