I
Regional fests have been a thing at NALSAR and other higher educational institutions for long. In institutions with students coming from different cities, regions, and nations, regional fests and its preparatory stages provide a space for students who belong to the region to come together and connect with fellow students sharing the same cultural sensibility. The language function (from students finding other students who speak the same language to using the language in public spaces filled with no other language but English), exploring the city in search of perfect and cheap decoration material, hopping from place to place to find the delicious dish, shooting trailers, working on ‘decor’ till late nights and the hassle to preserve them, figuring out the funds and negotiating the Menu picking songs in order of senior-junior hierarchy for batch dances, and the overall celebratory atmosphere these are the characteristic components of any regional fest. And as such, regional fests are some sort of making space in the space crunch.
However, these components have another side to it which is denied space for reflection; those we are not proud of doing or people knowing. Some may not even realize them. The beginner question regarding regional fests is: if regional fests are a space for all students from that region, and if regional fests is not about merely ‘throwing parties’ to the whole of student body, why celebrate a regional fest including all students who would be a part in some or the other way? In other words, what function are regional fests seeking to perform by showcasing ‘things’ (I choose not to use the word culture just yet) about their region to and involving all students? The most common response to this would be and to some extent is introducing all the students (who are not from that region) to those things about a region. A sort of celebratory and participative exhibition of the region and things about it. And if this is the case, the organizers of a regional fest invite and bear upon themselves the proper responsibility of ensuring that those ‘things’ about the region they claim they are from are represented and exhibited properly. The word ‘representation’ rings as many bells as it does make many eyes roll and dismiss this conversation as one making a (only supposedly!) normal thing in NALSAR an unnecessarily political subject. But I proceed. I will proceed with a mandatory example of a regional fest just to sketch some basic things, making only a limited point. Sticking my neck out to write an approver/co-conspirator testimony of sorts, I take the example of Telugu Fest, a fest I have been a direct part of two times now.
Firstly, Telugu Fest, by far is the strangest one for its title. Name of a language for a regional fest? I wonder what the thought process of the pilot organizer batch had been. It is understandable if the essence of the fest was only to exhibit and celebrate ‘things’ related to Telugu. I am highly unsure how something can be purely Telugu. Many Telugu speakers from Telangana unknowingly utter words of Urdu origin and Urdu itself (common examples being: diwan, bistar, darwaza, jarimana and so on). More so when Emails from the organizers of the Telegu Fest contain Urdu greetings. Thus, this does not seem to be the case. Confusing the complex social relations of this region, one could also say that Telugu is supposed to cover all Hindus who are the majority and Urdu deserves a special mention for (X) reason. One will then also take the safest and most often used recourse and say that the word Telugu includes the two ‘Telugu speaking states’: Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and their ‘cultures’. I can only wonder if these words said by people reach their own ears from their mouth.
Setting aside the hypotheticals, I will share something I have been a direct witness to. The Menu of Telugu Fest the last time and its politics. Chicken Marag and Bun, Fine Biscuit, and Irani Chai were the final items that appeared on serving tables on the Pre-Fest. None of them have a Telugu or ‘Telugu speaking region’ origin. At the same time, it is not that no Telugu person ever consumes Irani Chai or Fine Biscuit. These 2 times have come to be the staple snack of many, irrespective of them having Telugu or Urdu as mother tongue. However, a crucial filter is to follow: all three items in the sense of both origin and appropriation largely belong only to the twin cities of Hyderabad-Secunderabad and only recently have flown to other areas in Telangana and still nearly nil in Andhra Pradesh. Taken this way, the narrative of Telugu Fest being a fest of the 2 Telugu speaking states falls flat. This was a contested choice for the organizers at that time. The discontent, regardless, among many who were observing the choices from a different vantage point was there and could very vaguely be categorized as ‘Hyderabadi vs. Non-Hyderabadi’. The Menu of the Main Fest tried to compensate for this to an extent, however, by serving Mango Pappu and Chitti Garelu.
There are other things about other fests I have observed and heard from my friends. A whole state missing from the map representing the region the fest is about, different states negotiating space for the culture of their state in the ‘regional’ fest covering several states, and discussions for the theme and movie on the movie night on the basis of what movie best represents the region are a few common (recurring) occurrences. There may be many other things in other fests that others know of. This is the regular ordeal of regional fests looked at from a perspective. In the next section, I tackle my mainconcern directly.
II
Above I have preferred to use the word ‘things’ over ‘culture’ without explaining why. Here, I devote a separate and special, even if brief, attention to this choice. Many people usually claim that the purpose of regional fests is to introduce the students to their culture. The question to begin with is simple: do all people of a region share the same culture? Clearly, the answer would be a ‘no.’.The first step in this conversation is broken open.
The next question: what could it be that distinguishes these various cultures, or put simply without comparison, what constitutes ‘culture’? On the social axis, caste (encompassing many things from dressing and décor to food), religion, spirituality, and specificity of a region by geography, climate, history, staple food and so on, that necessarily induces some fusion across these prevalent categories. For example, a person from Adilabad (northern most district of Telangana) has more in common about ‘culture’ with a person from the Marathwada region than with someone from Hyderabad or Vishakhapatnam. An Urdu speaking Muslim whose family had been in Hyderabad for generations has as much in common to share with respect to ‘culture’ with a Hyderabadi of whatever religion as a Muslim from Southern Andhra. A small tenant farmer from Anantapur (district now in the state of Andhra Pradesh with moderate to poor fertile land for agriculture) has ragi mudd(a/e) as his staple food like a farmer from Dharwad Region (now in Karnataka), as compared to a priest or merchant from the same Anantapur District who would prefer rice to ragi because they can afford it (and in fact consider ragi as the food of the poor and the dirty). How are we to navigate ‘culture’ across these cross-cutting categories?
The task after realizing this complexity is precisely to keep it alive and not reduce to binary relationships or stereotypes. For us, the takeaway that concerns the subject matter of this piece is rather simple: a ‘region’ does not have a singular culture and ‘culture’ often is a product, cause, and symptom of factors on the social, historical, and material axes. The student body must make itself ready to stay abreast of these underlying aspects.
Akhil Surya, Year IV