Picture this: A percussionist has arrived at the concert venue, but is asked to leave because the other percussionist has declared, “I do not play concerts with or for women.” The organisers and “main artiste” (as the artiste sitting centre stage is called) make a hasty apology and send her home. Enraged, she cries loud enough for her neighbours to gather and find out what happened. She vows to bring her work and instrument — the ghatam — to the centre of the stage. And, that is where Sukkanya Ramgopal, the musician who has paved the way for other women in percussion, sat when she performed at Jodhpur RIFF’s 2024 edition.
The genre-agnostic festival does indeed offer varieties of music but, remarkably, also brings to the fore women who have crossed many hurdles to get to the stage.
Sukkanya Ramgopal’s ghatam ensembles breaks notions and hierarchies. | Photo Credit: Courtesy: RIFF Jodhpur/Ojio
Sukkanya Ramgopal has taken, not one, but an array of earthen pots to the centre of the stage in the last five decades of her musical career. Her ghatam ensembles have broken notions and hierarchies — blending melody with percussion and poetry with classical music. “From the beginning, there were many hurdles to cross. So, I have come past with a lot of feeling. I don’t know what to call that emotion — anger, determination? I have fought a lot. Even now, some people tell me, ‘You are always fighting… try a softer approach’,” she says, laughing.
Whereas Sukkanya has faced many rejections for being a woman percussionist, she sometimes chooses to reject opportunities that come her way because she is a female percussionist. “How long are we going to keep playing all-women ensembles? Have you ever heard anyone say ‘all-men’ ensemble?” She shares her utopian vision of a hierarchy-free classical music world where artistes view each other as equal professionals. “So what, if you play the ghatam and I sing or play any other instrument?” she asks.
Inspired by Kabir and Meera
Sumitra Das Goswami is the first woman Rajasthani folk singer to have performed outside India. | Photo Credit: Courtesy: RIFF Jodhpur/Ojio
Internationally acclaimed folk singer Sumitra Das Goswami, who also performed on the festival’s main stage, was only five when she started learning bhajans from her father. Having lost her mother and seen her father struggle as a construction worker by day and bhajan singer by night, she told him they could earn more if she sang with him. He said it would be hard work but started teaching her, even making a harmonium by hand (and a wooden seat so she could reach the keys). The lustre of her voice shone. She gained recognition well before she turned 14, but it was the connection she felt with mystic poets such as Meera, Kabir and Guru Gorakhnath that drew her in deep.
“As a child, sometimes, I would fall asleep at the jagrans. Sometimes, I would stay awake and sing with my father,” recalls Sumitra. “In all innocence, I believed that my singing would keep my family safe from hunger. We lived on leftovers, shivered in rain, harsh heat and cold — sometimes even longing for water. When I sang, a — lots of chillar (change)would collect in a pile near me,” says the artiste credited with being the first female Rajasthani folk singer to perform outside India.
Dream come true
An invitation to perform in Jaipur changed Sumitra’s life, with art curators such as John Singh and Vinod Joshi encouraging her to keep growing her artistic practice. The appreciation and acceptance she received nationally and internationally contrasted sharply with the rejection and harassment she, and her family faced from their community. Her father egged her on to sing and ignore her detractors. Yet, she still remembers him standing — hands folded, head bowed — before their community, saying: “Take what you want from me. Just let my daughter sing. She has big dreams and works very hard.”
The community levied a fine of Rs 50,000 for Sumitra’s choice to hold on to her musical career. They paid it by selling the 20 goats they owned, besides emptying out their meagre savings. When the community further demanded that she refrain from singing nearby or in any of their homes, she hit back saying, “Now that we have paid the fine, I will sing exactly where I please.” Though her music cost her heavily (all except one sibling distanced themselves from her after their father’s death, and she had to find a partner outside her community because she was ostracised within hers), Sumitra says she feels only joy when she sings.
“When I sing, I become one with the divine that Meera and Kabir sang about. Meera had to face such accusations because of her mad love for Krishna. What am I in the face of that?” she asks.
Sumitra now teaches music to her widowed sister-in-law and young niece, also encouraging them to “make a mark in the world so you are known for who you are.”.
Experimental music
Marutius-base singer Emlyn says she believes in making music that “conveys resistance but offers hope”. | Photo Credit: Courtesy: RIFF Jodhpur/Ojio
Another voice that stood out at the festival was that of Emlyn from Mauritius. Her vibrant music brought the vastness of the Indian Ocean to Rajasthan. “The base of my music is traditional drumming and Sega chanting from my island,” says Emlyn. Her musical experiments are also influenced by rock, blues and fusion music she heard growing up. Addressing divisions created by colonisation and making instruments from trash or plastic washed up by the ocean she holds dear – is all in a day’s work for her.
“My love for my country and Nature are at the root of my work as an activist”, says Emlyn. She believes in making music that “conveys resistance but offers hope”. Having earlier harboured “a lot of insecurities about being a woman in the music industry”, she now chooses to focus on how women can do anything. “We have the power to give birth and can be very strong in our minds,” she says.
Published - November 23, 2024 04:31 pm IST
