What might be the social practices, rituals, festive events and food assembling that define community cultures, and how do they shape a community’s worldview, shaped by its history and memory? Reinforcing as they do our sense of identity and continuity with the past juxtaposed with the forces of modernity and globalization, such social practices are tied with significant political, economic or social meanings.
Tadmal is a village in Pen Taluka in Raigad district in Maharashtra. CASP in collaboration with the Center for Research in Alternative Farming Technologies (CRAFT), Navi Mumbai, has been working with the Adivasi community of this village (2015 onwards) on aspects of traditional and alternative farming methods, questions of cultural sustainability, and how the culture of a community can shape agency, debate, action, and solidarity (Brennan, 2020) amidst neoliberal developmental patterns.
The Tadmal Adivasi Festival emerged from conversations with the community members of Tadmal village and its Zila Parishad School to celebrate its local indigenous cultural practices. Its organization was led by the community members in collaboration with CRAFT and CASP. This ranged from exploring Adivasi knowledge, artistic, cultural, and food practices of this village, reinforcing people-led “rights of cultural practice” and how we can “learn to practice community if we learn to practice difference (Grand, 1999).”
Facilitators: Vasant Pawar (Sarpanch/Village Head, Tadmal), Shivaji Arjun Mane (Teacher, Zila Parishad School, Tadmal), Vijay Yelmalle (Researcher and Founder, CRAFT, Navi Mumbai), Anupam Singh (Artist, Educator, and Founder, CASP).
Notes:
Mark Brennan, Importance of Incorporating Local Culture into Community Development, (Community Development Discussion Series, PennState Extension), UNESCO and Pennsylvania State University, 2020.
Ian J. Grand, Cultural Identities and Practices of Community, Futures Journal, Vol. 31, Issue 5, June 1999 via Science Direct.
29th September, 2018 | Tadmal Village, Pen Taluka, Raigad District, Maharashtra | Open to all.
