Madhav Sharma

Sharmila Joshi

Editors

Pratishtha Pandya

large_01-10-MS.jpg

medium_01-10-MS.jpg

small_01-10-MS.jpg

thumbnail_01-10-MS.jpg

01-10-MS.jpg

“My father tied the strings to my fingers and taught me how to dance the puppets,” says 74-year-old Premram Bhat, recalling a time around six decades ago.“He used to take me with him from the time I was about nine years old to the various villages he visited to perform puppet shows,” he adds. “I used to play the dhol. Slowly, I got interested in puppetry. My father Lalooram Bhat taught me how to move them, and I too started handling the puppets.&quot;Premram lives in a jhuggi on a footpath in west Jodhpur’s Pratap Nagar area. His wife Jugnibai, 70, their son Suresh, daughter-in-law Sunita and their four children, ages ranging from 3 to 12, all live together. The family belongs to the Bhat community (listed as an OBC in Rajasthan). Community elders say many Bhat families migrated from the state’s Nagaur district about 100 years ago and settled in various cities of Rajasthan like Jodhpur, Jaipur, Jaisalmer and Bikaner.&quot;I have not had any training in making puppets or in puppetry. I learnt this art only by watching my father perform,” says 39-year-old Suresh. He too used to accompany Premram to the villages, and began assisting in the shows when he was around 10 years old. At home he would help make the puppets. “And by the time I was 15 years old I had learnt to dance the puppets well. I would go by myself to the villages and do the shows,” he adds.

His son Mohit, 12 years old, now accompanies him. “Anytime we get any work, Mohit is with me playing the dhol,” Suresh says. “He studies in Class 5, but the schools are closed [due to the pandemic-lockdowns].” And getting that work is rare now. For long, the puppeteers’ audience was mainly foreign tourists in Rajasthan’s hotels. For them, a three-men troupe would perform an hour-long show – one handling the puppets, the others playing a harmonium and a dholak . These performances usually depict folk songs and narrations of royal intrigues and clashes (watch the accompanying video).These shows would fetch each performer Rs. 300 to Rs. 500 around 3-4 times a month. With these invitations coming to a halt during the lockdowns, the puppeteers have relied on occasional streetside performances, earning barely Rs. 100-150 per show. And some of their income comes from making and selling straw-velvet items. (See <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/jaipur-toy-makers-stuck-under-a-grass-ceiling/">Jaipur toy makers: stuck under a grass ceiling</a>)The community had to depend on charitable organisations for rations and other essentials during the lockdowns, though work is now slowly trickling back in with the easing of restrictions across the state.

In a hut across the footpath in Jodhpur&#39;s Pratap Nagar lives 38-year-old Manju Bhat, who stitches clothes and makes jewellery for the puppets that her husband, 41-year-old Banwari Lal Bhat, performs with.“This art is dying,” she says. “Earlier we used to get 3-4 shows in a month but since corona we are mostly without work. Only the government can save this art now. We cannot. Now there are newer means of entertainment and there is no one to listen to us or watch our shows.”Besides, she says, their traditional tales are being tampered with. “We have the real stories. These educated people come to us and listen to our stories and then they add or subtract what they like and make a television serial, a drama, a movie. These contain more lies and less truth.”Premram too says that new technologies like television and mobile phones have reduced the stature accorded in the past to artistes like him. “Our ancestors used to entertain in the courts of kings and emperors. In return they would get foodgrains, money and various items that were enough to last a year. My father and grandfather used to go from village to village to entertain people. The villagers still respect us, but the world has changed. No one respects our art like before. It is a dying art and I don’t enjoy puppetry anymore.”This story is part of a series of 25 articles on livelihoods under lockdown, supported by the Business and Community Foundation.

Jodhpur puppeteers: silent stage, stories untold

जोधपूरच्या कठपुतळी सूत्रधारांच्या व्यथा

ಜೋಧ್‌ಪುರದ ಬೊಂಬೆಯಾಟಗಾರರು: ಸ್ತಬ್ದವಾಗಿರುವ ವೇದಿಕೆಗಳು, ಹೇಳದೆ ಉಳಿದ ಕಥನಗಳು

ஜோத்பூர் பொம்மலாட்ட கலைஞர்களும் அவர்களின் வெளிவராத கதைகளும்

যোধপুৰৰ পুতলা নাচৰ নীৰৱ মঞ্চ, নোকোৱা কাহিনী

ଯୋଧପୁରର କାଠକଣ୍ଢେଇ କଳାକାର : ନୀରବ ମଞ୍ଚ ଓ ଅକୁହା କାହାଣୀ

ജോധ്പൂരിലെ പാവകളിക്കാര്‍: മൂകമായ വേദികള്‍, പറയാത്ത കഥകള്‍

সুতোর টানে পুতুল নাচাতেন যাঁরা, আজ তাঁদেরই পেটে টান

ਜੋਧਪੁਰ ਦੇ ਕਠਪੁਤਲੀ ਕਲਾਕਾਰ: ਸੁੰਨਸਾਨ ਮੰਚ, ਅਣਕਹੀਆਂ ਕਹਾਣੀਆਂ

जोधपुर के कठपुतली कलाकार: ख़ामोश पड़े मंच और अनकही कहानियां

جودھ پور کا کٹھ پتلی تماشا: اسٹیج خالی، ناظرین غائب

Jodhpur

At present, we can only accept donations in Indian rupees by Indian citizens. All donations made to the CounterMedia Trust are eligible for exemption under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Here is a copy of our exemption certificate.


India is bigger than New Delhi. And people need to know more about the rest of this vast nation.


Younger, media-saturated generations are growing up knowing little about their country, but a lot about the elites of a few metros and towns. For a narrowly-owned, commercially-driven media, the dumbing down of a nation is part of standard operating procedure. The last available data of the Centre for Media Studies (CMS, Delhi) show us that reports from New Delhi account for 66 per cent of news on the front pages of major dailies. The CMS data also found that just about 0.24 per cent of front page news came out of rural India. The TV channels are not much better.PARI exists to change that.We are a non-profit organisation. We publish under creative commons, and do not charge readers a subscription fee or put-up advertisements. Nothing is behind a paywall and we are completely free-to-access by anyone. We guard our independence and receive no direct grants from governments and corporations, nor any funding that could dictate our content. So, we are dependent on volunteer labour, donations from individuals, foundations and institutions that see value in independent and free media.PARI is changing the way Indian journalism reports and documents the rural.India is more than the elite of a few metros and towns. We report on rural lives and livelihoods, languages, communities, migrants and more. We need your help to pull off this most ambitious of Indian journalistic endeavours. The scale of this effort costs money. Donate generously - and spread the word about PARI.&nbsp;

Donate FAQs


আমাদের সম্বন্ধে জানুন

পারি’র দুনিয়ায় স্বাগত

আমাদের যাবতীয় লেখাপত্তর নিখরচায় ব্যবহার করা যায়, আর আগামীদিনেও এই নিয়মই বজায় থাকবে। আমাদের কাজকর্ম ভালো লাগলে আপনি স্বেচ্ছাশ্রম দিয়ে অথবা অর্থ সাহায্য করে এই কাজে সহায়ক হতে পারেন।

Want to republish this article? Please write to <a href="mailto:zahra@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">zahra@ruralindiaonline.org</a> with a cc to <a href="mailto:namita@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">namita@ruralindiaonline.org</a>

Jodhpur puppeteers: silent stage, stories untold

In this video story, Premram Bhat and others speak of how their puppet shows, once popular in royal courts and at village events, are no longer in demand, and how the lockdowns have further hit their incomes

Related stories

A rain-scented walk in Sivagangai

Living on ravaged land

Biswas and the bamboos on his bike

Recycling energy, Godda style

Bhadels of Goa

Pookadai: still throbbing with morning life

Koli Kadlas

Malnourishment high among children of migrants: study

Wheels of the rural Indian West

Living Under a Red Cloud in Bellary

Vedla – earrings of the Maher community

Dreaming of water, drowning in debt

Kali: the dancer and his dreams

Farmer's diet worse than a convict's

In Yavatmal, life goes on

Suicides are about the living, not the dead

Death of a carpenter

Hoisa Shigmo!

Women farmers: weaving a life in Anantapur

Defiant in Dhinkia

Spice and all that's nice

Kerala's Green Army

The ‘jugaad’ not-a-mobile

Health as someone else's wealth

Calibrating in a Kudumbashree assembly unit