Fertility or Indigeneity?: Two Versions of the Santal Flower Festival

• Published in: Asian ethnology 2014-03, Vol.73 (1/2), p.155-180
• Main Author: Schulte-Droesch, Lea
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Cultural identity; Deities; Festivals; Flowers; Groves; Indian culture; Minority groups; Religious dances; Religious festivals; Religious rituals; Rites and ceremonies; Ritual; Rituals; Symbols; Tribes; Villages
• ISSN: 1882-6865
• DOI: 10.18874/ae.73.1-2.09

As local practice, rituals cannot be understood in isolation from their historical context. This article focuses on the flower festival (baha) of one of the largest middle Indian tribal societies, the Santal, and explores how national and global influences have come to shape this ritual in the last few decades. Previously only celebrated in the village context, since the 1980s a more elaborate version of the festival has been hosted by local politicians and activists on a regional level. One objective of this article is to compare the village and regional version of the festival and discuss the main themes structuring each of these contexts. As the village flower festival, in its symbols and activities, centers on the relationship between different groups of kin as well as on an exchange between the village and the forest, I suggest that fertility plays a defining role in it. During the large celebrations of regional flower festivals the performance of Santal culture and identity vis-à-vis other communities stands in the forefront, a dynamic in which the idea of indigeneity is highly relevant. Finally, the article addresses the question of cultural change and explores three historical factors contributing to the emergence of regional flower festivals, namely industrialization, the Indian state's politics of minority recognition, and the Jharkhand movement.