POSTSCRIPT

HERITAGE

Onstage and Offstage

Dance of the Brokpa
The Brokpa’s traditional dance provokes different reactions at different venues and under different
circumstances.

Dikshit Sarma Bhagabati

A
“ filling meal and a couple of crisp notes, what more bachelors and run behind their kids with half-eaten plates
could one ask for?” Sonam smiled, while adjusting of rice and dal.
his headgear. The subedar had just brought the However, all the zest suddenly disappeared as the perfor-
news that the guests were about 15 minutes away. The sol- mance began that day. The dance, though splendid, was
diers had to rush, for impeccability was an official require- devoid of liveliness.
ment, but Sonam and his fellow Brokpa could take all the “They have shortened the song, otherwise the guests will
time in the world. The beads had to be worn, the sheepskin doze off,” Gyatso, a Class 10 student studying in Jammu,
brushed, and the instruments checked, and there was always shouted, so he could be heard above the drum beats; a large
time for small talk in between everything. Of course, this bass drum called bush and a set of two smaller ones called
nonchalant, laid-back attitude was characteristic of their daman were part of the performance.
villages nestled amid the rocky heights of the Himalayas. “Really? What does the song say?”
I was at the Women’s Empowerment Centre (WEC) in Dar- “God knows! It is supposed to be a conversation between a
chiks, a village rich in apricots, almonds, pears, apples and mother and her daughter, but they have reduced it so much
grapes, situated 70-odd kilometres away from Kargil in Jammu that it makes no sense.”
and Kashmir, in the area popularly known as Aryan Valley. The gait of the dancers seemed mechanical; for that mat-
The village is one of three major settlements of the Brokpa ter, so did the whole performance. The smiles only returned
tribe, a community of Dard people inhabiting In summers, when when the guests lined up for a photograph with
northern Pakistan and north-western India. tourists flock to the dancers who were clad in traditional attire.
The performance that day began with a Ladakh, the WEC Someone’s headgear had a flower less than the
welcome dance set to a Ladakhi song. Then, the transforms into a full set of six. Some women had long forgotten to
elderly villagers went around in a circle, subtly stage where the polish the coins on their headgears, earlier made
waving their hands, delicately thumping their of silver and nowadays government tender.
villagers perform
feet, singing a rustic folk song. Someone had put on their necklaces lousily while
for the army officers
The mother tongue of the Brokpa is Minaro, an someone else had barely done so. Sonam had
and their guests
Indo–Aryan language, though their vocabulary been careless while fastening his red woollen
heavily borrows from Ladakhi. Their songs are in both lan- overcoat and the white Che Guevara T-shirt underneath was
guages. It is through one such song that we learn of their an- clearly visible. The only ones who looked delighted with
cestry traced to a few itinerant soldiers of Alexander’s muti- their costumes were the guests wearing the headgears that
nying army. They are said to have migrated here from Gilgit- they had just been presented.
Baltistan, now in Pakistan. A couple of weeks later, it was time for the sheep to be taken to
The story of the WEC in itself is interesting. The army set it higher grounds in search of pasture. In Darchiks, tucked beside
up to provide employment to villagers, though in summers, the Indus, there was little vegetation to be found. Before taking
when tourists flock Ladakh, the WEC transforms into a to settled agriculture, the Brokpa had been a nomadic tribe.
stage where the villagers perform for the army officers and Brokpa roughly translates to “the people of the pasture.”
their guests. Lunch for everybody, even those who have It was time for enjoyment, for the herders would soon be
nothing to do with the performance, and cash rewards off with their livestock. For three whole days, the chahana
make it a lucrative deal for the villagers. On other days, it (village square) donned a different spirit after electricity
provides steady employment to about 10 women engaged in came through at eight in the evening. Chang, the locally
apricot processing, kilim (rug) making, and the like. On the brewed wheat beer, flowed as freely as the Indus through the
days of such performances, the WEC transforms into nothing valley. Unlike the WEC, the attendance here was reassuring,
less than a fair. The children constantly nag the havildar especially for a village with a population of 680. The songs
handling the sound system to play Bollywood songs; with went on for more than half an hour and the dances drew
only three hours of electricity a day, seldom do they get to active participation; men in the inner circle, women in the
dance to music on loudspeakers. Women tease unfortunate outer circle, and kids wherever they found place before being
Economic & Political Weekly EPW AUGUST 4, 2018 vol lIiI no 31 109
 POSTSCRIPT
HERITAGE | IDENTITY

chased away. The beads were dazzling, the sheepskin looked

immaculate, with each headgear appearing more colourful
and sumptuous than the other. Laughter accompanied the
songs and dances, and taunts sneaked into the performance.
It was nothing like the WEC, apart from the youth who would
still not dance and dress in the traditional attire.
Folk arts have culturally occupied a unique space. One
where they thrive organically along with their practitioners.
When such an art form is transported to an alien platform,
like the Brokpas to the WEC, it is sanitised and loses itself in
order to serve a commercial end. But with that come rewards
and recognition. Who knows, the youth of Darchiks might
well take to their traditional songs and dance one day, if not
for the sheer joy, then at least for monetary rewards.
Dikshit Sarma Bhagabati (17jgls-dbhagabati@jgu.edu.in) is studying law at O P Jindal
Global University, Sonipat.

110 AUGUST 4, 2018 vol lIiI no 31 EPW Economic & Political Weekly