Female dhakis find their own rhythm at the Durga puja traditions amidst societal barriers

Female dhakis challenge gender norms by playing traditional drums at Durga Puja, inspiring others to break barriers.

Kolkata

Female dhakis break another barrier at Durga Pujas. Playing dhak or drums (from Eastern India) during Durga Puja was mostly a male domain which now women are taking up as a profession and owning the artform as their own.

The beats of this drum are what completes the Durga Puja, a festival of a female goddess, yet no women were allowed to play the instrument until recently.

Mohila Dhaki Babadhamraj Sampradaya, a troupe of 10 female dhakis from Katwa, Purba Bardhaman district, north Bengal are fighting all social taboos to pursue their dreams. They wait in their white and blue saris, donning their white sports shoes, with heavy dhaks on their shoulders, ready to entertain, ready to welcome the guests and goddess Durga.

Having dhakis play at Durga Pujas has been predominantly a male art form because it is said that the “dhaks” are too heavy for women. This art form has been passed on from generation to generation through male heirs only until women took up the drumsticks in their hands and found their place in the once male-only profession.

Aparna Das, a 38-year-old female dhaki in this troupe who was playing their instruments to welcome guests and foreign delegates at the Tala Prottoy Durga Puja pandal said she learnt the instrument some eight years ago. Ms. Das further tells The Hindu, “When we started playing our neighbours and other villagers used to say vile things. They said it is wrong of us to pick up and play the dhak which is a man’s job. As women we were meant to stay indoors, they could not accept us picking up a new artform and mastering it.”

She also points out that when she started it was her father who was the wing beneath her wings. Her father himself has been playing the dhak for over 55 years and wanted to imbibe the same skills in her daughter.