WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF BIRAHA

Gopal Maurya and associates, who have helped The Bidesia Project in archiving traditional Birahas- Scroll.in ( article By AnuradhaNagaraj)

WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF BIRAHA

With total cultural control of Bhojpuri music in the hands of its film industry, Biraha and other traditional folk arts stand a bleak chance to salvage their original form. The biggest problem being that artists who sang original Birahas are very less in numbers currently, and most, unfortunately in declining health. The silver lining however is that Birahas were essentially lyrics and poetry driven, and once attuned to the art form and its lyrical roots, an artist can come up with newer lyrics to match the original couplet. Which means that an attempt to document surviving Birahas can help protect the art . Fortunately, few have already begun on that path. The Bidesia Project is one such volunteer based network that is trying to archive this rich folk tradition and its invaluable songs. Beginning in 2017, they have been able to recover around 125 songs of Biraha and continue to do so. The Project has also been contacted by the Indian community living in the caribbean, to help them trace back their roots. Art forms are the crudest, and the most vibrant testimonies of our histories. They are like mirrors to the past, one not only sees oneself in them, but also where one comes from. And any journey makes greater sense, when we remember where we started from. Biraha is the starting point of many journeys. It is the journey of a colonised nation to freedom, the journey of its people on a foreign ship that took them home, it is the journey of their families from pain to poetry, and it could be our journey back to the villages.