Preperation of the Workshop Space in Fuldanga Village

Generally for making paper from natural fibre,one need a proper workshop space.There are certain basic necessities,chambers to store the dry leaves for soaking in water,earthen woven to boil the soaked leaves with soda,a place for washing the fibre,bowls to sstore the pulp after grinding,Tables for casting the pulp into paper and finally space for drying the paper under proper pressure.So the whole process needs a set up and I wanted to make a proper set up so that it can be used by the communty for future use also.So we chose one side of the Club House of Fuldanga Club.Initially we thought of making a mud house but since theprocess will consume lots of water we decided to go for a little permanent concrete brick flooring and brick chambers and woven.Tables were made from bamboo in the traditional way.It took almost a week and a half to finish the process.The male members of the village joined in to complete the workshop.

Begining of the Bamboo Leaf paper making workshop in Fuldanga village santiniketan

                                      Brief Note on Fuldanga Village

FuldangaVillage is one of the youngest santali village that grew around Santiniketan.Approximately 40-45 years back one family from the nearby lalBandh Santali village shifted one of their bamboo construction of their hour and reinstalled it in the present area of Fuldanga,which was then a part of the rugged Khoai landscape full of bushes and palm trees.So for this reason Phuldanga Village's Santali name is Kutung(Structure) Tola(Village).Fuldanga is comprised of santali families who beacuse of the growing members in the neighbouring Santali villages had to shift to find new places and settled in phuldanga.Since then numerous other families have migrated to Fuldanga from Dumka(Jharkhand),and neighbouring Santali villages.So the community in Phuldanga are relatively young generation of the Santal community who are residing in and around Santiniketan.As such they more urbanised and accustomed to urban facility.The general level of education is also high and the youth are involved in different kinds of other jobs other than farming.

In this respect if one goes to Fuldanga village one will find mixture of brickmade and claymade houses .Generally every santal village  has a central public space where all the rituals and other public meetings will happen.They call it Manjhithan.In Fuldanga the Manjhithan is not very big,rather they have a properly built club house which will attract the young people either for playing or for watching television together.Unlike other santal villages Fuldanga has not grown around a single road.There are two three roads that bifurcate the village as such the general placement of the houses are rather chaotic,because the settlement in Fuldanga has been quite random and recent.Moreover with the newly built concrete road all along the village(devolopment project of the government)the village is a unique mixture of Santali traditional life and the the urban facilitites.

Initiation of the Project in Fuldanga

So when I and Baidyanath Murmu one of my collaborators in this project and one of the residents of Fuldanga village started discussing from where to start the project we thought it will be wise to start from Fuldanga because it will easy to communicate the idea of the workshop to the youth of Phuldanga.So that we can work on a more slow process with the other villages like Pearson palli or Balipara.Initially there was confusion about where to place the workshop inside the village.Then Baidyanath finally decided that it will be wise to do it in the club house at the outskirt of the village because of lack of proper public space inside the village. So initially we held a group discussion with the residents of the village and explained to them about the possibility of the dry bamboo leaved being transformed into pulp which can be used for making paper anf other objects.Moreover since this requires a basic infrustructure to run such a process we need to buit a workshop space first and then start the workshop.So some of the male village members came forward to join in the builting of the workshop next to the village club.

So the first act was to collect dry bamboo leaves from the village.Dry bamboo leaves are only available during this time I mean mid March to mid of April.Once the summer season starts with advent of occassional storm and rain it will be difficult to get the dry leaves.So the first job was to store these dry leaves in a dry place so that it can also be used in later monthsif they want work on Bamboo paper pulps.So the village women broomed the dry leaves and collected them in sacks.The next job was to prpepare the workshop for the furst pahse of the paper making workshop.

A Santali Village and Bamboo trees

A SANTALI VIALLAGE AND BAMBOO TREES

Generally a Santhal village would grow on the both side of a road and expand on both sides backwards.So its like a fishbone with the central rib as the road and the houses on each side of the roads.It is also generally accepted that family of the initial setters in the village will expand behind each house so there is horizontal expansion of the village. As Borhan Hansda (one of the few santali artist trained from Kala Bhavana) would put that originally a santali village would expand horizontally along side of a central road.

So there is no system of lanes, by lanes in the viallge, there will be narrow pathways between two houses or literally an open pathway that will run through the backyard of houses if one would like to get to houses behind the houses near the main road. According to Borhan the expansion of Santali community in a particular space has much similarity to the pattern of expansion of a bamboo tree.A bamboo tree once planted would expand horizontally on all sides. So in most of the santali villages, one will find numerous bamboo tree behind the main settlement area of a village. The other reason bamboo is very popular is because it is main structural tool of the traditional Santal house which will be made of clay ,mud,bamboo,wood and hay.Morover in a traditional santali village all the basic furnitures like the bed, the seating arrangements and other household structures will be made from bamboo.

AAKIL AARSHI: Mirror of the Mind:A Brief Note

PROJECT :PART-1

This is an ongoing research and workshop based community art activity within the Santhali community exploring the changing pattern of domestic and social life of Santhali community in relation to their cultural heritage and environment.The present blog activities is supported as part of the Negotiating Routes: Ecologies of the Byways project by Khoj International Artist's Association,New Delhi for a period of three months.

Access to knowledge is an important area to understand the changing social framework of Santali life .A community with no racial hierarchy exposure to institutional knowledge has changed the social life of a Santali. Moreover impact of globalization has created a rift between the older way of Santali life and the new generation of Santali who are exposed to digital entertainment and communication. To explore this changing life style and to evolve a platform for interaction I would like to conduct a collaborative workshop of papermaking with bamboo leaves together with the young generation of Santali men and women.

 Bamboo is an essential tree in Santali life. Starting from the making of the house, the roof; they make most of their everyday objects for carrying materials with bamboo. But leaves are one part which is only used for burning fire and they are very soft as a material. The workshop will be specifically based on developing bamboo papers with text written as water marks. Water mark is special technique in Paper making where a transparent impression of a text or any linear design can be imprinted on the paper only to be visible against light. So by sharing the knowledge of transforming bamboo leaves into paper I am trying to participate in their everyday life and explore their interpretation of the material as a process of knowledge sharing.

Parallel to this through the introduction of the process of watermark the project will try to document designs, texts and images that will address issues like conflict and contradiction of contemporary Santali life and also archive traditional designs and patterns of santali cultural heritage. The watermark on bamboo paper workshop will also explore the different levels in which globalization has affected the culture of Santali people by transferring popular sounds and words as watermarks in the bamboo paper.

Initially theatre workshops from third theater will be conducted to evolve a narrative network within the community which may be reflected in the watermark patterns.

In this respect initially a workshop shade of paper making will be established using indigenous technology of architecture making that is common to Santali life which can later become a possible site of economic rehabilitation once the community takes over the process of paper making as an alternative economic venture.

The watermark workshop will be conducted in 3 different Santali villages(Fuldanga,Pearson Palli and Balipara), around Santiniketan individually. After completion of each workshop an installation with the bamboo watermarked papers will be created inside the individual villages. The installation will be planned in collaboration with the participants and work as an interface between the different generations of Santali community evolve as possible site for community interaction.

So this project on one hand will investigate into the process of participation of an outsider into the everyday life of a community. Secondly it will allow possibilities of interaction within the community by making art as a user and not just an aesthetic discourse.

PART-2

The bamboo papers with watermarks will be later transformed into a bamboo paper book.
This workshop based art activity will be conducted in collaboration with two visual art practitioners Baidyanath Murmu(resident of Fuldanga Village) and Borhan Hansda(resident of Balipara village) .Both of them have completed their academic training in Fine Arts from Kala Bhavana ,Visva Bharati,Santiniketan.