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The Museum of Broken Tea Cups: Postcards from India’s Margins
The performing arts in India have traditionally been the domain of Dalit communities. To this day, these men and women continue to nurture and foster their chosen art forms in the face of discrimination and prejudice. We consider ourselves to be connoisseurs of art and culture. Yet, we fail to recognize the very communities who have shaped this culture.
The Museum of Broken Tea Cups, using the symbology of the used, broken tea cup that upper caste households leave outside their doors for the use of Dalit workers, is an effort to recognize the immense cultural contribution made by Dalit communities through the stories of individual artists who languish in the forgotten gallis and mohallas of our villages and towns. At the same time, the book seeks to celebrate the everyday heroes, who have, despite all odds, managed to change not just their own lives, but the lives of those around them.
These are students and teachers, artists and activists, storytellers and devadasis, daughters and mothers, sons and brothers—seemingly ordinary people—whose faces get lost in everyday life, but whose stories have the potential to inspire admiration, action and change.
The Museum of Broken Tea Cups, using the symbology of the used, broken tea cup that upper caste households leave outside their doors for the use of Dalit workers, is an effort to recognize the immense cultural contribution made by Dalit communities through the stories of individual artists who languish in the forgotten gallis and mohallas of our villages and towns. At the same time, the book seeks to celebrate the everyday heroes, who have, despite all odds, managed to change not just their own lives, but the lives of those around them.
These are students and teachers, artists and activists, storytellers and devadasis, daughters and mothers, sons and brothers—seemingly ordinary people—whose faces get lost in everyday life, but whose stories have the potential to inspire admiration, action and change.
288 pages, Paperback
Published May 1, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 22, 2022
A wonderful collection of stories that are so important to tell in India right now. I really enjoyed how much Veda is present in the text, not as someone speaking over the voices of those who are survivors of horrific caste violence, but as the subjectivity of those who have been blind to such violence and must now open their eyes and do better as allies.
I also loved how the concern with Dalit art forms is navigated - Should they be divorced from caste (and thus ‘sanitised’ and gentrified, which means the erasure of caste)? Should they be preserved (which would mean pressurising young Dalits to remain in a profession that has led to degradation and marginalisation for generations of their family)? Should they simply be allowed to disappear? There is no right answer, of course, but the book left me with much food for thought on this matter.
It’s the kind of book I will definitely return to read and will recommend to all my friends who, like me, are in the same position as Veda (oblivious to our caste privileges, without insight into the art forms that Dalit communities have preserved for centuries, and unclear about how to be good allies to the DBA community).
I also loved how the concern with Dalit art forms is navigated - Should they be divorced from caste (and thus ‘sanitised’ and gentrified, which means the erasure of caste)? Should they be preserved (which would mean pressurising young Dalits to remain in a profession that has led to degradation and marginalisation for generations of their family)? Should they simply be allowed to disappear? There is no right answer, of course, but the book left me with much food for thought on this matter.
It’s the kind of book I will definitely return to read and will recommend to all my friends who, like me, are in the same position as Veda (oblivious to our caste privileges, without insight into the art forms that Dalit communities have preserved for centuries, and unclear about how to be good allies to the DBA community).
December 4, 2020
A wonderful collection of stories from the underprivileged and disenfranchised communities in India. Despite the stories of pain and inequality, there is a thread of hope for a better future through the described work of some wonderful and dedicated people.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews