Uttarakhandis Go Global; Still Remain Local

'Globalization' surely did change the way people around the world interact and behave. Although globalization brought the world and people closer, it also led to slow death of ancient cultural heritage in developing countries indirectly. Just like all developing countries, Indian youth much influenced & allured by Western culture prefers Rock & Hip-hop over Indian classical music & dance forms, chooses to eat fast food over home cooked food and will rather have aerated drinks than home-made ‘lassi’ & ‘chaas’. To make it simpler, in today’s vocabulary these are just ‘cool’.

India’s diverse cultural heritage seems to have become restricted to reality shows on the Indian Television. We have made Western/American culture so much a part of our lives that we probably do not even remember what our cultural base is. In our race to follow the West we missed to learn from the Westerners their want to keep their ‘cultural heritage’ intact and overlooked their efforts to transfer these to their coming generations. What we opt to overlook in our homeland is probably the biggest lesson NRIs learn when they move from homeland to make a home in the ‘West’.

Close your eyes and think of any part of the world outside India; chances are high that you will find national as well state level associations of people of Indian origin in every part of the world. These groups not only serve as a medium to celebrate Indian festivals together but also provide the next generations a platform to know about India & its abundantly rich cultural heritage. The efforts that parents in India lay on their kids to be fluent in ‘English’ is being laid by Indians in other parts of the world to make their kids speak, write & understand their native language.

Just like Indians of all cultural and ancestral backgrounds, the natives of Uttarakhand (the newly carved out state from Himalayan and adjoining districts of Uttar Pradesh on 9 November 2000) have formed associations like Uttarakhand Association in UAE and Uttarakhand Cultural Association in Canada in order to alleviate the sense of loss of society which they left behind in India.

With the desire and want to conserve and pass on tits and bits of their culture’s remnants to the coming generations Uttarakhandis in North America formed Uttarakhand Association of North America (UANA) in the USA. Ever since its inception UANA has been organizing an annual convention providing Uttarakhandis in North America a platform to interact, socialize and above all promote awareness of Uttarakhand’s ethnic identity. Members of the association throughout the USA make all attempts to attend this annual celebration with family since they feel it helps their kids to get a feel of their roots and brings them closer to it.

During UANA’s annual conventions, cultural programs are always an illustrious affair depicting Uttarakhand’s distinctive cultural heritage. It’s both a pleasure as well a sense of pride to see kids born and brought up in the US sing & perform on Garhwali/Kumauni songs. The young as well as the young at heart NRI Uttarakhandis keep innovating ways to bring their ancestral stories on stage in ways best understood by today’s generation.

In UANA’s annual convention in July 2008,UANA members successfully performed the Holy ‘Nanda Devi Raj Jat Yatra’ in the form of a musical folklore.All the participants of this mega performance thoroughly enjoyed the experience of simulating this centuries old tradition on stage. Back then, preparation for the program brought Uttarakhandi families (45 participants in total including kids aged just three years) from New England area in Boston together, as they spent every weekend for 3 months preparing for the event.

‘Nanda Devi Raj Jat Yatra’ was then termed as the most elaborate Uttarakhandi production in USA which was narrated in English in sections to enable understanding by guests of Non-Indian origin.

Motivated by the success, reach and effect of ‘Nanda Devi Raj Jat Yatra’ the members decided to enact the most popular story of ‘Gol-Jew’; the legendary mythological and historical god of Uttarakhand on Annual Convention 2010 stage. The act was brought to stage by joint efforts, active involvement, enthusiasm and participation of fifteen people starting from a nine-year old US born & brought up kid to over Sixty years of aged NRI Uttarakhandi.

The thought that seemed tough and near to impossible initially was realized after over two months of team efforts and hard work by each member of the team. The performance greatly impressed one and all and the half an hour theatrical rendition of ‘Golu Devta- the God of Justice’ became highlight of the cultural evening. It clearly outdid success of the July 2008 Nanda Devi Raj Jat Yatra’ performance because of its ability to involve all distinguished guests of Indian as well as foreign origin equally. The whole story being enacted in Uttarakhandi dialect (Kumaoni) was well understood and followed by all through English subtitles projected simultaneously on big-screen at the back-ground.

Touched by the whole act, one of the team members working for the United Nations (UN) shared his plans to get the performance done at UN headquarters in New York soon. Today, the team feels proud and blessed by ‘Gol-Jew’ for sure.

As the UANA team thinks of how & what to bring on stage next, we believe miles away from Uttarakhand, it must not be easy to bring together like-minded people willing to participate and be a part of the journey. However, they say ‘Distance brings people closer’ and that probably holds true for these hardcore Uttarakhandis who feel even more connected to their roots because of their present distance from their ‘Devbhumi’. Going by the present trend of diminishing cultural values these people in the USA say, they feel more responsible towards taking forward their traditional & cultural legacy than they felt when they were back home in India. Apart from a home away from home they have created a ‘Mini-Uttarakhand’ for themselves in ‘America: The Land of Opportunities’.