The project is about understanding what is happening to some traditions practiced in rural areas of India in this age where ‘development’ often assumes an aggressive approach. This will be done through the context of Chadar Badar- a puppetry craft of the Santals. The project began with wanting to understand the reasons for its decline, its relevance in the current times and the desire to preserve or recover this practice.

Questions that arose after understanding a field trip led to closer scrutiny of assumptions underlying the urge to ‘preserve’ this tradition. The project seeks to express dilemmas faced both personally and collectively as our societies attempt development. This will be done in the form of a picture book.

Methodology

• Not a quantitative or data driven approach.
• Talking to people about what they think is happening to this puppetry craft, what is happening to the villages and cities.
• Reading about examples of creative work that has come out as a result of the interaction of city people and village people.
• Writing about my journey through the project.
• Summing up the journey of the project and what I learned from it in a story, that can bring forth different points of view and approaches, of people to craftsmen including mine.

Case Study Download:
• Chadar - Badar, a puppetry craft of the Santals......
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