Jit Natta
M.Phil., Sem-I
Jadavpur University, Department of Comparative Literature
2022
With historical shades of evidence in the late 17’th century “Natta Community” migrated and
arrived at Barisal jhalo2- Kathi, Bangladesh, in pre-independence era. In this paper, I address the
historiography to revisit community peoples and their cultural and social practices to trace the history,
of where they came from before the 17th century before arriving at Jalokathi. From government of
Indian cast records, we can find also similar communities named “Natt” community they also had the
major history of migration over the Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. From” Natt” community some
villagers are over the those who were also engaged with cultural practices folk theatrical and musical
practice, so it can assume it’s not error of history, but the accounts lying under the hegemonic
understanding of culture.
In the early 18th century after many migrations, there was a shifting paradigm of the economy and
social dominance they noticed by their actual talent, not fishery this time, traditional practices of the”
Community” folk traditions of performative arts like popular theatre, musical performances. Soon
there noticed by the native feudal lords and cogmen community members “Natta” and shifted them to
an isolated land named machrong village, it was an obvious thing on behalf of the cultural practices
they were also treated as other Dalit and Namasudra communities. As well as “Community “get some
major mobilization around the native area of Barisal and letter all over the east-Bengal. Around the
same time, the community members who are engaged in theatrical and musical performances were
often invited to perform Jatra, koban, jorigan, kiKirtonroyani, kawali, etc. which are one of the finest
examples of Bengal folk traditions. From ‘Gandarvalok’ written by Haridas Chakroborty, 1978 and
oral interviews of community members, it can be assumed that after the 18th century within the
traditional practices British cultural influences are started getting visibility, with accumulating
musical instruments and performative aspects of theatrical forms which then raised debates within the
inner community circle and their ethical sheds and religious values. In the late 16th century, were
many incidents of massive attacks on Baul, Fakirs, and other marginalized religious ideologies, they
took to participate and collaborate with the native cultural practices. It also seems in the late 18 th
century there theatrical trup called nagdutta sindha ray company, with is a very popular opera house in
Bengal before partition, in many folklores and oral traditions of east-Bengal many fallacies are also
separated by nagdutta singjharay company as a big group of performers. In 1902 century, it started to
get abolish the vastness of the collective and one new fraction was come up named’ Thakur
company’, but in 1912 Tagore company closed, but the fourth and one-half partnership was owned by
Natta Community’’ is remained, and Baikuntha Natta claims and moves towards to create another
fraction. In 1913 Baikuntha Natta and Sri Natta stars the matching Baikuntha sangeet samaj, in native
oral traditions it’s founded as the name of “Natta der dhal”.
If we put much focus on history collective practice it can seem it was going from major separation
and fractions, after many debates and contradictions in the leadership of Sasi Natta and surja Dutta
successful to lunch Natta company as a group of popular theatrical and musical performances. At that
time Sasi Natta was the manager and Nakul Dutta was the director and Surjo Dutta was a dance
teacher in “Natta Company”. In 1916 in Midnapur Natta company performs with the idea of the 3rd
Visual as mentioned in ‘’‘Gandharvalok’’written by Haridas Chakraborty. Sri Natta takes the term
“Tritiya Mancha” as a strategy of performance, In an interview with Makhanlal Natta in 2013,
documented by Shantanu Maitra. According to Makhanlal Natta, They tried this kind of method from
traditional times and that is similar also in many indigenous performative traditions. According to
Makhanlal Natta Tritiya Mancha works in the middle of the ordinary public those who are busy with
everyday life, by using these kinds of performing methods are intentionally formed to asset their
viewer space and say what u want to say. even The Community had its group of ‘Lathials’ for the
protecting community in the time of long waterway journeys to the far land, 1913 they started to
going other major Areas In India to attend their performances. In 1920 Natta company started shifting
towards West-Bengal in 1937 Natta Company shifted on Calcutta shova bazar, in this time Sasi Natta
was in charge of Natta company. In changing circumstances, the ‘Natta’ community witnessed much
exploitation during the Bengal partition. The majority of the ‘Natta’ population migrated from East
Bengal to West Bengal and started their struggle as refugees.
Borders of any kind physical or mental, represent a deviation of humanity from itself. As a creative
practitioner my attempt to relocate the practice endorsed by my community into a contemporary
realm. In the late 18th century community successfully launched ‘Natta Company’, a ‘Jatra’ group in
East Bengal, operated as a folk theatrical group and started to perform all over the rural areas and
cities of British occupied India. Around the same, time the community members who are engaged in
theatrical and musical performances were often invited to perform kobigan, jori Gan, Kirton, royani
etc. which are one of the finest examples of Bengal folk traditions forms. From oral interviews of
community members, it can be assumed that after 18th century within the traditional practices British
cultural influences started getting visible, Boikuntha Natta and Joggeswar Natta formed the inner
schooling system of ‘Bara Bari’. In pre-part the edition era, the ‘Natta’ Community started to travel
all over Bangladesh and India. The post-partition times it can seem the ‘Natta’ community
successfully established the ‘Natta Company’ again in the Sova Bazar area. It started to perform at
various theatres and opera houses the likes of which include Star Theatre, Minerva Theatre, Mohaand
jati Sadan, and Rangmahal Opera House. The countryside and marginal locations too had their
presence. During the 19th century they had already established their popularity in the northern side of
Odessa, Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, UP, and Tripura. Many industrial intellectuals like Girish
Ghosh and later Utpal Dutta, Satyajit Ray also collaborated with the community and gifted some
major influential popular plays like ‘NotiBinodini’ ‘OkalerDesh’ (1943), ‘Poroshmoni’ (1948),
‘Pabon’ (1960) e.t.c.
If one seems to follow the scripts of popular plays organized within the wing of ‘Natta Company’
chronologically, one would notice that the performances have started to shift their basic contents to
regional context displaying social and domestic environments inherent in the same cultural context.
Natta Company thus became popular in Kolkata. Social and political contents become more relevant
and drew mass audiences, and most significantly matched the aesthetic of mass culture. The
mainstream cultural industry however had always played the dominant role in suppressing the
targeted voices of dissent. The industrial revolution and colonial hangover introduced the post-internet
era to cultural industry, noting down the shift in the paradigm in popular culture. Slowly folk
theatrical forms and others as she started to fade away with time. The practitioners of those groups, as
a result, scattered around and started changing their profession. My son, therefore, re promises to
revisit the inner community struggles- their experiences of violence, regional hegemony other und
working areas.
Comparative literature can be defined as an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and transnational literary
analysis. here we can say the study of literature and other art forms, are beyond the conflicts of one
particular country or state. It also allows itself to study other areas of knowledge and creative
expression of humankind, such as the arts (painting, sculpture, graphics, drawings, installations,
graffiti, performance art, etc.) philosophy, history, the social sciences, (politics, economics,
sociology), etc. on the other. Comparative literature also has an ideology of inclusive other
disciplines. like marginal literature and its several meanings of marginality, various zoners of text and
oral traditions etc. Here it can be also seemed the scope and the rage have been constantly reviewed
and revised, since the 60’s new possibilities and alternative thought of Eurocentric biases had been
emerging from cultural studies and by the uprising of post-colonization enforced a radical revaluation
and decanonization of literary texts and other forms of creative practices. This movement triggered a
major border shifting of comparative literature, it also crosses the line of hierarchy and also drew the
line between high and low, also in canonical and popular literature as well. It is necessary to look at
how cl get a much wide escape by collaborating with other arts and cultural studies. Exploration of
literature and other arts manifests itself, it’s a genuine possibility only then the experience or suffering
literature and other art forms take to the viewer or reader to a horizon of experiences and expectations.
Cultural studies were primarily concerned with common objectives and everyday life and popular
culture, it is concerned with everyday visuals, to films theatre, and television as multimedia interfaces.
It also addresses the question of identity, cast, class and ethnicity over the marginalized area of
literature and other arts.it also measure the line of common scenic knowledge more critically, it also
interrogates the social hierarchy and dominance of class cast and gender and their hegemonic
exploitation over the majority. The major objective of cultural studies is popular culture because it
provides important clues to understanding the structure of domination in society. In the context of
India from centuries to recent decades, register lots of information about the persecution of the
followers of different ideologies which questioned the hegemonic position of the dominant
ideological discourses along with the societal structure and the conditioning which facilitates that
position. Such instances of atrocities brought down upon the subjugated ideological positions found
their existence in various folk tales and even Haridas’s in‘Gandharvalok’ mentions it. Contemporary
times are no stranger to such repression treatment of marginalized communities whose legitimized
exploitation by the Brahminical forms. ‘Matua’ move, though minor, is still a pioneer Namkasudra
movement of the 18th century against feudal lords for establishing their fundamental rights and social
recognition. Harichand, the leader of the ‘Matua’ community, in his lifetime, successfully established
more than five thousand Madrasas as mentioned in ‘Gurulilamrito’ written by Guruchand, the son. In
the ‘Natta’ community, the kind of leaders, aforementioned are a regular reference within the
discussions of oral history and texts; for example, Haridas had mentioned Gadadhar Gosai as a
religious leader who then gets revered as the main ideologue of the community. After partition, the
‘Matua’ community and ‘Natta’ community parallelly shifted to North 24 pgs.
My further research work will have a mixed approach as my research Methodology- ‘Gandarvalok’
written by Haridas Chakraborty in the 18th century concerned as the primary text. The Various kinds
of drawings, posters of popular plays, audiovisual interviews of the members of the community who
are presently within the practice, an oral history about the displacement of the community, play
scripts, and lyrics composed within Natta Company’s patronage and labeled as ‘popular’ works will
also be important to measure aesthetic reliance around ate visual and the literary texts.
In this paper I want to relocate the changing themes of Natta company was changing their prating
paradigm through the time early 19th century to late 19th century to inquiry the themes of various plays
from east-Bengal through the partition and migration how the popular themes are remarks and cross
the dominant hierarchy in the context of challenging or countering the Brahminical supremacy inside
the community also in the broader field of culture, contemporary society to “Cultural industry”. I also
interrogate the performative forms of Natta company, through the times and after many migrations
how they sifted the performative strategy. If we see i9n early 19’s play we can see they use the
concept of “Tritiya Mancha” to get closer interaction to viewer. we see the performers who are always
men, and men also costumed as women, no women’s are allowed to performing to the stage , but from
the shifting paradigm and major influence by contemporary intellectuals and their participation
Makhanlal Natta established a parallel group called Natta company ii. In the 1970’s with help of Grish
Ghosh Natta company runs The Pala called ‘’Noti Binodini’’ first time in the history of popular
theatre Binodini Devi played as a woman to a female character in days when women used to perform
as males. If one sees in the journey of Biondini Devi she also used to perform as male corrector in
many plays. It can be also observed through an interview of Makhanlal Natta Many female actresses
are also involved in the time of early 19th, but they have to perform as a male in men’s outfits, there
are some names of the female performers’ names and addresses from “Natta Community’s’’ archive
like Binod Rani from Barisal, from palang Durga Rani, Reboti Rani Faridpur, also Foni Rani, Dhira
Rani, Chapal Rani from farid pur. If we see the traditions and carreakterstices of contemporary Opera
houses we can easily assume, over the time state aperators and its patriarchal premises can also seem
inside the community structure till now it carries the same tradition of dominance and discrimination.
As a practitioner of the ‘Natta’ community, I want to make a bridge between my practice and my
community's popular aesthetics, which carries the history of Dalit literature and arts. I took many
visual elements from my community to enrich and establish my practice as a counter language. In this
research program I am trying to address the potentiality of certain elements from the Community’s
practice of popular art forms. The theatrical troupes of the ‘Natta’ community have always been
mobile and had appealed to the audience of the common masses. Through my practice with
installations and public artworks, I have always wanted to go closer with mass audiences when art
galleries have already proven their limitations when it comes to communicating with marginalized
audiences. Popular posters, handbills, and litho prints produced by the Natta company, as popular
'poor images'' and some personal notes of being exploited in the past were put forward in order to
recreate a counter narration against the Brahminical hegemony.
exhibit at conflectrioum museum on 14/4/22, Raipur.
“...Bombing happens frequently all over the night; at the time when we cross the ground zero, we
have to cover ourselves from bombing airplanes. We used to cover ourselves with kitchen containers
boats, and a lethal troop guided us in the dark...” -Gita Natta in this drawing titled as- Natta Nama (exhibit at conflectrioum museum on 14/4/22, Raipur), I want to
put that oral narrative as the text of a first-hand testimonial narrated by the victim. I introduce this
image for revisiting my argument practice as research.
In this research program, I am trying to address the potentiality of certain elements from the
community’s practice of popular art forms. The theatrical troupes of the ‘Natta’ community have
always been mobile and had appealed within the audience of the common masses. Through my
practice with installations and public art works, I have always wanted to go closer with mass
audiences when art galleries have already proven their limitations when it comes to communicating
with marginalized audiences. Popular posters, handbills, and litho prints produced by the Natta
company, as popular 'poor images'' and some personal notes of being exploited in the past were put
forward in order to recreate a counter narration against the Brahminical hegemony.
Throughout the last decade, I have specialized my practice with sculptural discipline. In this research,
the focalization lies in the presentation of my practice as a research method. The current arrangement
aims to present visual art practice as a form of human understanding whose cognitive processes are
delivered through various language mediums and contexts which are often used to separate and make
meaning from images and objects. ‘Artists’ and other places where artists choose to create an object
of art or other such places chosen for the creation of a critique for the emergence of new ideas, are
theatrically powerful and methodologically represent robust sights of inquiry. Any kind of drawing
and sketch has the agency to argue about the way of taking an account of visual art practice.
as a practitioner of visual arts and comparative literature, the artist-theorist can be seen as both the
researcher and the researched. It’s also a quest and thrust of a practitioner to expand practices used by
the artist to advance one’s understanding of who one is, what one does, and what one knows. It has
also opened up many opportunities to get a closer understanding of digital interventions, new forms of
media outlets, cultural collaborations, and community spaces, thus creating new pockets for creative
and critical inquiry, which would offer opportunities for different forms of research and imaginative
practices. In this paper, I want to target another objective is a comparative analysis of popular
theatrical performances and the contemporary realm practice in visual arts specific to performance art
and how to address the history of Dalit literature and art through the practice of arts.
Performance is an act, which obtains a reaction as a result, in everyday life. It always refers to live
events only, executed by one or more performers. They can be in theatre, popular theatre, music,
dance, and operas. Art forms that create art through the body of performances behalf creating objects
forms of art that have an attitude of communicating with ant human body, where it gets reproduced in
mediums (television, and the internet). Performing arts hold the social appeal to collect people around
the happening occurred. Followed the state the term “art” itself had a hegemonic dominance of
colonial aesthetics in art, performing arts comprise forms that were not had the status of art in the
previous time, such as popular arts (pageants, mummery, and the circus arts, etc.) and the artists were
performed at street or other non-traditional spaces. Those forms are aimed to provoke the reaction of
the audience rather than its admiration could be described as committed performing arts, and this
particular possibility is called “performance art”. Performances are social events performed in front of
the public and unconventional; sights. and inter vain on the space of the viewer sometimes inside of
the gallery or sometimes from the outside between the public domain and unconventional spaces. In
performance art it is also possible to act live, in performance art scripted and properly directed acts
are only presented on the stage or in public spaces, but performing is directly interacting with the
viewer and all happenings are happening in front of the viewer. If opera houses show viewers dealing
with false props there in performance art sometimes performers are allowed to harm themselves
during the act. comparative literature also acknowledges the reader or viewer’s experience of the
happenings.
Performance One, image- iii
Performance One, image- iv
Performance One, video
Performance One
In this performance (image no. I, ii, iii, iv) I try to trace religious and communal oppression on a
body. Here I used Traditional religious materials (sandalwood pedestal) and surgical materials
(bandage, blood) to create a performative and interactive space. When those materials interact with
the body during the performance, it creates a fierce and paradoxical dialogue. Witch counters
Brahmanical patriarchy and hegemonic rituals. Interacting with viewers, some particular parts of this
performative space itself produce resistance and paradoxically exposed growing communal violence
around the nation. A body always carried its own wounds of suffering from oppression and
humiliation by capitalist reality, Brahmanical patriarchy, Islamophobia, and patriarchal repression.
Simultaneously the body itself resists and tries to find its own identity. Sometimes it's may not be
fulfilled. As a visual art practitioner, I'm trying to raise that kind of contractionary discourse by
creating a ‘headless’ body on two-dimensional and three-dimensional surfaces. Starting with
exploring my past experience I started my practice with figurative forms on two and threedimensional surfaces Sometimes with semi-sculptural forms.
I studied and revisit subaltern struggle from my own past experiences of violence, regional hegemony
around my native fieldwork area. With using a post-structural framework, I try to understand more
deeply about that heterogeneous group of people, those who are not able to acknowledge their present
exploitation. By collectively archiving oral evidence from various subaltern (Gramscian sense)
groups of people I'm trying to archive their short narratives, those expose alienation, precariousness,
agitation, resistance against the state agendas.
Audio visual links
https://youtu.be/neEfCYj9Qy8 https://youtu.be/lZ8YP6I3Vz8 https://youtu.be/WwXNszIdqmA https://youtu.be/swMA6igoly4
performative space, video
Audio visual links-
https://youtu.be/lZ8YP6I3Vz8
performative space
A body always carried its own wounds of suffering from oppression and humiliation by capitalist
reality, Brahmanical patriarchy, Islamophobia, and patriarchal repression. Simultaneously the body
itself resists and tries to find its own identity. Sometimes it's may not be fulfilled. As a visual art
practitioner, I'm trying to raise that kind of contractionary discourse by creating a ‘headless’ body on
two-dimensional and three-dimensional surfaces.
The theatrical troupes of the ‘Natta’ community have always been mobile and had appealed to the
audience of the common masses. Through my practice with installations (image no v, vi, vii, viii, ix)
and public artworks, I have always wanted to go closer with mass audiences when art galleries have
already proven their limitations when it comes to communicating with marginalized audiences.
Popular posters, handbills, and litho prints produced by the Natta company, as popular 'poor images''
and some personal notes of being exploited in the past were put forward in order to recreate a counter
narration against the Brahminical hegemony.
Bibliography
Akbar Naqvi. 2010. Image & Identity Painting and sculpture in pakisthan. 2nd. Edited by Ameena
Saiyid. Vol. 2. 4 vols. karachi-74900, karachi, no 38, sector 15,korangi Industrial area: Oxford
University press.
Biswas, Monosanta. 2016.
banglar motua andolon somaj sonoskriti rajniti. Edited by Archana Das
and Subrata Das. Vol. 1. 1 vols. kolkata, West-Bengal: satu prokasoni.
Chakroborty, Haridas. 1978. Gandarvalok. Edited by Jagadish Basak. Vol. 1. nabadwip, West-Bengal:
Alfa Publishing Concern.
edword luice-Smith. 2019.
ART TODAY. 3rd. Edited by edword luice-Smith. Vol. 4. 6 vols. LONDON,
LONDON: ART TODAY.
Graeme Sullivan. 2010.
Art Practice As Research inquiry in visual arts. Edited by Diane McDaniel. Vol.
2. 3 vols. london, 55 City Road: sage.
Morris, william. 2006.
Marxism and the History of Art. Edited by Andrew Hemingway. Vol. 1. 1 vols.
Ann Arbor, london: Pluto Press
