Making of Odissi: A Political Discourse

1956 to 1958 was the watershed moment for Odissi dance. The first couple of Odissi recital by Priyambada Mohanty drew extraordinary attention of dance critics and scholars in New Delhi. Celebrated art critic of national daily, The Statesman, Dr Charles Fabri wrote a historical line on the performance – There was a strikingly original Odissi dance by Kumari Priyambada Mohanty, obviously a born dancer – which in fact opened the door for Odissi and its future glory.

In 1958, Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi, organised a national seminar on dance where Dr Kalicharan Patnaik presented his paper on Odissi and Guru Deba Prasad Das demonstrated a few practical aspects of the dance form on the stage. On the seminar and the demonstration, The Statesman again wrote- “The most valuable part, apart from private contacts of the seminar was the demonstrations. We saw such excellent people as Guru Kunchu Kurup, Guru Gopinath, Balaswaraswati, Guru  Gunaya of Ceylone, Guru Devaprasad Das of Orissa and samples of Kuchipudi….It was a fit occasion for Mrs Indrani Rehman to dance on the very day on which the Sangeet Natak Akademi officially recognised Orissi dancing as a classical system equal with Bharatanatyam and Kathakali. As this newspaper was the first in India to make that claim over five years ago”. ( 7th April,1958).

Though Dr Fabri claimed that Odissi is “officially recognised Orissi dancing as a classical system equal with Bharatanatyam and Kathakali”, in reality there was no such official proclamation or notification in this regard. Members of Parliament from Odisha took this as a serious omission and attacked the authorities of Sangeet Natak Akademi for not giving Odissi its due credit. Officially it was said that a committee was set up to consider a classical status for Odissi.

Chintamani Panigrahi, the then Lok Sabha member from Puri, launched a sarcastic attack with his speech delivered in Lok Sabha on April 2,1959. Panigrahi said, “I would refer now to the activities of the three Akademis in relation to the Orisi dance. You might have been hearing during the last one or two years that we have always impressed upon the Minister to acknowledge Orisi dance as a classical dance among other dances of India. We were told that a special committee has been appointed to go into this matter. That special committee has formulated a questionnaire, and the question of giving classical status to this Orisi dance will be divided on the basis of that questionnaire. It is something strange. Whether Orisi dance is a classical dance or not, at least those people who are interested in Orisi dance and who are experts in Orisi dance should be there in the special committee, but if we go through the names of the members of that committee, we find that only one person from Orissa has been included, and he is minister Kanungo. I can say that he is may be artistic in his appearance, but he has nothing to do with Orisi dance itself, because he has never studied it and he has no knowledge about it.”

Indeed it was controversial to include the then Minister Nityanand Kanungo as a member of special committees, which was considering if Odissi deserved to be a part of India’s classical dance system. There was an ongoing cold war between Pattanaik and Kanungo on this particular issue. Lok Sabha members from Odisha firmly stood behind Patnaik and lauded his contribution to Odissi. Supplementing Panigrahi’s note of sarcasm and dissent, NC Samantsighar, MP from Bhubaneswar, elaborated: “I want to mention one thing which happened last year in connection with the Akademi affair relating to Odissi, which was very unfortunate. The authorities of Sangeet Natak Akademi very shabbily treated those who are exponents of Odissi, particularly those who were invited to read paper on Odissi and demonstrate this connection. I would mention the name of Kavichandra Kalicharan Patnaik, Natyacharya who may be called the father of Odissi dance and drama. He was invited by this Akademi to read a  paper on Odissi. That was at the time of dance seminar last year. In the invitation, he was requested also to bring some people with him for demonstration. It was all decided. But on the day when he was to read the paper and have the demonstration, the authorities of the Akademi decided that no demonstration would be given. He would only read the paper. However, there was much demand from the delegations and he was allowed to read his paper and stage the demonstration. After that it was decided that Odissi should be recognised as a classical form of dance. This was published in Delhi papers. Subsequently, two or three days later, there was a statement from the Akademi that Odissi was not recognised, instead a committee was appointed which would examine whether Odissi could be called a classical form or not. ……From this I conclude that there is also little mindedness and provincialism which influences the Akademi to decide things. However, I hope these things will be rectified and in due course, recognition is granted to Odissi.”

The strong arguments of Odisha MPs in Lok Sabha in a way forced Cultural Affairs Minister Humayun Kabir to declare: “Reference has been made about Odissi dance. A number of my friends have referred to that.  I can say that Sangeet Natak Akademi has already recognised it. It has already been recognised as a traditional form of Indian dance. They have not recognised it as a classical form. As a layman, I don’t know the distinction between classical form and the traditional form. It is not very clear to me”.

That’s how the process of recognising Odissi a classical dance began from the floor of Parliament.

(Orisi/Orissi/Odissi has been used as is in the printed proceedings of Parliament)