Ananda Kulal

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA will engage sixth and seventh grade students of the Government Higher Primary School, Bailoor in Kundapura taluk, Udupi district. Students will explore the stories of heroic women of coastal Karnataka who fought against social exploitation and western invaders, by connecting it to their curriculum in history and language. The project attempts to foster a sense of belonging and identity, encouraging children to connect their local resources to the construction of national histories. Ananda Kulal is the Project Coordinator for this project. 

Ananda Kulal serving as a Kannada teacher has published eight issues of the quarterly children's magazine Gubbacchi Gudu (sparrow’s nest) and 12 issues of Bannada Gari (colourful feather) in his school. He has been celebrating a children's festival for 17 consecutive years and has directed children’s plays like Kappu Kaageya Haadu, Gudu Gudu Gommatta Devaru, Mahamai, Allahuddin's Adbhuta Deepa, Ajji Kathe, Mantrada Kolu and Dana Dangura. Given his experience he is best placed to be the Project Coordinator of this Foundation Project of IFA. 

Records of local history, rulers, warriors, nature, and rivers, offer children more nuanced political, social, and religious perspectives to national history. Often, curriculum foregrounds and reinforces nationhood around the idea of New Delhi as home. This excludes the representation of local history and cultural practices in our education system and curriculum. In an effort to fill this gap, Ananda Kulal is introducing students to the stories of women figures from coastal Karnataka who have contributed to national history through this arts-integrated project.

In this project, Ananda Kulal will engage students to connect with the many local resources, histories and voices of women heroes. He will introduce students to the persona of Nangeli, an adivasi woman who challenged bureaucracy and taxation, and the works of Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay on the Gandhian imagination for villages and crafts in India. The children will also get to know about local royal figures who opposed western rulers such as Rani Abbakka and Rani Channabhairadevi, the latter is known for her long reign of over 50 years. Ananda will be integrating Yakshagana, a local art form, as a bridge to facilitate all these learning processes.

Yakshagana is a popular performance art form from coastal Karnataka. Subrahmanya Aital, Kishore Kumar Aroor, Ganesh Nellikatte, and Bhaskar Acharya, known performers from this region, will provide direction to this project and support adapting these local histories to the school curriculum in an effective manner. During the project period a series of writing workshops will also be organised to convert lessons from history into text for stage. This will expand children's engagement with literature, history and the indigenous art form of Yakshagana. Through this project students will be encouraged to be energetic explorers of local legacies and associated issues, offering their own perspectives. 

The outcomes of the project will be a performance. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the photographs and video documentation of the entire project.

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Arts Education programme in the manner in which it attempts to connect students and schools to the cultural knowledge of the local communities they live in. 

IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens in a timely manner and funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees.