Political History Of Odissi Dance: Parliamentary Debate Of 1959

Odissi or Orissi?

Odissi is a traditional dance or a classical one?

Why is Sangeet Natak Akademi so slow in according Odissi the status of a classical dance of India?

Why is the Government of India not giving due importance to the views of Kalicharan Patnaik, who is actually the pathfinder of Odissi dance?

Would the minister like to go to watch Odissi dancer Indrani Rehman’s recital in the Sapru House on that day?

Why a minister who is neither an artiste nor an art scholar from Odisha is a part of the committee which is considering to accord classical status to Odissi dance?

These questions were raised on the floor of Lok Sabha on April 2, 1959, by the elected members of Lok Sabha from Odisha. Perhaps that was the only time when the Lok Sabha debated on a dance form for such a long time. Five MPs from Odisha discussed and debated about Odissi dance, which was in its infancy and struggling to get classical status. Pratap Keshari Deo from Kalahandi, Nrusinha Charan Samantasinhar from Bhubaneswar, Chintamani Panigrahi from Puri, Baishnab Charan Mallik from Kendrapada and Surendra Mohanty from Dhenkanal submitted their aggressive demand to include Odissi dance in the list of classical dances of India through Dr Humayun Kabir, Minister of Scientific research and Cultural affairs.

A motion was laid on the table by PK Deo, member of Kalahandi which read – “I beg to move-need for recognising Orisi dance as one of the classical dance”. Historically speaking, Odissi (Orisi, Orissi) was almost an unknown dance form at that particular point in time and the political will of Odia MPs established this dance form as a dominating classical dance form of India. Unfortunately, this particular debate is completely ignored by most of our Odissi dance historians. Recently, Anurima Banerji, a US-based Indian dancer and dance scholar briefly mentioned this debate in her book “Dancing Odissi: Paratopic Performances of Gender and State” (Seagull Books-2019). Indeed It was Anurima who shared the Lok Sabha debate file with me during her field studies.

Once I opened this valuable document lost in the digital jungle of my computer and delved deep into it, a range of socio-political history of Odissi dance sprang in my mind, which needs further study and should be a part of Odissi dance heritage.

Before 1958, Odissi was first performed in New Delhi by Priyambada Mohanti and Dhirendra Nath Pattnaik in the Talkotra Stadium for the “Inter University Youth Festival” in the first week of November 1954. As a student of Lucknow University Mohanti participated in the festival once again in the last week of October 1956.

The day Lok Sabha was debating Odissi dance, celebrated Indian classical dancer Indrani Rehman was to present her Odissi recital in Sapru House in the evening and a reference of her Odissi recital was made by PK Deo. In the last leg of his speech, PK Deo said, “Lately, it has been brought to the limelight and public notice by Shrimati Indrani Rehman, the Miss India of 1950. She has done splendid work in recent years and all our thanks go to her. …She is giving a performance of Odissi dances tonight in the Sapru House and I request hon. members to visit that and see if my remarks are right or not.”

It is rare to locate a debate solely focused on a classical dance in the parliamentary history of India. The passionate involvement of elected representatives of a state to promote an ancient dance form deserves special mention.