Slowly, but surely, urbanisation is catching up with the Raj Gonds, one of Chandrapur district’s predominant tribes. The young children are shy to take part or learn our folk dances.
NAGPUR: Jangubai Motiram Kumre, 66, still looks forward every year to join the community’s riveting annual extravaganza. But her grand daughter isn’t too enthusiastic about the enigmatic folk dance that Jangubai has been performing and teaching for more than five decades now.
Slowly, but surely, urbanisation is catching up with the Raj Gonds, one of Chandrapur district’s predominant tribes. “The young children are shy to take part in or learn our folk dances,” says Jangubai nostalgically.
Yet, elders are striving to keep their colourful and vibrant tradition of ‘Usandi Dandar’, a part of Gond folklore, alive. It is an integral part of the Gond culture and life, say the villagers.
As Diwali celebrations end, the Dandar festivities, which begin with the onset of harvest, are also coming to end at Jeevati, a small Gond village in Chandrapur.
Scores of adult Gonds gather in their traditional apparel around ‘Medi’, a bar erected at a central location, to perform Dandar, which dates back several centuries. Gonds are deft and brisk dancers.
Says Lingorao Soyam, a Gond primary teacher at Jeevati, “Diwali Dhoom for us means taking a break from the routine family chores and joining a community get-together, dancing, eating and paying obeisance to Gods.”
Another veteran, Chimnabai Naitam, adds: “Music, song and dance are an integral part of growing up.” With boundless energy, they all dance in harmony to celebrate nature in keeping with their history of folklore. The spectators are few and far between, mostly children off the huddle, or curious onlookers who have come to see the festivities from outside.
As Jangubai leads a group of 50-60 Gond women in a dance form with enigmatic Gondi rhythm, which reach a crescendo with every step of the dancers, other villagers minutely observe each performer.
The veterans, keeping a close eye on all, surge ahead to correct the new dancers who go wrong with steps from time-to-time.
“This bar is central to our philosophy. The songs these women sing say we have to unite under one umbrella and live together,” says Soyam.
The next song to which men and women dance together to the beat of Dandar portrays the life-sketch of the founder guru of this ‘dharma,’ Pari Kupar Lingo. Soyam says the one-month festivities are fast heading for extinction in tribal villages, owing to their rapid urbanisation.
But, in the Gond-inhabited villages tucked up in dense Manikgarh hills, Usandi Dandar remains the only medium of jubilation for this clan. There is no bursting of crackers, says Godru Jugnake, a tribal leader here. The Gonds dislike noise, he adds. Rather, they love the mellifluous sound of their own traditional folk music.
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