NEW DELHI: Oversized stuffed dolls dressed in traditional Rajasthani garb come alive in the hands of 11-year-old Gopal, who is among slum children in the capital, striving to keep the ancient art of puppetry alive.
Puppetry is suffering from erosion and we desperately need to hold on to what has been with us for centuries, according to Pavan K Varma, director general, Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).
This classical art form, however, has been kept alive by children of around 2,600 families from the slums of Delhi, who put up shows under the banner of Kalakar Vikas School.
Hailing from Rajasthan, Gopal, says he wants to show this art form to a much larger urban audience, who in his opinion, are not very much aware of puppetry.
"We have been performing shows since many generations. Now we want to carry this art forward to a global audience," he says.
Gopal's ambition is echoed by Lakshmi, a 14-year-old from a village near Delhi, who says the urban audience needs to know more about this almost-dying art form.
"Urban people are not very much aware that this art form is almost on its deathbed. We are struggling to keep it alive, but we are ready to do anything for it," Lakshmi says.
Both Lakshmi and Gopal had put up a performance of traditional puppetry in the capital recently on the occasion of the release of the ICCR's journal which is a special issue on puppetry.
The Union Internationale de la Marionette (UNIMA), an organisation dedicated to puppetry, has been working for the past 88 years for development of this art form all across the globe and even in India, says Dadi D Padamjee, the first non-European UNIMA president.
"UNIMA has been doing research for the past 14 years to bring out a comprehensive puppetry encyclopedia, which is scheduled to be published next year," Padumjee says.
"Sixty-one countries are contributing to this encyclopedia, which I hope will be the Bible of puppetry," he says.
"Marionette, in fact, means a puppet worked by strings. Literally, the term comes from French, meaning "little Mary", or a doll and or little girl," he says.
India has around 18 to 20 living traditions of glove, string, rod and shadow puppetry spread across the subcontinent and performed in different styles, techniques, accompanied by classical music of different forms, says ICCR president Pavan K Varma, in the latest issue of "Indian Horizons", the official journal of ICCR.
