Pratishtha Pandya

Joshua Bodhinetra

Archana Shukla

Labani Jangi

Illustration

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Judge: …Answer why you did not work? Brodsky: I did work. I wrote poems.Judge: It would be better, Brodsky, if you would explain to the Court why you didn’t work during the breaks between jobs. Brodsky: I wrote poems. I did work.

In the accounts of the two long hearings of the trial in 1964, meticulously recorded by journalist Frieda Vigdorova, the 23-year-old Russian poet Iosif (Joseph) Aleksandrovich Brodsky defended the usefulness of his poetry for his nation and for future generations. But the judge was not convinced and sentenced Brodsky to five years of internal exile and hard labour for malicious social parasitism.  In the year we now say goodbye to, the People’s Archive of Rural India has published more poems, brought to light more singers, started a new archive of folk songs, and added more songs to an existing one. So, why do we give so much importance to poetry? Is it really ‘work’? Or is it, as Brodsky’s tormentors claimed, social parasitism? Questioning the validity, relevance, and value of the ‘work’ of a poet has remained an age-old preoccupation among philosophers and politicians alike. Many others in the academic world and outside of it will also swiftly and conveniently push poetry aside, segregate it in favour of other more scientific, evidence-based ways of knowing. It is quite unique then to have thriving sections on poetry, music and songs on a live archive of rural journalism. PARI embraces creative expressions of all kinds, not just because they can tell us different stories, but also because they introduce newer ways of storytelling itself, of documenting the experiences and lives of people in rural India. It is here, in creative imagination charged with personal experiences and collective memory, that we find yet another way of arriving at human knowledge, beyond history, beyond journalism. Yet another way of documenting and archiving the processes of our times – political, social, cultural, economic – intertwined in the lives of people. This year PARI published poems in many tongues - Pachmahali Bhili, English, Hindi and Bangla. Placing an individual within a larger experience these poems are testimonies of our times. Some brought out the tensions and ambivalence inherent in personal experiences as in <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/an-adivasi-writes-off-the-village/">An Adivasi writes off the village</a>, some raged at the patriarchal nature of languages and created fresh spaces of resistance within, as in <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/lives-and-languages-hanging-by-a-thread/">Lives and languages hanging by a thread</a>, some more exposed the lies of the tyrant as in <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/annadata-and-sarkar-bahadur/">Annadata and Sarkar Bahadur</a>, and yet others spoke of a truth – historical and collective – without fear as in  <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/a-tale-of-a-book-and-three-neighbours/">A tale of a book and three neighbours</a>. Writing is a political act, and when one listens to songs in the<a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/the-grindmill-songs-recording-a-national-treasure/"> Grindmill Songs Project</a>, one realises that weaving a poem, a song, an ovi is a collective act of engagement, sisterhood, and resistance. These songs have been a way of making sense of one’s world, of reifying in language all that is forever in a flux – time, culture, feelings. PARI has added more fascinating instalments this year to this thriving collection of 100,000 folk songs from rural Maharashtra and Karnataka sung by more than 3,000 women on diverse themes.  The diversity on PARI stretched further this year with a new multimedia archive of Kutchi folk songs: <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/songs-of-the-rann-archive-of-kutchi-folk-songs/">Songs of the rann</a>. This growing collection that has begun with a collaboration with the Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan (KMVS), curates songs on themes of love, longing, loss, marriage, devotion, motherland, gender awareness, democratic rights. An archive of music as diverse as the land that it comes from, it will house a rich collection of 341 songs, presented by an informal collective of 305 percussionists, singers and instrumentalists from Gujarat playing a variety of musical forms and bringing to life the once thriving oral traditions of Kachchh here in PARI. What PARI poetry has done is to challenge the notion that poetry is the preserve of the elite and the highly educated classes, or a matter of rhetoric and linguistic flourishes. By not discriminating between poetry and folksongs, we acknowledge the true custodians and makers of this diverse tradition – ordinary people from all class, caste, gender. People like <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/ambedkars-emissary-kadubai-and-her-ektari/">Kadubai Kharat</a>, or <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/dadu-salves-songs-of-wamandada-and-bhim/">Shahir Dadu Salve</a>, who sing of the sorrows and struggles of common people as well as of equality and Ambedkar, make poetry of popular politics. <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/the-singing-daabdadu-of-santipur/">Sukumar Biswas</a>, an ordinary coconut seller from Lankapara in Santipur, sings beautiful songs full of mystic wisdom, undoubtedly chiselled by his experience of living in India post the Bangladesh war of 1971. Freedom fighter from Pirra village of West Bengal, <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/in-puruliya-songs-of-love-and-freedom/">Lokkhikanto Mahato</a>, with a resonant voice of a singer at 97, shows how music and songs charged the freedom struggle in India with much needed hope and fire.   But who says poems or songs are only written in words? Lines of a very different kind have added colours and perspective to many of the pieces that we published on PARI. A number of artists, each with their unique style, have created evocative pieces that have now become an integral part of the published story.  Illustrations are not new to storytelling in PARI. We have published stories that used illustrations to <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/hair-collection-a-tangled-life/">untangle a story</a>. At other times we have carried them for ethical reasons as in <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/when-children-go-missing/">When children go missing…</a> In one of the stories the writer of the story, herself a painter, decides to use paintings instead of photographs to give a new force and meaning to the <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/where-will-we-go-leaving-everything-behind/">story</a>. But when artists add their lines  to the lines of a poet or a singer on PARI they bring new shades of meaning to the already rich tapestry on the page.Here, come and feel the wrap and weft that make this beautiful tapestry.

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<a id="24793" linktype="page">An Adivasi writes off the village</a>

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<a id="21207" linktype="page">Ambedkar’s emissary: Kadubai and her ektari</a>

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<a id="23307" linktype="page">The train chugs along, roaring and shouting</a>

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<a id="22909" linktype="page">A tale of a book and three neighbours</a>

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<a id="24333" linktype="page">In Puruliya: songs of love and freedom</a>

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<a id="21033" linktype="page">Sweet waters of Kutch: songs of the Rann</a>

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<a id="20826" linktype="page">Lives and languages hanging by a thread</a>

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<a id="22862" linktype="page">Kachchh: minars of faith and fraternity</a>

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<a id="25499" linktype="page">The singing daabdadu of Santipur</a>

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<a id="22119" linktype="page">Annadata and Sarkar Bahadur</a>

The team would like to thank Rickin Sanklecha for his help in editing the images for this piece.If the work we do interests you and you would like to contribute to PARI, please write to us at <a href="mailto:contact@ruralindiaonline.org">contact@ruralindiaonline.org</a>. We welcome freelance and independent writers, reporters, photographers, film makers, translators, editors, illustrators and researchers to work with us.PARI is a not-for-profit and we rely on donations from people who appreciate our multilingual online journal and archive. If you would like to contribute to PARI please click on <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/pages/donate/">DONATE</a>.

In 2023: lines, verses and voices

سال ۲۰۲۳: نظموں کے ذریعے حقیقت گوئی

2023లో: గీతలు, కవితలు, స్వరాలు

2023-ல்: வரிகள், கவிதைகள் மற்றும் குரல்கள்

ਸਾਲ 2023: ਸਤਰਾਂ ਰਾਹੀਂ, ਆਵਾਜ਼ ਬਣ ਕੇ ਅਤੇ ਕਵਿਤਾਵਾਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਪਰੋ ਕੇ ਬੀਤਦਾ ਗਿਆ

2023 ରେ: ଧାଡ଼ି, ପଦ ଓ ସ୍ଵର

२०२३: कविता, चित्रं व गाण्यातला लोकांचा आवाज

2023-ൽ : വാക്യങ്ങൾ, കവിതകൾ, ശബ്ദങ്ങൾ

2023ರ ಗೆರೆಗಳು, ಗದ್ಯ ಮತ್ತು ದನಿಗಳು

साल 2023: रेखाचित्रों और कविताओं में समय की अनुगूंज

૨૦૨૩માં: લીટીઓ, પંક્તિઓ, અને અવાજો

2023 मं : कविता, छंद अऊ अवाज

विचार, गीत आउर अभिव्यक्ति के नाम रहल साल 2023

২০২৩: কথা, কাহিনি, সুর, ছন্দে সমৃদ্ধ পারি’র খাজানা

২০২৩ত ছন্দায়িত শৃংখলাৰে এক ন দৃষ্টিকোণ

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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;

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पारी पर आपका स्वागत है

पाठकों के लिए हमारा सभी कॉन्टेंट मुफ़्त उपलब्ध है. अगर आपको हमारा काम पसंद है, तो आप हमारे लिए वालंटियर कर सकते हैं या हमारी आर्थिक मदद कर सकते हैं, ताकि हम अपना काम जारी रख सकें.

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In 2023: lines, verses and voices

Here is how and what a journalism archive makes of poetry and songs. Read on to find out the rhythms of resilience that shaped our world and lives when other things were in disarray

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