Dangal Today
This monsoon offered us the much awaited opportunity to witness a dangal
This monsoon offered us the much awaited opportunity to witness a dangal
Although, not a traditional dangal, but it was a chance to see cross dressing dancers perform live in the village nonetheless.
This is how most dangals are now. The live musicians and their instruments, the ghera and naubat, have been replaced by orchestras and recorded music replete with DJ beats.
Dangals, originally, are musical gatherings or congregations where an entire village comes together to celebrate an occasion or in most cases just music.
Today’s dangal was to celebrate the opening of a new Panchayat building in the village of Ajmeripura. Chaina is a cross dressing dancer from the nearby village of Raimalpura and he was invited to perform on stage with the musicians. He was accompanied by Nisha, yet another cross dresser. Between them, they would dance for 5-6 hours to entertain the crowd that would swell to almost 5000 people by the end of the day.
In early days, a dangal was a community celebration in true spirit. One village would send out a letter to other villages inviting them over. The dangals would run for 4-5 days.
What is interesting is that there never was an economic transaction involved in the celebrations. Nobody was paid. The entire village participated in the festivities and collected resources necessary to make a dangal successful. People collected grains from every household to sell for money which was then used for making ghera or naubat; the instruments used by the musicians.
This meant that the instrument wasn’t the property of one person. It belonged to the entire village. People from over 40-50 villages thronged to soak in the music as audiences. At such times, every house in the host village would stack extra sacks of grains. The women would prepare extra food for anyone could walk into any house and be treated to a hearty meal. In winters, extra bedding was made available to accommodate guests who needed to stay the night. The sweet notes of music filled the atmosphere of the village keeping everyone’s energy charged for days.
Dangals of today are a big shift from what they used to be. This performance was happening at midday and sweltering heat. Chaina and Nisha were dressed in heavy skirts and blouses; sweat dripping down the sides of their neck. They were not complaining. Chaina was especially very happy to be performing again. He was happy to get into women’s clothing and dance with no inhibitions.
