Page 273 - Communication Processes Volume 3 Communication Culture and Confrontation

248 P.J. Amala Dos

As a Therokoothu artist, I went to villages to find out how many
folk forms are known today in Tamil Nadu. About 122 folk forms still
exist, and are very much alive, and there are more than 200,000 folk
artists who practise these. With all my credits, I was supported by the
government to go around the whole of Tamil Nadu to study the possi-
bilities of promoting the folk forms and the folk artists. Taking
advantage of this, I travelled all over the state. In 1989 I set up the
Federation of Tamil Nadu Folk Artists, covering the whole state, and
the following year organized the State Conference of Folk Artists in
Chennai. It was the first of its kind in the country. A second one took
place in 1996 at the same venue. Seven thousand folk artists par-
ticipated with costumes, banners, beating of drums, singing, playing
and dancing. In spite of heavy rains, they participated enthusiastically
and registered our demands to the ministry. Unfortunately, though, the
minister for culture and education asked us to go and learn the grammar
of folk forms from educated people. It was a terrible shock, and we all
protested. This led to a demonstration against the government.

Folk Forms and Their Utility

The strength of the folk form is that it has no rigid grammar. It can
accommodate anything. It becomes the people’s form. Literally, ‘folk’
means ‘people’ and thus ‘folk form’ means ‘people’s form’. When they
want, they can change the forms and the content, but it continues to
be their form. No individual has ever been or is the owner of any folk
form. It is a collective and community form. The folk form takes its
shape on the basis of the lifestyle, environment, strength and weakness,
nature of work, problems and pleasure, struggles and success of the
people. Hence, there cannot be any rigid grammar for any particular
folk form. This is the strength of the folk form. The text and shape can
be changed as and when the owners of the form, the rural folk, feel
the necessity for it.
Originally, the folk forms were gestures—that is, visual. They were
slowly clubbed with words, as audio-visual forms came into existence.
At a later stage some of these popular forms were brought into the rigid
frame of religious texts by the Aryans and the Bhakti movements. There
are many folk forms that still enjoy a complete freedom and unpolluted