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IIT Jodhpur

Since being listed as intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2010, Kalbeliya dance from Rajasthan is now generally conceptualized as an ancient tradition from India. However, this same dance practice, also known as a form of Indian Gypsy or snake charmers' folk dance, appears to have originated as recently as the 1980s. This article gives an account of the swift development of Kalbeliya dance from its first appearance on stage in 1981 to the present. Ethnographic research with Kalbeliya dancers' families has elucidated how this inventive dance practice was formed to fit into national and transnational narratives with the aim of commercializing it globally and of generating a new, lucrative livelihood for these Kalbeliya families. As a new cultural product of Rajasthani fusion, the dance finds itself at the crossroads of commercial tourism and political folklorism and is grounded in neo-orientalist discourses (romanticism and exoticism). © Copyright 2017 Congress on Research in Dance.

School of Liberal Arts (SoLA)

Dance Research Journal

Kalbeliya Dance from Rajasthan: Invented Gypsy Form or Traditional Snake Charmers' Folk Dance?

Over the past three decades, a series of documentary films featuring performing artists from Rajasthan have been produced. Extending the scholarly notion that the Roma historically migrated from India, these documentaries often portray present-day Rajasthani communities as descendants of Roma ancestors in India, and therefore as 'Indian Gypsies'. These 'realistic' films have greatly influenced public perceptions on Gypsy cultural representations and express identity politics of Gypsy unity, but have hardly been studied so far. To gain insight into both the portrayal of Rajasthani artists as Gypsies and the representation of the Indian background of the Roma, this article presents the results of a contextualized content analysis of the films, complemented by ethnographic research. It shows that the image of the Indian Gypsy is grounded in the discursive interplay between Roma politics, commercial music industries and self-exoticizing marketing by Rajasthani artists.

World University root node

Romani Studies

Representing Rajasthani roots: Indian Gypsy identity and origins in documentary films

Despite the creation of the Kalbeliya (Kālbeliyā) dance form in the 1980s, it was recognized as a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage in 2010. Rajasthani "Gypsy" performances, featuring a dance designed by the nomadic Kalbeliya community, have quickly become popular among tourists in India as well as on Western world music stages. The state of Rajasthan, where the Kalbeliyas hail from, is celebrated as "India's heritage state" by the Indian government as it seeks to promote tourism and the international dissemination of Indian culture through performances and festivals. In this paper, I sketch the history of the Kalbeliya dance form from its origins in the 1980s through to the UNESCO nomination in 2010. Moreover, I discuss the effects of its recognition as a world heritage dance tradition. The official approval of the Kalbeliya dance form as a heritage activity further highlights the challenges to UNESCO's candidate selection process. This paper aims to explain the reasons for the nomination of the Kalbeliya dance form (how and why UNESCO was persuaded to recognize it as a suitable candidate) by connecting this to the continued processes of nationalism and romanticism, the economic strategies adopted by the cultural tourism industry and the commodification and commercialization of Indian folk arts. © 2015 Oriental Institute (ASCR), Prague.