But We Will Not Give Up the Categories! (De)valuing the Categories in South Asian Performance Traditions

Abstract

Interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary approaches and practices are increasingly celebrated in a larger field of Theatre and Performance studies. However, the existing categories and divisions that are typically valued in Indian and South Asian contexts are often seen as sacrosanct divisions that inform artistic practices and institutional policies, such as the division based on dance, music, and theatre. Most of these categories and divisions are based on the Western discourses on theatre and performance practices, and in most cases, the artistic practices and cultural performances in India do not maintain such rigid boundaries between song, dance, music, or ritual and theatre. This essay offers a critique of categories and divisions existing in the encompassing field of theatre and performance studies in India. It is argued that these divisions not only create hierarchies of genre but also exclude the communities whose performance practices do not ascribe to the similar divisions and categories. They continue to perpetuate hierarchical values in terms of aesthetic and cultural taste. I argue that devaluing these categories would be a step further to a radical decolonization of the field of study. The essay also asks why decolonial discourses have informed diasporic South Asian scholarship, but have not had a similar appeal in their home countries.