By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi: Assam based PhD student from Jamia Millia Islamia, Shalim M Hussain has been selected for the ‘India Foundation for the Arts’ grant 2017-18 for a project on gathering information on three performative practices- Lathibari (stick-fighting), Naukhela (boat racing) and Kobi Bayat (Kobi gaan) and a semi-religious ritualistic practice of Gasshi-jaga and making short films on the same.
The grant amount is Rs 4 lakh for a period of 1-1.5 years.
Hussain is working alone on this project with Kazi Neel as his cinematographer.
Born to teacher parents in Sontoli, a village in Assam, Hussain completed his bachelor’s in English from B. Borooah College, Guwahati and masters from Delhi University in 2012, then M Phil in English from Jamia Millia Islamia on Kanchan Barua’s Asimot Jar Heral Sima, a wildly popular Assamese novel.
Hussain has also taught at Vivekananda College and Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar College as well as at Jamia Millia Islamia.
Hussain spoke to Twocircles.net and discussed his project in detail, he said , “the aim of this project and of Itamugur, my larger project, is to help the people of the char-chaporis gain more visibility. I want the short films to tell the stories of people who have been isolated from the mainstream for various reasons and who have been so discriminated against that they have been rendered into numbers.”
“I believe in the eternal goodness of people and that once these films have been made, the people kept hidden behind numbers, facts, figures will emerge. I believe this will help further the dialogue between people from the chars and people from mainstream Assam and India,” he added.
On the aspect of project helping future researchers, Hussain said, “the output of this project will encourage students and scholars of cultural studies, performative arts, literature and other allied subjects to venture into the chars and engage with the people in their own way.”
Hussain is planning to start working on his from January 2017 and aims to submit the films by June 2018.