Impact of globalization on performing art

By Dr. Tridib Kr. Goswami

Globalization has an indirect and highly effective long lasting  impact on our   regiol  languages. And this language is the  soul of any performing- art.Because dialects are used in performing-art  and those  dialects are found  in different regiol languages.So a study on the impact of the Globalization on performing-art is necessary.

With the help of three key-questions, we will develop our paper.Those three keys are——-

1.     What is Globalization?

2.    What is Performing-art, speciallypala-gan of Assam and Orissa?

3.    How  this pala-gan has played  a role of media because of the impact of the Globalization?

Globalization is not a new phenomenon. It began in the nineteenth Century, but it spread slowed during the period from the start of the First World war until the third quarter of the twentieth century(The United tions Economic and Social Commissionfor Western Asia,2002 Report)

Sheila L. Croucher comments——Globalization can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and function together.This process is a  combition  of  economic,technological,socio-cultural and political forces.”

Going to describe about Globalization, Manfred B comments——-“to signify a social condition , characterized by the existence of global, economic, political, and cultural environmental interconnections and flows that make  many  of the currently existing borders boundaries irrelevant.”

Globalization has emerged as one of the most frequently used term of which there is no universallyacceptable  definition.Worldwide opinions are divided both in support and opposition of it.Globalization is derived from  the term “Global” which implies  covering the globe.

The pala-gan is a living-performing art-form which is found  in Assam and Orissa.This art-form consists of gita-vadya-nritya- and abhiya (i.e.songs,musical instruments,dances and dramatic performances) The term pala suggests the meaning of  a party or group of  dramatic performance.In many respects, this term may convey the sense of a group consists of singers and dancers. Of the dramas used by this art-form, the following are worthmentioning dramas of this performance e.g. Savitri-Satyavan,la-Damayanti,Beula-Lakhindara,Srivatsa-Cinta,Daksa-yanja,Sita-Haran,Bhakta-Prahlad,Vali-Vadha,Harichandra-Uppakhya and so forth.

This pala-ganhtheVivekacharacteras played a role of media because of the impact of Globalization.Woman characters of this art-form are also focused palpably and this also indicates that it deals with a globally important subject i.e.,Woman Study.

The Viveka character of  pala-gan  can rightly be compared with the chorus  of the Morality plays of the English Literature. He character plays the role of instructor and messenger. It alerts the audience as well as the performers regarding  vice-virtue, good-evil,and justice-injustice etc. In a sense,  thevivekacharacter  is like “Google” in which character, we can have the idea of life and anything related to it.

The  characters of the art- form comment on the contemporary situations of our society. This situation includes political, social, economicand cultural problems of our day-to-day life.

The lower characters of the art-form (i.e.Subplot} critise Dowry-system, Child-labour,Ill-treatment of woman,Aids,Modern education system, Corruption of political leaderand higher officials, pollution, Soil-erosion,Flood, Migration, Rivalry, Clash, Global-warmingetc. Such scene although has no connection with the main theme, but has significance, as they treat the different subjects  of globally important and significant.

Because of the impact of  Globalization, this art-form becomes a media of instruction and morality.And like other medias — Television, Radio, Newspaper, Computer, Magazine, Jourl, Internet, Theatre, Play, this performing-art occupies a significant place to alert the common people.For this cause, they easily can ventilate their thoughts and in this area of Globalization, they can walk forward like the  other people of the world.

Cited Works

1) A comparative study of the pala-art form of Assam & Orissa, Ph.D. thesis, G.U 2009. Tridib Kumar Gowsami.

2) Documents taken from different websites.

 (Writer is  Asst. Professor, Dept.  of English, Batadraba S.S.S College, gaon, Assam)