Tribal Artists from Kerala's Attapady allege casteism against State's Music Academy Secretary

Palakkad (Kerala): With the recent news about cultural casteism alleged against state's top music academy, 'Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academi" having invited massive outrage among artists, tribal artists from Attapady, one of the most backward tribal settlements of Kerala, have now come forward accusing the same of insulting them during their visit to the academy.

A group of tribal artists working under Chandran, a resident in Anavai, Attapady had visited the academy during 2018 for the work at the folk festivals held in the academy. They have now accused the academy secretary, N Chandrasekharan Nair for ​humiliating and asking them to do 'forest work' instead.

"Our wages are meagre and the jobs during the peak drama festivals is a great relief to many adivasi tribal families. This was when we decided to pay another visit for works and were once again humiliated and sent back by the Academy secretary," says Burman, one among the artists in the group.

He also added that the secretary informed them that they have their own people to do the work at the academy and that they were not required to do any job.

Chandran, Unni Krishnan and Burman who were harassed twice had not complained about this to anyone. It was when they came across the news about the academy secretary's recent casteist attitude with Dr RLV Ramakrishnan that they were prompted them to speak about their unpleasant experiences to Madhyamam.

More than ten tribals from the Attapady area have been a frequent part of the international folk festivals in the Sangeetha Academi for both off stage works and under artist Sujathan in the technical department.

Chandran and other artists including Burman are members of the Theater Roots and Wings community in Attapady which is functioning under the guidance of Shankar Venkateswaran, the ex Artistic Director of International Theatre Festival of Kerala (ITFoK)  ITFok is an international theatre festival held every year in December in Thrissur city of Kerala State.

The long-forgotten tribal form of art known as 'Madurai Veeran Koothu' had once again been brought into the limelight by them.

'Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi', founded on 26 April 1958 under Department of Culture, Government of Kerala, nourishes and encourages various forms of dance, music, drama and folk arts of Kerala.

The academy was established by the efforts of first elected Chief Minster of united Kerala, E.M.S Namboothirippadu, realizing the need to establish a government agency for the encouragement, preservation and documentation of the rich legacy of the varied art forms of the state.

(This report was prepared by Fathima Shareef based on the news reported by Madhyamam reporter Binoy Thomas in Malayalam)