The empowerment of rural women through masked dance theater: A study of Mitali Chhau Maldih Mahila Dal, India

The Purulia district of West Bengal, India, is a rural region consistently recording high crime rates against women. Consequently, the women in this area are subjected to extreme forms of subjugation and repression. They are even restricted from actively participating in most cultural expressions and rituals, an embargo upheld for generations. Purulia Chhau, the district's century-old traditional masked dance theater expression, had thus never permitted women performers within its fold. However, with the dawn of urbanization and education, as life in Purulia gradually transformed over the past decade, some women started questioning and challenging their social suppression, using innovative means. Utilizing Purulia Chhau as an evocative conduit to disseminate their egalitarian contention, Mitali Chhau Maldih Mahila Dal is a first-of-its-kind women's performance troupe that has defied the archaic community norms that forbade women from participating in cultural events. Triangulating inductive-iterative methods of ethnography with social semiotics, this study traces the rebellious/ confrontational stance of these women performers, against the social conventions that forbid their involvement-as a statement of their non-conformity and protest not just against cultural exclusion, but in the larger context challenging their overall subjugation in various facets of everyday life. Furthermore, the study also identifies how, apart from defying the restrictions imposed on them, these women have also ensured utilizing the anecdotes of women's empowerment from within the mythological narratives of Goddess Durga and Kali to justify their desires. An innovative pitch ensuring religious logic is resourcefully framed to sensitize the devout male audiences otherwise engaged in devi worship. Moreover, apart from unearthing the struggles of these women performers in negotiating the coercion, threats, and other gender-based impediments, the role of Purulia Chhau as a potent communication medium empowering their dissent is also revealed through this study.