Mukherjee

of Malda, West Dinajpur, eastern part of Bihar like Sahebganj, Purnia, Dumka

and Rajshahi districts of Bangladesh the performance of Alkap became important.

Alkap meant to satisfy the thrust of entertainment, It was said that Bokanama of

Maynakaysa village in Malda district was the founder of Alkap .And Maynakaysha,

Shovapur, Bhutri diyana, Rahimpore, Rajmahal, Sijnipara, Pratapganj, Dhulyan,

Jangipur, etc became the main centers of Alkap performances. In course of time

the purview of Alkap extended into distant areas. 29

There are lots of debates regarding the actual meaning of Alkap . Alkap precisely

means song used in jatra pala that are blended with sarcasm and wit against the

establishment of the society.

Alkap had important features which emphasized upon the fact that Alkap was

primarily oral and impromptu. The main theme of the play rested on extempore

version of the group leader and thus, the dialogues were subject to change. In the

plays the female characters were played by young lads. Emphasis was not given

to dresses and make-up. The dialogues were subtle and dignified. The stage was

circled by audience and the dialogue reflected the provincial usages in colloquial

dialects.

A survey had determined that there were in total 137 Alkap artists. They were

uneducated and illiterate, poor and landless. They worked as manual labours in

the agricultural fields, caught fish and did menial services. Nevertheless the Alkap

artists had a sense of fraternity. They belonged to lower order and always paid

the respect to the older artists. But, in course of time, Alkap performance became

unpopular due to the changes of livelihood and changes of tastes. Now the people

preferred the jatra performed by trained artists from the city and the expert Alkap

artists like Phool Chand, Sidhir Das, Mukhbool and others were reared to uplift

and popularize the Alkap performances. 30

The nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century Bengal witnessed the

co-existence of two sections of cultural beliefs and patterns, comprising of elitist

cultural beliefs and patterns and the folk orders that primarily encompassed the

cultural mores of the common people or of non-aristocratic lower orders. The

folk culture of Bengal in the nineteenth and the twentieth century comprised of

interesting experiments in poems, songs, the visual arts and jatra and theatres as

a particular art form were displayed in ingenious and independent styles and were

blended with traditional forms in order to satisfy the urban tastes and requirements.

It is observed that from the mid- nineteenth century onwards, the folk cultures

were becoming more concerned in depicting the irrelevance of the religious myths

of the past and were sarcastic towards the events of the surrounding presents.

29 Islam,Md.Nurul.Bibartaman Loknatya:Alkap .Calcutta.1999.pp272-278.

30 Ibid.

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