Cultural Production of ‘Invisible Privilege’: Critical Reflections on the Figure of Pratima Barua Pandey in Goalpariya Folk Music of Assam

Abstract

This article will look at the figure of Pratima Barua Pandey, one of the icons of Goalpariya folk music in Assam, through a critical feminist lens. Basing the study on the qualitative method of interviews, especially with musicians, singers and other stakeholders associated with the folk form in question, we will try to locate her persona within a framework of contradictions, as someone who had transgressed the constricting spaces of caste/class/gender to be where she was, with deep and caring relationships with local practitioners of the folk form, and also as someone who co-opted and sanitized the form at the same time, given her social location and the larger politics of culture within which she was located. By including the first-hand narratives of our research participants throughout the article, we attempt to arrive at a ‘thick description’ of the concerned theme of study. Such an understanding will help to critically interrogate the conventional image of Pratima Pandey as the ‘hero’ of Goalpariya folk music.