How the popularisation of Dakla music led to its traditional folk artistes being sidelined

​Anyone in Gujarat during the ongoing nine-day Navratri celebration would likely have heard this song playing or being sung at one of the numerous garba events that are synonymous with Navratri in the state. While most events today would have a modern version of the song, set to the beat of a medley of sounds, the traditional Ramti aave…, which owes its origin to the Dakla folk music of the Kutch region, would be sung to the accompaniment of a single instrument — the daak.

“Dakla is the traditional folk song of the Paradhi community, a tribal nomadic community branded as criminals by the British under the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871,” said Bharmal Sanjot, founder, Kala Varso Trust, a Bhuj-based organisation formed in 2012 with the aim of preserving the area’s folk music.

It is believed a group of Paradhis settled in the Lakhpat and Abdasa region of Kutch, Gujarat, years ago, bringing with them Dakla music and the culture of Chamunda (a female deity) worship. “The Paradhis passed on Dakla music to the farming and pastoral communities of Lakhpat and Abdasa. Over the years, Dakla was influenced by other local communities who adopted this form of folk music and made it their own,” added Sanjot.

One of the ways in which the communities of the Lakhpat and Abdasa region influenced Dakla was by adding songs dedicated to the local deity, Meldi, to the collection; original Dakla invoked Chamunda, the deity worshiped by the Paradhis, for protection.

According to Sanjot, in Kutch, two manifestations of the Hindu deity Durga are worshipped during Navratri – Meldi and Chamunda – which are not worshipped in the rest of Gujarat during this period.

“The song Ramti aave… is dedicated to Goddess Meldi, considered to be a protector of farmland and cattle. She is regarded as the household mata in the Abdasa and Lakhpat regions that frequently witnesses drought. For generations, this song is sung on the first day of Navratri and would originally mark the beginning of the nine-day festival in the region,” Sanjot explained.

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Over the years, Dakla has become popular across Gujarat, with various artistes adopting the folk music into mainstream beats. Ironically, however, as the demand for Dakla music increased, the traditional singers of this folk beat found themselves being sidelined.

“Dakla folk music primarily spread across the state through the Maldhari communities [one of the pastoral, nomadic communities of Kutch] who migrated to central Gujarat in search of greener pasture and food for their cattle. By the 1990s, many artistes of central Gujarat began to sing Dakla songs, but the traditional singers from Kutch would also be called to perform at events,” recalled Shankar Motiram, a traditional Dakla singer from Kutch, associated with the Kala Varso Trust.

Motiram added: “During Navratri, Dakla artistes had a busy schedule, travelling across the state to perform. But by the mid-1990s, the number of invitations started dwindling and now we aren’t called anymore. It has been nine years since I was invited to sing on Navratri. Most of the traditional Dakla singers are now limited to singing in temples.”

According to the old Dakla singers, the reason for their slow fadeout from the music scene was a result of the audience's preference for a more instrument-heavy, upbeat version of Dakla than they were used to singing. Traditional Dakla is sung to the accompaniment of the daak, a cylindrical-shaped wooden instrument, narrow at the centre. The two ends of the instrument are covered with a membrane made of ojari (intestine of a goat). Ropes are passed through piercings along the edge of this membrane and tied in the center of the daak, which then produces different sounds when the rope is pulled tight or loosened. A hole in the center of the daak helps control the volume at which the instrument is played by blowing into it. According to dakla artistes, the art of playing the instrument has been passed on across generations in Kutch, to both men and women.

But by the mid-90s, non-traditional Dakla artistes were adding their own instruments to the music.

“Artistes like Suresh Raval and the late Meena Patel [Gujarati singers of the 1990s] were amongst the first artistes outside Kutch to sing Dakla. In 1997, an album was released by Suresh Raval with Dakla songs sung by Meena Patel and other artistes. Instead of the daak, they used dhol as the accompanying instrument. This was perhaps the beginning of the commercialisation of Dakla songs,” recalled 72-year-old Hamid Sama, a traditional Dakla singer.

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In recent years, contemporary singers like Geeta Rabari, Bhumik Shah, Kirtidan Gadhvi and Aishwarya Joshi have become synonymous with Dakla songs in Gujarat. In 2016, Mayur Narvekar aka Bandish Projekt, a composer and producer from Gujarat based in Mumbai, collaborated with various Gujarati artistes to release Dakla -1.

“This was the first time a Gujarati folk music was mixed with electronica format that uses multiple instruments like synthesisers, electric guitars and drums. Dakla -1 became immensely popular, leading to the making of eight such albums by Bandish Projeckt. The last one, Dakla-8, was released this month, with singer Aishwairya Joshi performing the songs at a private club in Ahmedabad earlier this month,” said Utpala Desai, an independent researcher and professor of performing arts, told The Federal.

Desai added: “The modernisation of Dakla ensured the popularity of the genre with songs remade to be peppier. But in the process, the traditional Dakla genre was lost and so were the traditional artistes. Nobody wants to listen to a song played with one instrument now.”

The traditional Dakla artistes could never compete with the modern singers and the commercialisation of Dakla. “Traditional Dakla artistes come from either nomadic, pastoral or agrarian communities of Kutch. They never had the financial support to modernise their art. Although some of the popular traditional Dakla artistes of Kutch like Lalita Godhara, Shankar Motiram and Moorala Marwala, learnt to play other local instruments and diversified into other forms of folk music to sustain, the majority of traditional Dakla artistes have been made redundant by the commercialisation of the folk form,” said Desai.

For Sama, Dakla, once rooted in devotion, has become only about entertainment now. “There is DJ Dakla, EDM Dakla and remixes of old songs with multiple instruments,” he said. Since the early 2000s, Dakla garba, a faster and more aggressive form than the traditional garba, has also found favour during navratri events.

While many classical or folk traditions across India have been reinterpreted through collaborations with contemporary artistes, Dakla singers appear to have missed that opportunity too.

“The traditional singers are not used to singing with so many instruments. To sing with multiple kinds of instruments involving keyboards, string instruments like violin or guitar and drums, one needs to be formally trained,” explained Keshraj Mali, an Ahmedabad-based music composer and lyricist. He added: “However, we don’t intend to replace the traditional singers or their folk music. In fact, Dakla, like many folk genres of Gujarat, has inspired and influenced our modern music.”

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Unfortunately, for the traditional Dakla singers, there is neither recognition nor financial benefit in having ‘inspired’ the contemporary performers.

During the ’90s, traditional dakla artistes recall being paid between Rupees 1,000 to 2,500 for a performance. “In 2006, I was offered Rupees 10,000 to perform at an event in Vadodara, when mainstream singers would charge around Rs 30,000 to Rs 70,000 during the time,” said Motiram.

Today singers earn anything between Rs 80,000-3.5 lakh per day during Navratri, said Priyank Desai, founder of Endless Event, an event management company based in Ahmedabad and Mumbai. “If a singer comes with a live band they charge an additional Rupees 50,000 to 60,000. Some celebrity singers can charge up to Rupees 20 lakhs per day for one performance during Navratri,” he added. According to him, “Organisers are willing to pay so much to these artistes as they draw a crowd. People want fast music these days. They come to dance and enjoy themselves. If we book an event of traditional folk music, the tickets won’t sell. Garba has become all about glamour and glitz over the past ten years and with people’s taste, the music around the festival has also changed.”

For a time, the Rann Utsav, started in 2005 as a three-day festival, but which has since evolved into a 100-day celebration of Kutch culture, had held out hope to the Dakla artistes, giving them a platform to perform, said Sama.

“Rann Utsav is a celebration of the local culture of Kutch. Not just Dakla singers, we invite folk singers from various communities, handicraft artistes, weavers, to showcase their art,” said Rajender Kumar, secretary, tourism department, Gujarat that organises the Rann Utsav every year.

But as the artistes would be left jobless after the 100 days of the festival, many began to quit singing and took up work as labourers to sustain. “My son works in a factory in Bhuj and is not interested in our traditional music,” said Sama.

What bothers Motiram, in addition to the financial crisis being faced by the traditional Dakla artistes, is the cultural loss as singers move away from the tradition.

“Dakla songs are about strong emotions and complete surrender to the female divine power. Like any folk music, the songs were passed down orally for more than 14 generations. As children, we grew up listening to these songs and each artiste performed from their own memory. So, the traditional Dakla singers of Kutch rarely sing the same songs,” he said. Even with little scope for performance, Motiram said, at the Kala Varso Trust, they were “training children and younger folk singers who will take our legacy and heritage forward”, to ensure that traditional Dakla doesn’t die out.

The first time that Motiram had performed Dakla with his father was at a village event in Kutch during Navratri. “During the 1980s, Dakla singers would travel from village to village to perform and it became a primary mode of earning. The payment was not always in currency. Singers would be given flour, rice, pulses, or clothes like locally-knitted shawl or quilt. It was enough to sustain them back then,” said the singer, recalling a time when the expectations of the audience and the needs of the performer were both as simple as the traditional Dakla beats.