The Musical Manganiyar

How did The Manganiyar Seduction come into being?

"Over a decade ago in a medieval town in Spain I had a couple of Manganiyar musicians in a show. The show was only on in the evening, and during the rest of day they would follow me around and sing. This went on for about fifteen days before I went to Germany for another play, and it really hit me. I missed the music, this visceral experience that I just had to translate into some kind of theatre. It took me from a low point of my life, and threw me up into a place with no gravity. That’s what I want to do with this show, a combination of audio and visual arranged in such a way that it picks you up and throws you into space. It is an experiential narrative."

Who are the Manganiyar?

"They must have come into the courts around 300-400 years ago – but even before then they were a caste of musicians. Still today they sing for their wealthy patrons. They also know the genealogy of their patrons going back 300-400 years. The Manganiyar can tell [the patron] who his father was, his father’s father, and his grandad’s grandad. They’ll do it on special occasions – a dissertation for the patron who themselves won’t know the full history – and they’ll do it all orally from memory with no notes."

You have directed a number of shows featuring musician castes, from the Sapera snake charmers to the Ambalavasi Nambiar drummers. Can you explain the connection between one’s caste and music?

"The things that attract me are not the caste but the music: the sound of the pipe when the charmers are charming, the sound of the drummers drumming. They just have a history that is of a caste. India is the four castes: the learned, the priest, the warriors, and the untouchables. Then there were the subcastes, and there were roles that were filled by each caste. Division of labour and the arts, it just happened. Other people try to learn the Manganiyar music, but the real Manganiyar, they really sing. I just love the concept, it being intergenerational and each generation introduced something different. Older singers had their style and their understanding, while the younger generation have different life experiences and are trying to see the way the world is going. But in the end there is a kind of unification in the quality of music."

Last year you brought the younger generation to WOMADelaide in The Manganiyar Classroom. What expectation is there on the children of today for them to continue the musical tradition of their ancestors?

"A lot of them are actually children of The Manganiyar Seduction performers. There is no expectation put on them to continue the music now. The expectation is for them to study and get a model life, to become doctors, engineers, get a government job. All of them are encouraged to take the secure way out, that’s all they’ve been told by the government. Get education, get education, get education. Try and be something. It is a very generic thing. The education system is the same for everybody, and these extremely talented children end up being neither here nor there. They lose what they have and can’t offer what they have to offer. But that’s my dream and my project: to try and get a state of the art school with the music as well for the Manganiyar children. These kids are the first generation school goers of the Manganiyar."

Is the influence of the caste system fading away? Are the people of India more open to experimenting with musical styles from other castes?

"The caste system is not fading away. It is getting more and more pronounced now – the whole thing is very right-wing. Everybody is trying to assert their caste because the world is getting polarised, however, the professions within the caste are more digressed. Things are opening up in music. In the end it is not so much about the caste as it is about the father to the children, which is the first teacher-student relationship. That’s how the musical tradition gets carried over intergenerationally. People go over to other music, they go over to contemporary stuff. It’s a good mix of modern influence, Western influence, and a feeling of wanting to discover what we have traditionally. There is that inquisitive search happening, how to arrive with the new sound."

Do you see anything similar to India’s musician castes in the relationship between music and social class in other countries?

"I do see it. For instance, the Gypsy music in Eastern Europe and in France, played by the Gypsy peoples. But music per se is just beyond boundaries of any caste, any other bullshit. Once it is music and musicians it is just that, there’s nothing else. Just musicians having fun."

 

The Manganiyar Seduction, WOMADelaide, Frome Park, 9-12 Mar, various times and prices

womadelaide.com.au/program/the-manganiyar-seduction