A leopard comes home

Illustration/Uday Mohite

The highlight of this season was Music of the Forest, an electrifying concert last Thursday. Featuring Swadesi - including MC Mawali, Bamboy and Maharya - along with Prakash Bhoir, Adivasi activist and musician, it brought the crowd to its feet, with music that was hypnotic, yet the lyrics were sharp and thought provoking. It also gave voice to musicians who are not uber cool, upper class, SoBo types, but rather voices from the margins and adivasis, people who walk the talk, and dream of a revolution. Performed at the Coomaraswamy Hall, CSMVS Museum, Mumbai, the concert was part of The Forest in the City project of the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture and Environmental Studies (KRVIA). The Forest in the City: Living within Sanjay Gandhi National Park/Aarey Colony in Mumbai, is a fantastic and mindful exhibition exploring the links between the forest and city, that ends on Wednesday, July 17 at 6 pm. Don't miss it! Linked to the exhibition were also "Conversations in the Clearing", a series of events that hoped to provoke a conversation between stakeholders around questions of identity, rights and culture in the forest. The overall programme explored the rights and needs of indigenous people, their history, culture, music, films, with design interventions and more, over three years. The very large project team includes Lisa Bjorkman, Rohan Shivkumar, Sitaram Shelar and MC Mawali.

Swadesi is a collective of socially conscious rappers, writers, DJs and music producers. Last week, they rapped in Hindi, Marathi and Bengali, and their rap was also influenced by folk and classical Carnatic music, including konnakol (vocalising syllables), as well as reggae. Bamboy's track Sthiti includes the lines, "LGBT community ko Levi's deta slot/Aur sadkon pe hijde majboor 300 mein dete shot." MC Mawali's (Aklesh Sutar) tracks, included Badhte Kadam and Dheere dheere bol (Mumbai Aamchi) with sharp, cynical lyrics, raising social awareness. The Warli Revolt featuring Prakash Bhoir with Swadesi-MC Mawali, MC Todfod and 100rbh (1.9 million views), has a hypnotic animation music video on Youtube, and includes the lines: Aaz nahi udyala marayacha, mag kashala maaga sarayacha? (Death will come today or tomorrow, so why be afraid and step back - from protecting the jungle)? Swadesi's popular tracks that they performed, included Kranti Havi, Salaam, Samzun Umjun, and Bhoir x Swadesi's Wagh Deva and Adivasi. In fact, along with art and theatre explorations, the Adivasi song was commissioned by the KRVIA as a collaboration between Swadesi and Prakash Bhoir. They also sang unreleased tracks, including Divas Hay Nawa and Kavla. Their collaborators have included Delhi Sultanate, and many of their songs are backed by Bandish Projekt, among others.

At the heart of the overall programme was KRVIA, working in collaboration with the Pani Haq Samiti, exploring representation in the negotiation of access to infrastructure by the poor and marginalised communities within Sanjay Gandhi National Park and Aarey Colony in Mumbai. Aiming to spur change, it is a collaboration between many institutions, communities and individuals, including architects, urban designers, ethnographers, anthropologists, activists, community members, cultural practitioners and archivists. Their many collaborators included Sudhir John Horo (Tribal Design Forum), Adivasi Academy, CSMVS Museum, Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation/Puja Vaish, Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, Goethe Institut and Ice Factory Ballard Estate IF.BE.

Prakash Bhoir, who lives in the Aarey Forest, has the last word. Commenting on the limited involvement of Mumbaikars in saving Aarey's trees from being felled for a metro shed, he said, "If you breathe, you must save the trees." His family has an easy friendship with leopards (bibtya). "We don't fear leopards, we worship them, they are our gods. They are also like family members and one visits us regularly. If it doesn't visit us in four-five days, we worry and hope no one has killed it," he said. Showing me videos of the leopard on his phone, he said, "Recently we had a family wedding, and the leopard came as usual, as if asking, "Sab shaadi ke arrangements theek hai na?" before going away. If a leopard is friends with a man, he's practically a saint for me. But Prakash Bhoir and his gutsy wife Pramila, who had been arrested during the Aarey protests, have no airs. We've only just met, but they warmly insist I visit their home. I will be deeply honoured to do so.

Meenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival, National Award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist.
Reach her at meenakshi.shedde@mid-day.com