This is a film made by Chris Watson, one of a number of independent filmmakers, and part of the A4E Contemporary Video Collection who contributed to a project of making contemporary films within the Yorkshire Media Consortium Partnership, which included the YFA. Between 1998 and 2001 38 films were made of local life in Yorkshire, covering a diversity of topics, all held with the YFA.   As well as this film Chris also made Curry City (2000), about life in two of Bradford's curry houses,...

This is a film made by Chris Watson, one of a number of independent filmmakers, and part of the A4E Contemporary Video Collection who contributed to a project of making contemporary films within the Yorkshire Media Consortium Partnership, which included the YFA. Between 1998 and 2001 38 films were made of local life in Yorkshire, covering a diversity of topics, all held with the YFA.   As well as this film Chris also made Curry City (2000), about life in two of Bradford's curry houses, and The Flagcrackers of Craven (1999) which can be seen on YFA Online. Other films from this project that can be viewed on YFA Online include Taming the Tigers (1999), Weekend Nights (1998) and Home Grown (1999), made by Judi Alston of One to One Productions. The YFA also holds detailed background files on the films produced as part of Yorkshire Media Consortium.

 

This film, like Chris Watson’s other films and in line with the general policy of the Yorkshire Media Consortium Partnership, has a very low-key approach. The focus of the film is the experience of the three people at the Mela, rather the Mela itself. But Bradford has led the way in putting on a Mela Festival in the UK, with the first one in September 1988, held on playing fields above the University. From having at first some 10,000 visitors it has subsequently attracted over 100,000 people each year; moving firstly to Lister Park and then to Peel Park, as in this film, where it remains. There are now many in Britain as well as in other places where communities from South Asia, small and large, have settled, such as North America. The Bradford Mela website states that they, “established the blueprint for other British Melas, with teams from Edinburgh, Manchester and London visiting Bradford and taking ideas back to develop their own events.”

 

Although Mela is a general Sanskrit word for a gathering or ‘fair’ – which could be religious, commercial, cultural or sports – it has an ancient pedigree, and in Hindi it means more specifically ‘religious gathering’. Religious events in Hinduism are usually determined according to an astrological calendar, and clearly this mela is a cultural event – although it is worth bearing in mind that in Hinduism religion, art, culture and society all blend into one. Melas originate in South Asia, the area south of the Himalayas, that is usually taken to include – though not always – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal. 
 

The Indian civilisation itself goes back at least to 10,000 BCE. There is disagreement among scholars over the exact date when the Aryans arrived in India and what their significance was – and indeed about who or what the Aryans were (see the interesting article on this by N.S. Rajaram, References). They are generally believed to have brought with them their language, Sanskrit, their religion, Hinduism, and their culture. It is from this period, roughly between 2,500 BCE and 1,800 BCE, that the earliest sacred scriptures, the Vedas, originate (some branches of Hinduism push the date back much further than this). The history of India and of Hinduism is very complex and highly contested – both the words ‘Hindu’ and ‘India’ are foreign Persian and Greek importations. 

 

The oldest Mela, or pilgrimage, is also the largest and most famous: the Khumba Mela. This is held once every twelve years when many millions of pilgrims visit four places situated on one of the sacred rivers, the Kshipra and the Godavari Rivers as well as the Ganges.  Although bigger still is Maha Kumbh Mela, but this only takes place every 144 years at the junction of three sacred rivers – Yamuna, Saraswati and Ganges. The last one in 2001 was attended by around 60 million people, the largest gathering anywhere, ever.

 

The Bradford Mela might not be able to challenge these numbers, but it is a great place to sample classical and popular Indian dance and music. The intermingling of religion, society and art is clearly seen in the history of both these forms, themselves often developing side-by-side. With the arrival of the Aryans, and the beginning of the Vedic period, tradition was codified in ancient learning books, the shastras and the four main Vedas, and these were chanted in set musical patterns, like a mantra. The division of labour that has characterised India since this time meant that music would be the specialty of particular families who would pass it down the generations, thus ensuring continuity over all this time. 

 

To the untrained ear at least, the music that accompanies the children’s dance sounds Indian – albeit played on the distinctly non-Indian instrument of the alto sax.  Rather like Hinduism itself (and in western jazz), there is a tension within Indian music between submerging the self within an eternal form, and giving room for individuality: as exemplified in the music of perhaps the most well-known Indian musician, Ravi Shankar.  Beyond this though is the unstruck inaudible sound, anahata, which is, “the principle of all manifestation and the basis of all substance”. (Massey, 1989, p. 115)

 

Indian dance too has a very long history, and continuity in highly elaborated routines. And again classical dance is bound up with the sacred scriptures, the shastras; with one shastra, the Bharata Natya Shastra, specifically for dance and drama, and regarded by some as the fifth veda. In this dance, drama and painting are taken as inseparable. Dance and drama most often enact stories from the great epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.  These tell the stories of the Gods, who had girls to sing and dance for them; and girl trained as singers and dancers were always attached to temples. 

 

Although Indian culture might be inseparable from Hinduism, ‘Hinduism’ itself , as Kim Knott argues, “defies our desire to define and categorize it.” In fact knott goes further to conclude that: “It has the power and diversity to capture the imaginations of Hindus and non-Hindus alike, and the capacity to challenge all preconceived ideas about what a religion is.” (Knott, 1998, p. 117)  This openness is characteristic of Hinduism, which has many interpretations, allows for many paths to God, and is non-evangelical. In fact among the world religions it is unique in having dance as a way of worship. It also makes colourful costume, head dress and jewellery central to the performance. Although many dances are non-religious, usually all the poses that make up dances will have a particular meaning. The poses adopted by the small girl Saika in her dance routine in the film give an idea of their variety.

 

The choreographer who worked on the children’s dance, Balbir Singh, was born in Bradford and studied at Leeds, and later set up his own Dance Company. Interestingly Balbir has a Sikh heritage, and came late to the world of North Indian traditional dance.  Although the dance of Balbir centres on the Kathak tradition, his work is cross-cultural and incorporates modern dance. The syntheses of tradition with the modern has been carried on in spectacular fashion in Bollywood films.

 

An even more contemporary film featuring Asian dance is that of Zoobin Surty, one of seven films that make up Steps in Time. These films were made by artist and contemporary filmmaker Ed Torsnet of Mojomedia as part of the Renaissance Partnership, a project run by the Yorksahire Film Archive and Leeds Museums and Galleries. This collection of seven films aim to capture ‘the spirit of dance’, and they can also be found at the YFA.

 

Although Bradford Mela is one of biggest, if not the biggest, mela in Britain, in fact Hindus in Bradford form only a relatively small minority of the Asian population, and only about 1% of the total Bradford population (according to the 2001 census, see the entry on Bradford at Wikipedia).  What is more, over a third of Hindus in Bradford came from East Africa rather than India. In fact a study published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in December 2006 argues that there is still work to be done in integrating the Asian community internally as well as with other groups (see also their 2009 Report Researching Bradford).  For more on the Asian communities in Bradford see the Context for Sikh Temple Decorations (1972).

 

The flavour of a Mela festival is nicely described on the London Mela website: “Melas are feasts of sights, smells, sounds and tastes and will often feature bazaars, folk troupes, traditional and contemporary music and dance”. Although the festivals are mainly Asian, as can be seen on this film with the Cajun band, they are also wider intercultural events, especially outside of Asia. The Melas tend to have a lot of community input and to raise funds from a variety sources, private as well as public – like many other festivals there is always the danger of becoming overly commercial.  

 

As the images from the gallery on the Bradford Mela website testify, the festival has got more and more spectacular over the years. For the South Asian community this is of course an opportunity to reaffirm their cultural traditions. But it has a greater significance in bringing together different cultural backgrounds, cross fertilizing each other; as indeed has always happened throughout history. Given the Bradford riots that occurred shortly after this film in 2001, there is clearly a need to break down barriers between different ethnic and cultural groups (see the Joseph Rowntree Foundation 2002 Report, Fair Justice For All?). 

 

The film shows the contribution that the Bradford Mela makes to developing a sharing and open society. It also shows the excitement it brings for younger people, enabling them to develop their creativity, and for an older generation discovering new music, dance and food. For those of us in between, well we can just have a good time.

 

References

 

Kim knott, Hinduism: A very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 1998.

Reginald and Jamilia Massey, The Dances of India, Tricolour Books, London, 1989.

Reginald and Jamilia Massey, The Music of India, Kahn and Averill, London, 1976.

C. Richardson, Bradford Region: Studies in its Human Geography, Bradford Libraries and Information Services, 2002.

Bradford Mela

Mela Festivals

Joseph Rowntree Foundation Report Minorities within minorities: beneath the surface of community participation

Joseph Rowntree Foundation Report Fair Justice For All?

Joseph Rowntree Foundation Researching Bradford

Bradford at Wikipedia

Balbir Singh Dance Company

Dr. N.S. Rajaram, ‘Aryan Invasion — History or Politics?’ from Archaeology Online