Empowering tribes via tradition: Madhushree Hatiyal’s mission to keep ancestral arts alive

A recipient of Sangeet Natak Academy (in 2018), two of her documentaries- Jhumur, Manosa Mangal - have been preserved by the National Museum, as many as 20 wedding songs by her (Biha Geet) have been preserved by Union Broadcast Ministry for research purposes. Former Governor of West Bengal (now Vice President of India)-Jagdeep Dhankar, specially recognised her initiative to roll out a ‘Bhramyaman Pathagar’ (Mobile Library) to promote traditional (particularly, tribal) art and culture. And now she has set out on an ambitious journey to establish a dedicated tribal school, following the Gurukul philosophy and principles and to empower tribal women-financially and otherwise, using ethnic art-culture, craftsmanship as tools.

Speaking to Bizz Buzz exclusively, Madhushree Hatiyal, Founder, Maromiya Trust, narrates her journey and the way ahead - how she wants to protect, preserve and promote tribal art, culture, literature

What was the trigger behind creating Maromiya Trust?

I was born in a traditional family, where my childhood was cherished amidst a flow of folk and tribal culture. My father, a retired school teacher, had devoted his whole life with a dream of massive literacy movement in many remote tribal villages in Jhagram and Midnapure, West Bengal.

My grandfather was a pioneer of composing many folk songs and he speeded all the essence thorough his small village Play team. His magnificent composition on Tush Songs, Jhumur and Gajan has always been vibrant in my bloodline.

The dream and tremendous passion of my ancestors and their tireless efforts to keep the folk culture alive had already been transmitted to my bloodline.

During my school life, I used to compose small folk poem at the back page of my class note at spare time of class. I truly enjoyed it with my heart content. During my third standard, my composition was published in school magazine (in English) namely 'Kasturika'

With the passage of time, my passion for folk and tribal culture went to on solidify. During my college days, I used to move across many tribal villages in Jhargram, Midnapore or villages in Jharkhand. Then my realisations touched its pinnacle of intrinsic values of well-diversified, tribal arts and culture of India, which is, god knows, how many years old. Simultaneously, I was disheartened to see that these very ancient cultures were in extinct conditions, thanks to so-called modernization.This propelled my passion and motivated me to keep the folk culture ever-vibrant. Thus “Maromiya O Sampraday” came into being.

What do you do under this?

Maromiya is driven by three fundamental goals: a) Preservation and documentation of folk arts and cultures- folk music, folk paintings etc. b) To drive massive literacy amongst tribal children. c) To empower deprived, destitute tribal women on their own feet and make them economically independent.

How has been the experience so far? What has been the response of the local people to your endeavor?

On one side, it has been very fascinating and on another side, it has been tremendously challenging. So far we have mostly experienced three kinds of hurdles. To begin with, the financial crisis. To operate a trust, you need at least 5-7 dedicated members along with a number of local volunteers. Till date, our trust is solely self-sponsored. No government grants or aids came our way, restricting our steps. But our effort and interest know no limit.

Our second challenge was to take out the tribal children from the addiction of mobile phones. We had to overcome the barrier, step by step. Last but not the least, empowerment of tribal women needed an invincible courage of my teammates who never look back however the strong the tribal custom had been.

Despite all these, we achieved the following benchmarks which amply indicate the cordial acceptance of the divine efforts of ‘Maromiya’.

These are: a) Our Trust has already taught 2000 of Tribal Women and Children about the vibrant skill of ‘Sohrai painting’, which had its origin anytime between 6000-10000 BC

b) It conducted as many as 100 educational workshops which involved nearly 2000 tribal children children to know their culturally enriched literature through unveiling the ancient source of knowledge live Veda, Upnishad, Ramayana , Mahabhrata etc.

c) Our Trust has designed multiple of skill development programs. We conducted almost 60 workshops on ‘Dokra art’, ‘stitching of garments’, manufacturing of plates made by leafs, handicrafts/pottery etc.

There are two aspects to what you do- one is conservation of local art, culture, performing arts and passing them on to the next generation. And the second one is turn these into source of earning or source to sustenance for the local people. How do you do the second one?

Through its mass interaction and getting their pulses, ‘Maromiya’ could feel that tribal women possess extraordinary craftsmanship. The mastery over various skills have been flowing in their bloodline since time immemorial. However, they are not familiar with the present trend and what is demanded by the current civilized society. Hence our journey started. Our Trust has designed multiple skill development programmes. Through these initiatives, our Trust has so far, educated nearly 3000 tribal women. The number of SHG formed by them till date is 25.

We are also working on to develop a revenue model over painting the mud, earthen walls and eventually painting walls of urban houses of people with artistic senses, making sarees and other utility stuff, adding a dash of ethnicity.

How would you like to scale these up? Do you have any plans to carry out similar activities in other villages/other places?

The presence of ‘Maromiya’ is now encompassing around the tribal villages of Jhargram, Medinipur districts in West Bengal and boarder of West Bengal–Jharkhand and Odisha.

Presently, we are running on self-sponsorship mode. And this fund is not enough to translate all the dreams into reality. We need financial support to reach out to different tribal villages of UP, MP and Chattisgarh. We are already in the process of bringing into our fold few tribal areas in Jharkhand, namely Gumla, Hazaribagh, Chaibasa, Palamu, to name a few.

Do you have any plans to empower women in semi-urban areas as well? If so, what is that?

Empowering women has now become a national drive and is not restricted to few particular villages or districts or states.

If we are supported or given opportunities, we may conduct series of entrepreneurship skill development programmes for women artisans on ‘Dokra art’, stitching of garments, manufacturing of plates, bowls and other things made by leafs, handicrafts/pottery etc.

We are already attached to thousands of tribal women artisans. If these handicrafts are sold in the market-physically or online, women will get opportunities to earn.

We believe the empowerment of women can only be possible in collective mode that is through formation of cooperatives or self help groups. Our social customs are so strong till date, women in our country need invincible courage to be out of her home to do something.

How do you strike a balance between your different activities- shuttling between All India Radio, college lecturership and Maromiya?

In Hindu philosophy and theology, Nari Sakti is understood to be the active dimension of the godhead, the divine power that underlies the godhead’s ability to create the world and to display itself. Within the totality of the godhead, Nari sakti is the complementary pole of the divine tendency toward quiescence and stillness.

Hindu goddess shakti utters: "By you, this universe is borne, by you, this world is created, O Devi, by you, it is protected."

From my childhood, this had been the mantra of my life. So by doing all these, or to put it in your language, striking a balance, I am only paying gratitude to my family, my college authorities, my teammates, and volunteers.

What are your plans, going forward?

Maromiya has drawn up many ambitious plans for protection, preservation and sustenance of folk and tribal art & cultures. We believe an ethnic culture can only be live if the rituals, customs and most importantly the purities of the cultures are valued. Hence our immediate big goal is to establish a tribal school based on gurukul rituals. We dream that every tribal children should be knowing their ancestral cultures, their master in handicrafts, rituals to worship the mother nature, their sweetest folk songs, their paintings with use of complete organic products, their charming dance.

We are in the process of drafting different academic modules and are approaching different premier institutes in India and abroad. We are very optimistic that if this kind school is established in our country, we would be successful in sustaining the almost extinct ethnic cultures.