BENGAL BRATACHARI SOCIETYThe Bengal Bratachari Society which was founded by Sri Gurusaday Dutt to revive folk culture and dances of undivided Bengal and also to inculcate in the young minds feelings of nationalism. This was done through community dancing . The movement founded by him has spread all over the country as a non-political youth movement . The emphasis of the movement is not merely on songs and dances but also on community work and promotion of dignity of labour to improve the quality of life and thus holistically contribute to national progress.
Origin of the Movement: The origin of the Bratachari Movement is is intimately linked with the experiences of Sri Dutt’s early childhood in his native village of Birasri , in Sylhet District.That village was untouched by modern education and the economic forces of modern civilization.Work, play and worship, art and religion were intimately integrated with each other and with a joyous community life coupled with a Sriound feeling of spiritual fellowship.The village dances and songs in which his parents, uncle participated wholeheartedly were of a simple, spiritual character and Sri Dutt owes much of the spiritual and moral inspiration of this life to his simple association and humble nature of his parents in his early childhood.Laterin his life he found that these simple rural forms of art were looked at with contempt by the newly educated classes in towns who considered all rural arts as barbarous and out-of -date.Thus, the new generation of so called modern educated class who were not only ignorant of the vigorous and beautiful national art traditions but also blind to their aesthetic appeal.Thus, Sri Dutt had no eye for the true value of ancient culture of our country in which he had once so joyfully participated.
It was during Dutt’s visit to England in January, 1929 that he had an opportunity of witnessing the All India Folk Dance Festival at the Royal Albert Hall , London and of observing how the movement for the revival of the extinct folk songs and dances of England, started by Cecil Sharp, was being enthusiastically supported and followed by the most cultured classes in that country. That demonsration flashed on his mind the art forms of his own native village and numerous other native villages of Bengal. It had a magical effect on him and he felt a sudden breaking within him of the heavy chain of inferiority complex with which the modern high school and university education had bound his soul.Sitting there, in the hall of London, he decided to inaugurate on his return to India,a similar movement for the conservation of the folk dances and songs of Bengal which were still vigorous living traditions practiced by large sections of the village people. In 1933, the Physical Director, Bengal,formally acknowledged the movement by prescribing some of the Bratachari Dances as a part of the Physical Education Syllabus for Secondary Schools.It was in the year 1934 that the movement acquired its present form as a Bratachari Movement with a complete code of citizenship embodied in rhythmic vows and rules based on the five Bratas, the latter representing ultimate values in life.Early in that very year the Bengal Bratachari Society was formally constituted with Sri Gurusaday Dutt as its founder President.
On his return to India, Sri Gurusaday Dutt was posted as the District Officer in Mymensingh District, he was fortunate in discovering the beautiful, virile traditions of Jari dances among the adult Muslims of that district as well as the Baul dances among the Hindus.Dutt organized the Mymensingh Folk Dance and Song Society in November ,1929 and arranged performances of these dances at his residence.He himself participated in these dances and urged all men to do so. Sri Dutt as vehemently criticized by the Government and the public at large but heedless of criticism he carried on with his task for he believed that in these national traditions lay a potent weapon for breaking down the deep seated inferiority complex of his countrymen as well as for forging social unity and spirit of nationalistic zeal among men of all classes. The community dances, songs and social service work of the Bratachari Movement were found to serve as a bond of union among all castes, creeds and classes. Sri Dutt had been actively interested in village reconst ruction works and had pioneered the first village reconstruction movement in India in Birbhum District from 1916-1920 and in Bankura from 1921-23.After the discovery of the energizing and unifying forces of rhythmic community dances and songs , he accordingly set about composing a number of songs to be sung by the village workers in the field , his respect for women and stiving to bring them to the mainstream as equal to their male counterparts is seen in his song related to the emancipation of women. His sense for unifying all religions is found in his composition of a community prayer song which could be sung by all religions without any prejudice to their religious persuasions. These and other songs relating to social upliftment , formation of character composed by Dutt were taught to school students to be sung to the accompaniment of simple rhythmic dances with vigorous appropriate attitudes.Sri Dutt was fortunate in discovering several valuable old folk dances, including the Raibenshe and the Kathi dances.At the same time he also made a series of discoveries in the field of Bengal folk art in the shape of valuable ancient traditions of rural painting, wood sculpture and the like . In January , 1931, he founded the Palli Sampad Raksha Samiti of Bengal for conservation of the folk artts by the educated classes.He influenced Sri Buchanan, Director of Physical Education, Bengal so much so that Sri Buchanan obtained from the Department of Education of the Government of Bengal full recognition of these folk dances as an integral part of its physical education syllabus.
In Bengal itself, the movement has been introduced in all grades of educational institutions from the colleges to the primary schools as well as in adult clubs and there has been a unanimity of opinions among educationists regarding the marvellous results obtained from the movement in the sphere of physical development., character formation, fostering of a national sense and national solidarity and the spirit of social service and enthusiasm for constructive work, especially work involving manual labour in the cause of village reconstruction. The movement has proved equally popular among both the sexes. Valuable traditions of village dances surviving among the women of the highest castes have been discovered by Sri Dutt and are being conserved and taught in the training camps.Of these the most important is the “Brata” Dance of Jessore. Of the Men’s dances , the finest are the Raibenshe and the Dhali -, both belonging to the genre of war dances.However, these are ancient war dances of a particularly virile character and represent the original and unadulterated Tandava (martial) dance of ancient India.
All- India and International Expansion
In 1935 Sri Gurusaday Dutt was invited to the International Folk Dance Festival in London as the representative of the Calcutta University and the Bengal Bratachari Society.The lectures delivered by Sri Dutt on The Bratachari Movement was so mesmerizing that it created Sriound interest in the movement in educational circles as a result of which two Bratachari Societies, one among Indians and one among English people were formed in London.
The movement gradually achieved international reputation and Sri Dutt received invitations to expound the movement at the World Congress of Faiths in London, the World Conference of New Education Fellowship in Cheltenham and the World Conference of Leisure Time and Recreation at Hamburg in the year 1935.
The Bratachari Movement has not been confined to educational institutions.Impressed with its intrinsic values in promoting discipline, physical and mental improvement and joy, as well as in fostering an active spirit of social service,the authorities of the Easrtern Benagl Railway introduced it among its adult employees in 1936 and in the course of four years a large number of Sanghas have been formed at its various centres .
The application of Bratachari principles and the performance of rhythmic Bratachari exercises have been found to have a corrective and balancing effect on the mind. Thus, in consequence , the system has proved particularly efficacious for the treatment of delinquents and persons afflicted with mental disorders. In 1934, Bratachari exercises were introduced among the inmates of the Behrampore Jail and having reported of a beneficial effect on its inmates besides inculcation of discipline among them, the system was introduced in several other jails with equally beneficial results.
Being convinced that the Bratchari sysyem, properly and skilfully applied, would be quite successful in the matter of the treatment of mental and nervous disorders in the mental hospitals in India as the Margaret Morris Movement had proved to be in the English mental hospitals,Lt- Col. J. E. Dhunjibhoy, I.M.S. Superintendent of the Indian Mental Hospital at Ranchi, introduced the system among the patients in his hospital in 1939 and opened regular remedial classes under a warder specially trained at a Bratachari camp. He has since reported that the system has proved to be highly beneficial to the mental patients.
Sri Gurusaday Dutt felt the necessity to present before the campers a complete ideal of life, at once spiritual and practical, at once national and international, involving an integrated culture of the body, mind and spirit and with this in view a set of vows was composed by him on a rhythmic pattern inculcating the ideal of the complete man.To convey this ideal in its entirety the word ‘Bratachari’was devised by him to signify one who has resolved to pursue a code of discipline for the pursuit of a complete life.The discipline in this case was to consist of work and joy integrated together.In 1934 the Bratachari Movement assumed its present form of a complete code of life expressed in a series of rhythmic vows.It was in that year that the five paths of discipline underlying the vows and songs through which the movement was expressed were distinctly specified .These five BRATAS are KNOWLEDGE, LABOUR, TRUTH, UNITY and JOY and these forms the basic pursuits of a Bratachari.Besides the sixteen vows , the gist of which has been mentioned above, the Bratachari has to observe seventeen DON’TS. The vows and prohibitions prescribed for women Bratacharis are in some ways different from those of men. The women have to promise to be graceful in behaviour but not to melt with excessive softness, not to rush about neglecting the homemaker’s work and thus ensuring a balance in life .The junior Bratacharis have to take twelve vows and aim at living by the labour of one’s limbs, serve one and all respectfully and to dance with joy.
The two most important Bratachari Conventions are THE BRATACHARI SALUTE and THE BRATACHARI EMBLEM.
The Bratachari Salutation consists in lifting the right arm straight up with the palm facing the front, all the five fingers being kept tightly together, to the accompoaniment of the greeting : “I-A”! Subsequently , it has been discovered that this form of salute was in vogue in ancient India among the Pandavas, who belonged to the Kshatriya class, in the time of the Mahabharata and has been mentioned in that ancient epic.it is noteworthy that the Bratachari form of salute is not against the principles of Islam , but is, on the other hand, particularly acceptable to the followers of that faith as there is in it no bending of the head.The impression which some people have that this is an imitation of the Nazi or Fascist salute is entirely a mistaken one for in neither of therse salutes is the arm raised straight up in a line with the head and neck as in the Bratachari Salute.the salutation is not only indigenous but has a special symbolical significance and it reminds a bratachari that although his feet are in touch with the ground, his ideal points right up to heaven.
The Bratachari Emblem is a design of interlocked symbols representing the five Brads.The Flame in the middle represents knowledge, the spade and the axe represent Labour, the horizontal straight line in the middle represents the straight path of Truth; the knot tying these symbols together represent Unity while the ripples below on which all these rest represent Joy.
Relatable to the Greek Culture According to the founder Sri Gurusaday Dutt, the Bratachari Movement is a course of self -discipline and self- purification through rhythmic auto-suggestion,personal and collective , simultaneously in three realms of being -thought, speech and behaviour. Sri Dutt was inspired by the ancient Greek Orphic Cult which insisted on the joyousness in all life and living being. For the Greeks too,one of the modes of expressing this joyousness was concerted dancing in the forests on the slopes of the hills of Greece. The Greek playwright, Euripides voiced the Orphic view of life in his play “ALCESTIS” when he wrote:
“Whoever shall know , That to live is happy
As the long days go , Hath found his Heaven”.
Dutt had recognized that physical culture divorced from music tends to produce coarseness of personality. Thus, the Bratachari Movement, in common with the system of education in vogue in ancient Greece, makes simple and vigorous dances and songs with a high moral content and objective an inseparable part of the education system. Like the Greek system , it places special emphasis on traditional dances and songs in view of their effectiveness in promoting a healthy sense of national and regional integration and unity. Special care is taken , not to create a narrow regional patriotism.The first promise which a Bengal Bratachari has to make is to love not only Bengal , but also India and the world at large. Thus, the movement is aimed to promote the fervour of true nationalistic spirit in the minds of the youngsters and avoid the pitfalls into which narrow nationalism is prone to lead in these days. The movement envisages that every land represents the distinctive rhythmic expression of the Universal Spirit appertaining to that land and that it is the duty of the people of every land to promote and preserve the cultural diversity with reverence. The spirit of this movement is of acceptance, integration, promoting holistic development .
In the words of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the Bratachari Movement attempts to transform the mind, body and soul of the average Indian, villager as well as town-dweller, and to instil into those brought within its influence the essential qualities of fearlessness, courage, discipline, team spirit, a sense of power and a spirit of dedication to the upliftment of the country transcending narrow divisions of race, caste or creed. The educational value of the movement has been recognized by eminent men and educationists both in India and abroad. Rabindranath Tagore has declared his conviction that of wherever the movement is adopted , it will conduce to the development of joy and spirit, capacity for work ,strength of character and enthusiasm for social service”.
The Bratachari Movement differs from other Youth Movements of the world by its avoidance of a stereotyped cosmopolitanism which ignores the diversities of cultural outlook and also by its avoidance of the spirit of rampant militarism and fanatical nationalism which fails to see anything good in the spiritual and cultural contributions of other nations of the world. It avoids the two extremes and reconciles the best that is in them by taking its stand on the basic unifying factor of life and by emphasizing the spiritual values of life as well as the value of the diversities in regional cultures.Today, not only the youth of the world but humanity in general are torn asunder between the two rival and opposing ideals of nationalism and cosmopolitanism.This conflict and discord have been caused by an excessive reliance on the external factors of life and drifting away from the inward approach and the roots of life. Thus, the synthetic factors of rhythmic accord and the spirit of joy which alone can help in the realization of such inner attunement have been embodied in the Bratachari system of discipline and training for individuals and groups and is capable of adoption throughout the world with modifications to suit local conditions .