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Vadamody kooththu and reformulating Batticaloa’s community theatre
Source: Northeastern Monthly - July 1, 2004
By: S. Jeyasankar
Kooththu is the traditional theatre of the Tamils of Sri Lanka and is currently practiced in different strata of the society. Though the war affected people much at the community level, which is the bastion of kooththu, the dance form survives with its traditions unharmed.
The modernization process has shifted the kooththu to be used for different social functions. At one level, kooththu is being used as a showpiece in cultural festivals (luckily it is not extended to shopping complexes and five star hotels and tourist resorts as in Sinhala culture). War in the northeast had functioned as a barrier for the commodification of cultures and cultural artifacts.
In another level, kooththu is being modified to fit it into a new context or framework, which is conditioned and constructed by modern political and artistic concepts like modernization, national identity and cultural identity etc.
In the background of the post-colonial concept of hybridization, the blending of the traditional and the modern elements to counter the colonial hegemony in the cultural and in the political spheres is regarded as a political act in national politics.
But the politics of hybridization has been criticized as an appropriation of the pre-colonial space to fit into the colonial space. Colonialism is not a “POST” or “PAST”, it’s continuous process in different ways in different times. At present it’s in the name of globalization of the market forces.
The concept of post-colonialism was replaced by the concepts of decolonization and reformulation. Instead of creating a hybridized world of ‘Thirisanku,’ re-inventing the pre-colonial space and reformulating it into a people-oriented space to counter the globalization process of the market forces are the politics of decolonization and reformulation.
The decolonization and the reformulation processes also have a global aspect. It is the globalization of integrated forces, which experienced colonialism and experience neo-colonialism that is the globalization of the market forces.
The inventions of modern technologies are the electrifying forces of imperialism and neo-imperialism. Industrialization paved the way for imperialism and information technologies paved the way for neo-imperialism. These two conquering ideologies have differences in a single aspect that is geography. Imperialism has geographical demarcation but not neo-imperialism. The protests against the globalization of the market forces in the countries, which function as the womb of the globalization of the market forces, are the clear evidences of the difference. Because of this difference the concept of decolonization has been surpassed by the concept of reformulation.
The modern concepts of development and technology are machine oriented and those who control the machines will rule the world. Invention of technologies shifted the power from the people to a group of people who control or who own the machine. And the concept of development was constructed according to that rule. Profit-making is the ultimate motto of this trend. People and the environment become the resources of this modern technology-oriented development process.
The popularization and implementation of new forms of development programs under the banners of “Development with a Human Face” and “Sustainable Development” are the proof of its limitations and disadvantages.
Re-inventing the people-centered functionalism from machine-centered industrialization and computerization is the politics of reformulation. Redefining or reinventing the concepts of development and technology is the pre-requisite for this process. It is basically liberating the human beings from machines and re-connects them with Nature.
Fundamentally human beings are also elements of nature but not the element of nature, with the power of modern technology to control nature or the whole universe for its own benefits. But modern man with his electrifying powers created the world for a few and gave destructions to the rest, even to the pest.
The concept of reformulation is a process to unbind the man from mechanization and make him a human being to live in a world of equality where differences are being celebrated. This will be achieved through different ways and means in different levels.
The process of kooththu could function as one of the means to formulate a people- oriented activity in the creation of a world of equality where the differences are celebrated.
Kooththu is not only the art of the individual artist in the modern sense, but also reflects processes within a community. The basic process in kooththu is learning by doing it collectively, and the primary source for the performance is in collective memory. These aspects make the kooththu process primarily a practice-oriented one.
Modernization and commercialisation of kooththu alienates the people who own it and have been practicing it for generations. Traditionally kooththu was considered crude, unsophisticated, primitive and the art of the illiterate and drunks. This was because those who were involved in the kooththu process in the community were not educated in colonial institutions nor did they consume imported spirits.
The politics and aesthetics of modernization played a vital role in the construction of kooththu in modern times. This construction made the ‘educated’ to think of kooththu as medai kooththu (kooththu on the proscenium arch stage). kooththu was dislocated from its original space and appropriated to a new space introduced by the colonial powers. A community-oriented performance art was reduced to performance-oriented art for an audience in a colonial building and made to appear modern.
In the initial stage of my career in theatre, I perceived kooththu as a modern art form. Theatre education at the advanced level and at the university, as well as knowledge and experience of modern kooththu gave me that perception. But my relationship with the kooththu community and the kooththu performances in traditional spaces made me think differently.
My story will reveal this clearly.
My interest and engagement in modern drama led to my contact with kooththu. The writings on the modernization of kooththu, the debate on the formation of a national theatre and incorporating elements of kooththu into modern drama are popular topics in modern Tamil theatre studies. My experience in modern Tamil theatre and the influence of the debate to which I was a contributor constructed my perception.
But the view of Sinnathamby Master alias Peking Sinnathamby was different. He believed that kooththu did not only involve dances and music set for performance, but that it was integrally connected to the performers and the community too. The dialogue with Sinnathamby Master opened up another door in my search.
I learnt the dances songs and techniques of Vadamody kooththu in detail from Professor S. Mounaguru and my relationship with the Vaddukoddai performers began under the guidance of Sinnathamby Master. This relationship spread gradually towards the kooththu performers in the north, east, up-country and now it extends towards southern Sri Lanka as well.
With this background, I began to involve myself very actively in the debates and work connected with the modernization of kooththu. It taught me two things: elements of kooththu are suitable for incorporation into modern drama (Tamil and English) for easy communication; sustainability of kooththu is only possible with changes in the community that had been performing it for generations.
The reformulation of kooththu becomes complete and whole through changes in the thinking of the community that practices and preserves the art. In my belief, the ideological and social change in the community that preserves and performs the art is very necessary in the reformulation process of kooththu.
Therefore, the duty of the theatre people does not end with the introduction of kooththu with its shortened version suited for urban elite audiences, or by bringing in new interpretations and new spaces. Their duty extends beyond these limits.
What is required at present is to struggle with traditional ideology, grapple with new situations and to make efforts to understand whether traditional theatre has the capacity to carry forward changes. It is also to think about the possibilities of expressing the present experience fully and in a practical manner in order to ensure this process continues. This process does not relate only to theatre but also involves the whole community against the background of contemporary global trends.
The ways to confront such situations also differ. We have to integrate closely with the community that performs kooththu, relate to the performers with friendship, share ideas and objectives with them and extend respect to each other as equal partners. This is vital to move forward towards the next phase in this effort.
These processes take place in the traditional kooththu environment and gradually expand to other areas. These experiences will provide a hitherto unknown dimension to the new or ‘modern’ drama too. They will enable us to firmly root ourselves in the past and aim at the future by bringing together our contemporary experiences and developing the concept of localization.
Up to now, whenever kooththu served as a source of research, kooththu performers were used only as providers of information – as informants. Further, the output of the research did not reach the performers. Dialogue with performers of kooththu will serve remedy this shortcoming.
Views of the community of kooththu performers – especially the annaaviar and others associated with the staging of performances – were not taken into account in the debate on the modernization of kooththu. The academic work available in the past 50 years on kooththu and the modification of kooththu serves to underscore my argument.
The authority of academic institutions such as universities, which are functioning as colonial agencies, has played an important role in formulating systems of modern knowledge, especially through commissioning and sustaining research. Research is a ‘scientific academic exercise’ that is usually conducted by specially trained people in an academic institution. The knowledge manufactured is authorized due to the scientific component in the research exercises. This is the basis for manufacturing modern knowledge.
Designing systems, methodologies, formulas etc. and imposing them on other territories through power derived from imperial rule and making those rules ‘standard and international’ is the politics of the imperialism.
The colonial system of knowledge treats traditional knowledge systems as ‘unscientific’ and claims that only through modern research methodologies could traditional knowledge systems be appropriated and authorized as knowledge.
As I mentioned earlier, the authority of modern academic institutions and research methodology reduces people who possess traditional or pre-colonial knowledge into mere informants. Further, modern knowledge serves to dislocate people from their sources of traditional knowledge and forces them to perceive such knowledge as unscientific and the product of uneducated or illiterate peoples.
It is the same story with the modernization and research on kooththu. Because of this, kooththu earned the epithet naaddu kooththu (country theatre) from the intellectual community.
Deconstruction of modern knowledge and my relationship with kooththu performers and their community made me search for new ways and means to study and understand this art form. It led me to select this area of study for my MA despite being aware of the impediments of doing so within a conventional university system. It was important for me to work in the selected area of study while it was equally important to work within an authorized academic structure and institution.
I thought this would provide me with first hand experience of how individual intellectuals the intellectual community and the institutions and community ‘outside’ would react to the project. This was the other side of the coin of my work. It would help to initiate the reformulation process at another level of the community.
With this in mind I started to think about making the performers as partners for my research. My reading on educational and community theatres and the writings by Paulo Freire, Augusto Boal and the application of their techniques of theatre and close acquaintance with kooththu performers and the community, gave me the confidence and opportunity to take forward participatory theatre action research.
I felt strongly that conventional research methodologies were not suitable for this kind of work and searched for alternative methodologies. The internet search opened up a new path with information of the Maori scholar Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s ‘Indigenous research methodologies’ and through an Australian scholar, Ian Hugues’s website on ‘Participatory action research” and other approaches and theories. However, they all united in decolonising and democratising modern knowledge and research methodologies to dismantle the authority of neo-imperialism.
In this background, the Tharmapuththiran kooththu (Son of tharmam) was reformulated into Simmaasana por (War for the throne) with the participation of the community of kooththu performers at Seelamunai, Batticaloa. The transformation of the traditional prologue reveals the character of the reformulation process.
Traditional Prologue
Oh, Elephant- faced god,
Your protection we implore
To sing the story of Bharatha,
The fearful war of destruction
How it was wagered and fought
How it was lost and won
With the grace of God
By the princes five thus:
Sahuni, the King’s counselor,
Deceitful, treacherous and full of vice,
Invited the princes five
To play a game of dice
Defeating them by sleight of hand
And disrobing the damsel in public
Banished them to jungle life
For two and ten long years
Incognito and in disguise
Reformulated prologue
A story depicting Pandavas as the sons of dharma
And demeaning Gauravas as sons of adharma.
A story dharma and adharma told for many, many years
But one of unjust war fought for rule over others.
Those that are great failed to extirpate enmity in the hearts of youth
Boasting the valour of the five and portraying the others as knaves.
The nobles and the great ones, why did they remain speechless
When the damsel stood helpless crying for justice.
Kannan the embodiment of good, born to destroy destroyers
How many ruses he resorted to in the name of dharma?
It was people who became dice, people who died in the war
Fought brutally and vainly in the name of dharma.
We the players have come before you to sing the story
New-created raising several thought-provoking questions.
Protection to human beings, protection to all living things
Protection to live on this earth in happiness, affluence and peace.
When the process began, I was concentrating only on the performance. But as the process went on, I became conscious that kooththu in practice was evolving into a place of meeting of the community, a place to relax, a place to recreate, a place to remember and recall, a place for playing games and learning, a place for dialogue and a place for sleep.
Kooththu is a process that integrates many disciplines that are put forward in modern knowledge as separate entities. It is an annual event connected with the seasonal order of nature, and the livelihood of people; it is connected with the ritual ceremony of the gods and goddesses of the community.
During the three to four months it took to be put the performance together, I was able to observe and realize that the practices in the kooththu process were part of an organic community theatre of the Tamils of Sri Lanka.
The reformulation of kooththu and changes in the community are intertwined dialectical processes. Changes in people’s lives influence change in kooththu and changes in kooththu change people. The handling of the issues such as caste, gender and other oppressive socio-cultural values is evidence for this statement. The reformulated performance at Seelamunai in Batticaloa, the innovative performances of individuals and the community of Seelamunai are evidence of the process.
