The arts create social change: Mallika Sarabhai

As Darpana Academy of Performing Arts celebrates 75 years, Sarabhai talks about social projects that have driven her dance

- Avantika Bhuyan

Mallika Sarabhai was around 10 years old when she was introduced to the idea of art for social change by her mother, noted dancer and choreographer Mrinalini. "Amma, who had been born and brought up in the south, moved to Gujarat after her wedding. It was while she was trying to learn Gujarati from newspapers that she read about young girls in Saurashtra jumping into wells—sometimes with their newborns," she says.

When Mrinalini discussed the news report with other writers and poets who were her friends, including Jayanti Dalal and Umashankar Joshi, they explained the distressing reason behind it—that girls were being harassed for dowry by their in-laws, and unwilling to distress their parents further, they were driven to suicide. "The term 'dowry death' did not exist back then. Amma was horrified. So she took Bharatanatyam—her primary form—and shifted from the inherent shringara bhava to talk about dowry-related violence. I grew up watching her use performing arts to raise voice for such issues," says Sarabhai, 71.

It was in 1949 that Mrinalini and her husband, renowned scientist Vikram Sarabhai, set up the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts in Ahmedabad along the Sabarmati river not just to create a space for diverse dance and music forms but also for such pertinent issues. Today, as the cultural centre celebrates 75 years, the vision remains the same.

"Sadly, the issues from back then have remained the same—violence, hatred and destruction. And hence the work that my parents started at Darpana has become even more relevant now," says Sarabhai.

Over the years, the centre has tried to make performing arts accessible to professional and aspiring artists from across the globe—nearly 35,000 practitioners have graduated over the years—and has worked to document and revive dying art forms such as the bhavai and Andhra shadow puppets.