Cultural Appropriation. Visual & Performing Arts Essay

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Culture has a rich set of widely accepted definitions all over the world. The word originated from the Latin word “colere” which means, “to cultivate” (Cobley). Culture consists of customary beliefs, different social forms, and traits of race, religion or social groups. These are a collection of diverse values, goals, attitudes, and practices that represents a community (“Culture”). Different art forms like dance, poetry, drama, music, etc. are used as an expression of culture. An example of this cultural expression is Mahabharata, an ancient Indian epic. It is considered one of the most valuable scriptures that contains the history, moral laws, and practices (Basu), containing two books with more than a hundred thousand verses which makes this epic poem around ten times the length of famous Western epic literature. It also plays a big part in the development of the world’s oldest religion, Hinduism. Due to the fame and value of Mahabharata, a famous director in the theater and film world, known for his alternative ways of producing vibrant and meaningful theater with classic playwrights, directed The Mahabharata. This became controversial and have received various reactions, especially regarding cultural appropriation, from audiences from different places and cultures. In this paper, I will argue that Peter Brook’s manner of portraying and telling of Mahabharata held much importance in comparison to the cultural meaning that it truly holds by decontextualizing history, erasure of philosophical concepts, ideas, and characters and the inability to convey the underlying meaning and message behind the words in the ancient literature.
Cultural appropriation had been an issue regarding Peter Brook’s version of Mahabharata. This term is sometimes also interchanged with culture misappropriation, which is defined as the taking of cultural practices, artifacts, and intellectual property from another group and culture that is not one’s own. Appropriation is very broad but there are general key points that clarify the meaning and boundaries of this word. Appropriation involves people’s relationships, it also occurs through various modes, and it is widely applied. This issue is more than just getting the material or belief itself, but also involves inherent oppression towards the culture seen as minority and tampering in that communities’ way of preserving their own culture (Young).
Mahabharata is the longest epic poem of India and is considered to be one of the bases of their religion, which is Hinduism. It was originally in Sanskrit that tells a story about the war between the Kuru and Panchala tribes during the 13th or 14th century. This is more than just a story or a play to India because it also holds a historical account and also a religious value on top of the beauty of it as a literary piece.
Decontextualization of history is one of the issues with cultural appropriation that makes it offensive to its creator. The version of Mahabharata that is translated and transformed by Peter Brook is seen as a cultural appropriation because the historical account of the past events in India and its people are decontextualized to fit the Western culture standards, instead of showing the value of the Mahabharata to the Indians (Bharucha). In Brook’s version, the history of the Indian people became similar to a fairytale and fiction which did not give justice to what happened. The story was sifted to fit the long hours and also to be able to present it in the setup that they were given (Schechner, Richard, et al.). The story became focused on the entertainment of the audience, which is important, but not as important as showcasing the true historical value that the story holds for its Indian ancestors, present community, and future generations.
There are many philosophical concepts, ideas, and characters in the story of Mahabharata which are part of the main pillars of Hinduism. Also, holding authentic ancient records the Mahabharata is considered as “The Poetical History of Mankind”. How the traditions, beliefs, cultural practices, and events were showcased are of great importance to India because this version of Mahabharata is one of the ways that a foreign culture or other parts of the world will be able to get a glimpse of what the Indian culture and beliefs are like. Aside from the history, ethics, theology, and morality were also based on these stories and were told by a succession of respected priests (Dasgupta). The representation of the important costumes, rituals, folk dances, masks, and performance techniques were delivered using the way Brook was known for, which is intercultural experimenting. The different components and artifacts of the original story were not copied or imitated, but they were converted into raw materials (Bharucha). By doing these, the philosophical concepts, ideas, and characters including their symbols in what made the beliefs and morals the way they are in the Indian culture is erased. The Mahabharata being an Indian story did not reflect enough “Indianness” in its production in addition to the elimination of some important parts of the Indian story, which makes the viewers and critics question the effectiveness of these in reflecting the real culture of the Hindu (Williams). With regards to the characters, these are highly important because their delivery and acting would represent the culture more than the props and other artifacts. The human experiences of the characters and their exchanges are valuable in the impact and message that the narrative wants to convey. It had posed as a challenge to the cross-cultural artistic endeavors of Brook’s production because aside from the story it should also show the religious context which was not seen as a priority to them. They have emphasized that their aim is a “dramatic truth” closed to any theological or historical trut...