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STATE SCAN 8GROUND REPORT THE TIMES OF INDIA

The Crest Edition

AMARJEET SINGH

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Till a few decades ago, the queue of

men lining up to watch the mujraperformances at Borwadi mohalla

was unending. The 400-year-old tra-

dition, nurtured by around 20 fami-

lies in this mohalla in Burhanpur,

Madhya Pradesh, still survives but is no longer

what it used to be.

In 2008, the struggling community

received a big blow when a taxi driver claimed

he had dropped two SIMI activists to the mo-

halla and heard them talk of explosions. The

police then made it mandatory for dancers to

maintain a register of their visitors, many of

whom are rich businessmen from the locality

as well as neighbouring districts like Indore,

Ujjain, Khandwa and Bhopal. The rule was

scrapped this March after the community

decided to do its own patrolling and report

any suspicious activity to the police. Manoj

Tarwala, a local corporator, says Borwadi is a

peaceful mohalla. We havent seen any

disputes here in recent times, he claims.Sadly, the mujra dancers havent seen too

many customers either. While relieved that

their clients are no longer being registered by

the police and hoping that business will pick

up, performers of this age-old art dance form

that times have been tough for a long time

now. Crowds have been thining, and popular

tastes in dance and music too have changed.

Ghalibs ghazals have been replaced by popu-

lar Bollywood songs and today dancers wait

for the customers to show up. Woh din hawa

hue jab mera paseena gulab tha/ Aaj itr bhi

lagate hain to mohabbat ki khusboo nahi

aati(Gone are the days when even my sweat

smelled as sweet as rose, now even itrdoesnt

rise like the fragrance of love from my body),

says Shameem Bano, 50, who used to be one

of the most popular mujra dancers in the city,speaking poetically about her plight.

Twenty years earlier, Bano stopped per-

forming mujra; now she seldom sings. My

training began when I was just eight. My fa-

ther was a tabla player and my grandfather

played the sarangi. It took seven years of rig-

orous practice before I could give a perform-

ance. But the effort made me confident of

my art, she says. There was a time when

the mohalla boasted 100 mujra families. The

dancers often had to learn ghazals and master

their meanings in an hour as they readied for

the evening performance. But over the last

two decades, Bano believes the tahzeeb has

changed. Disco music has replaced what

we learnt.

It is said that in 1616, emperor Ja-

hangirskafila (retinue) visited the city.

With it came two tawaifs (dancers), Gulara

Bano and Moti Kunwar. We are the de-

scendants of these two women, claims

Ameen Chaudhary, who heads the DeredarSangeet Sangh, an association of tradition-

al mujra f amilies. Locals claim that Gulara

Bano and Kunwar were held in such high

esteem at the Mughal court that two palaces

were built for them, one at Asirgarh and an-

other at Daryapur, 20 km from Borwadi.

Today, there are barely 20 mujra families

and 50 dancers left in Borwadi. The younger

generation has moved away from the profes-

sion, opting for alternative livelihoods.(Only

one daughter of a family has chosen to

dance.) The children are encouraged to at-

tend school to aspire to a better life, and the

community boasts of lawyers, gynaecolo-

gists, teachers and a few businessmen.

It is the older generation that has the mostdifficulty coping today. Bano, for instance, is

entirely dependent on her son and complains

that the government does nothing to help.

Other ageing Borwadi dancers like Farad Bai,

65, and Hamida Bai, 70, live in near penury.

Very few dancers like Farah Naaz, 32, manage

to survive with dignity. Naaz is among the few

from the mohalla to find a life partner and

leave her Borwadi life behind. Says Chaud-

hary, We dont get any form of government

support though we are artistes. The mohal-

las badnam status impacts the real estate

value for those who own property.

Thesajjinds (musicians) who accompany

the dancers are having a tough time too.

Am I not entitled to state benefits like oth-

er artistes? asks Jawar Hussain, 60, a tabla

player. Sajid Hussain Chaudhary from the

Deredar Sangeet Sangh says they have

been writing to the chief ministers office

since the 80s, asking for mujra to be

recognised as a dance form and its practi-cioners given all benefits accorded to other

artistes, but they have received no re-

sponse. Now we are working towards cre-

ating a better life for ourselves, he says.

With the police patrol being liftedrecently, mujra dancers of Burhanpur,MP are hopeful that their clients willreturn. But with changing times andtaste, they anticipate a long wait ahead

DANCING, BUT

NO LONGER QUEENS

Border bazaar

buzzing againPRABIN KALITA

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Every Thursday, along the Gelephu-Dadgiri border point in Chirang

district, Assam, the markets come alive with a different kind of

trade. The Bhutanese side of the divide is packed with crates of

oranges, wine and beer; on the Indian side, handloom textiles are

piled up in inviting stacks.

This border trade between Bhutan and India has been alive for

centuries. History texts talk of how the Bhutanese came down to the plains

of Bodo villages to procure eri silk and cocoons. Bodo villagers in turn

would barter these for items they required from the Bhutanese.

But this flourishing exchange stopped when militancy made inroads into

the area. Militants took over the densely forested 267-km long unfenced

Assam-Bhutan border for almost two decades. They had a free run of thisthinly-populated strip of land, with the United Liberation Front of Assam

(ULFA), National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and Kamatapur

Liberation Organisation militants shuttling between their camps in Bhutan

and their base in Assam. Fleeing

from Indian security forces, ULFA

and NDFB militants set up camps

in the forests of southern Bhutan.

From here, they conducted covert

operations. It was only in 1995 that

the Bhutan government acknowl-

edged the presence of these terror

camps. Even after, it took two years

for the scale of the threat to sink in

and for the Bhutan government to

impose restrictions on border

exchanges.

The situation worsened in 2001

when Bhutanese citizens travel-

ling through Assam were targeted

by militants. Militants would also

hide their kidnap victims in shel-ters across the border in Bhutan.

In 2003, the Royal Bhutan

Army retaliated and flushed out all

Indian militants from its soil. But

border trade activities only re-

turned a few years ago when the

peace process started in Assam.

Today, most of the militant outfits have joi ned the peace process and the

once dreaded border is buzzing with activity. Bhutanese wine, beer, or-

anges, Indian clothes, mobile phones and food items are being sold and

bought at numerous informal trade points.

Puru Gupta, deputy commissioner of the district, spoke to TOI-Crest

about the revival of border trade. This place has a big market and it is very

vibrant. One can see hordes of people from both countries gathering here

for trade. A lot of people from Bhutan also drive down further south across

Chirang district to the neighbouring towns of Bongaigaon and Kajalgaon

to shop for items.

The area also boasts a large number of picnic spots close to the border

Khanamakra-Kalamati, Kwila-Mwila, Datgiri-Hatisar in Chirang district,

Sarpang, Saralpara, Jomduar in Kokrajhar district, and Darangajuli, Boga-

mati and Lakhibazar in Baksa district, for instance. These are frequented by

quite a few Indian travellers. The security situation is still a concern but,yes, things have improved a lot, says Gupta. The Centre provides security

to all Bhutanese vehicles that pass through Assam to ferry essential com-

modities or travel from the eastern part of Bhutan to the western part.

Bhutanese vehicles are not allowed to move without a security convoy.

After two decades of militancy, historic trading pointsbetween Bhutan and Assam are active again

BACK IN BUSINESS: Bhutanese wine andoranges are sold along with Indian textiles

NEXT STEP: Dancers from the Borwadi area (below left) are campaigning for mujra to berecognised as an art form

TUSHAR PRABHUNE

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

In his address to women entrepreneurs at agathering in New Delhi last Monday,

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi

referred to successful businesses set up by

women like Jasuben Pizza and Induben

Khakhrawala & Co, as he spoke of how enter-

prising women in Gujarat have been.

But miles away from Ahmedabads Law

Garden, where Jasubens pizzas are lapped up

in no time, thousands of poor women on

Saurashtras coast too are gearing up to turn

entrepreneurs by growing seaweed. And if

things go according to plan, multinational

firms may queue up at their doorstep to buy

ingredients essential in making bakery and

dairy products, pet food and health drinks.

There now seems to be a serious effort at sea-

weed cultivation to help make fisherwomen self-

reliant. After two decades of research by the

Bhavnagar-based Central Salt and Marine Chemi-

cals Research Institute (CSMCRI), a constituent

laboratory of the central governments Council of

Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), four

varieties of Kappaphycus, a species of red algae,

have been identified as being useful as thickening

agents in food products, bio-fertilisers, low-sodi-

um salt and health drinks.

CSMCRI licensed their procedure to the

Gujarat Livelihood Promotion Company

(GLPC) two months ago. The state-owned com-

pany now intends to form self-help groups

(SHGs) to empower at least one lakh fisher-mens wives over the next three to four years.

Moreover, AquaAgri Processing, a joint venture

of GLPC and PepsiCo India, has promised to

buy back all the seaweed cultivated in Gujarat.

The seaweed was first brought to Gujarat in

the 1990s to test the potential for its cultiva-

tion, but the weather was found to be more

conducive on the Tamil Nadu coast, the only

place in India where it is being commercially

cultivated. Earlier, the state forest department

had raised concerns about the environmental

impact of seaweed cultivation and its invasion

into marine life. But recent studies have proved

that these fears are exaggerated, says CSM-

CRIs director, Dr PK Ghosh. We have success-

fully cultivated seaweed in Jafrabad in Amreli

district and Madhwad in Junagadh. We are now

identifying five potential sites where seaweed

can be grown on a larger scale, he adds.

The cultivation of the seaweed requires no

land, irrigation, fertiliser or pesticide. It is

grown on rafts and the income from sales ac-

crues swiftly since it can be harvested in just 45

days. According to scientists, a person can earn

as much as Rs 600 a day by harvesting one raft,

which gives about 200-250 kg of yield. Most of

this is sold to companies to extract car-

rageenan, a popular thickening agent. Says

CRK Reddy, senior principal scientist, CSMCRI,

Taking up seaweed cultivation can dramatical-

ly change the lives of women in coastal areas.

They can earn around Rs 5,000 a month.

Anjana Vala, project co-ordinator, says the

number of women showing interest in seaweed

cultivation is growing. When the project start-

ed a month ago there were just 10-15 women,

but now there are nearly 150, she says.

WEEDING IS BIG BUSINESSBy promoting seaweed cultivation, the Gujarat government isempowering fishermens wives and adding to their income

EASY TO GROW: Seaweed is grown on rafts and canbe harvested in just 45 days

When kappaphycus alvarezii, aspecie of red algae, wasbrought to Gujarat in the early

1990s, its only known extract wascarrageenan, which is widely used as athickening and stabilising agent infrozen desserts, cottage cheese,whipped cream, yogurt, jellies, petfoods and sauces. The export market forcarrageenan is pegged at US$ 500million.

However, CSMCRI scientists alsodiscovered other constituents of thisseaweed like sap, which is now a provenlow-cost bio-fertiliser. They have alsoacquired patents for using certain

constituents of the seaweed in healthdrinks that boost immunity. Anotherimportant discovery for scientists wasusing seaweed to make low-sodiumvegetable salt.

SEAWEED USAGE

PHOTOS COURTESY CSMCRI

AMARJEET SINGH

NIGEL PAVITT/JAI/CORBIS