Celebration and protest in art: a Comparative Study of Australia’s Corroboree and West Bengal’s Gambhira as Forms of Socio-Cultural Expression

Abstract

The present paper studies the similarities between art forms to express the respective cultures of Australian aboriginals and marginalized communities of the Indian state of West Bengal. The paper focuses on how these two communities use art to express joy, celebrate cultural practices, articulate societal struggle and display political conditions. Australia’s performing art form, corroboree, is a ceremonial gathering that collectively celebrates a spiritual practice of connecting to their ancestors through dreamtime- a mythological episode and spirituality. The word corroboree is derived from the local language, Dharuk spoken by the original inhabitants of Parramatta city in Australia. Despite corroboree’s entry into the modern Australian lifestyle, it still holds the significance of the cultural practice to showcase the social struggle the aboriginal people face.
Similarly, Gambhira, a traditional performing art, is primarily practiced in the northern region of West Bengal’s Malda district. It is one of the ancient and popular folklore of Bengali culture. Folklore denotes the traditional knowledge of myth, tale, and cultural practices within a group of people who share a common bond through religion, region, caste, or language. Folklores constitute various kinds of folktales, folksongs that orally pass through generations. West Bengal has several types of folksongs like Baul, Gambhira Jhumur, Shyama sangeet, and Lalon geeti; among them, Gambhira exerts a significant influence on the region’s cultural practices. The Bengali word ‘Gambhir’ signifies seriousness. Also, the Hindu Lord Shiva is known by the name of Gambhira. Thus, the word Gambhira has a social context as a traditional art form that addresses serious issues prevailing in the tribal communities as well as a religious context as the term expresses the tribal community’s religious sentiments.
This article aims to study both the art forms – Corroboree and Gambhira – that express their socio-cultural as well as political contexts.