Savitha Suresh Babu

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA will investigate the ways in which youth from marginalised caste groups navigate the contemporary Kannada theatre space, by examining the nature of conflicts they grapple with to claim their cultural legacies. The project will explore the layered cultural hegemonies of Kannada Theatre and the possibilities of imagining counter-cultural aesthetics. Various concerns including how gender affects these negotiations will be delved into. Savitha Suresh Babu is the Coordinator for this project. 

Savitha is the Convener of Kanaja, the Youth Research Centre of Samvada that is committed to empowering youth from marginalised backgrounds in Karnataka. She also teaches a course at the Baduku program of the organisation that trains youth to enter socially critical professions and build meaningful livelihoods. Savitha has a PhD from Manipal Academy of Higher Education and National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru. She has extensively written on caste and education and published her work in various national and international journals. She has also participated in and presented her work at seminars and conferences in different parts of India. Her experience as a scholar in the field of education makes her a suitable Coordinator for this project. Shalini R, an academic and Lakshmana KP, a theatre practitioner from Bangalore, will join Savitha as her collaborators on the project.  

Though many youths from marginalised caste backgrounds enter formal theatre schools and amateur theatre groups in Karnataka every year, only a small proportion, especially women and non-binary persons, reach a position of prominence. Moreover, there is very little insight into how youth from marginalised caste groups experience celebrated theatre schools like Ninasam and Rangayana or their professional journeys afterwards. This project will explore the journeys and aspirations of young theatre practitioners through and beyond the formalised theatre education to understand the diversity, complexity and intersections of caste, gender and class within Kannada theatre. Through rigorous archiving of Dalit cultural forms, it will attempt to rethink theatre pedagogy and practice in ways that could diversify contemporary Kannada theatre in terms of composition, aesthetics and form. 

Considering the complexity and sensitivity of the discussions around caste and gender, the project will adopt a qualitative approach to probe into such issues. Methodologically, it will draw upon the feminist action research framework that integrates inclusion, participation, action, social changes and the researcher’s own reflexivity. Combining feminist critiques of knowledge production with a participatory action framework will help explore how sociopolitical hierarchies impact participatory research. 

 Participatory research methods will include interviews and focused group discussions with a set of 20 young people from marginalised caste groups who are alumni of theatre schools like Ninasam and Rangayana. This will be followed by a workshop on counter-hegemonic cultural expressions and Dalit aesthetics in Kannada theatre. In-depth interviews with 10 amateur theatre practitioners from different parts of Karnataka will also be conducted. Finally, a theatrical collage will be developed based on insights from group discussions, interviews, and the workshop. Interviews with prominent scholars and theatre practitioners who have explored the question of cultural hegemonies and resistance will be part of the research methodology. Focus group discussions with youth theatre groups to understand their sense of caste and how it works in Kannada theatre in different contexts will also be held.  

The outcomes of this project will be a theatre production, a workshop, an essay in Kannada and English and an online oral archive of interviews from the field. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be audiovisual documentation of the workshop and theatre production, an essay, and a link to the online archive.

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Arts Research programme in its attempts to study the unheard voices of youth from marginalised caste groups and how they navigate the contemporary Kannada theatre space, by examining the nature of conflicts they grapple with to claim their cultural legacies. 

IFA will ensure that the project is implemented on time and the 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 complete and deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with the Trustees.

This project is made possible with support from BNP Paribas India.