The recent eruption of the sexual harassment controversy in Kalakshetra makes one review the art and education vision that late Rukmini Devi Arundale envisioned for the institute in the 1930s and 60s. ‘Education without fear, and art without vulgarity’ defined the constitutional history and identity of Kalakshetra. The row today, however, represents institutional failure caused by apathy and reluctance to modernise Rukmini’s art and education initiatives, which she developed in collaboration with her husband George Sydney Arundale, third President of the Theosophical Society.
The International Academy of Arts, later renamed Kalakshetra, and the four sister institutions, were housed on the vast grounds of the Theosophical Society in the 30s and 40s. Together and individually, the Arundales developed an international conservatoire-style residential arts institution in colonial Madras that was modelled on Rabindranath Tagore’s concept of tapovan or forest school education.
Since guru-shishya traditions languished under colonial rule, Rukmini invited exceptional devadasi dancers like Gauri Amma, and doyen nattuvanars like Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai and Chokalingam Pillai to reside in Kalakshetra and impart their expert knowledge to herself as its first student, and to a new generation of pupils who would learn ‘traditional’ dance and music forms there in the 30s and 40s.
The institution also housed Brahmin musicians, international educators like Madame Montessoire, craftsmen, painters, sculptors, cameramen, costume designers and many more. While Rukmini described it as a modern gurukul experiment, George hailed it as an anti-colonial, ‘living together differently’ experiment in cultural education and diversity. It is important to state that the Arundales used the diversity/gurukul keywords interchangeably through the 30s and 40s.
After George’s demise in 1945, Kalakshetra and sister institutions were disassociated from the Theosophical Society and were moved out to the 100-acre campus in Thiruvanmayur. Rukmini seeded the gurukul and tapovan concepts in the new campus in the 1960s, and integrated the foundational concepts into the curricular vision of Kalakshetra. These remained relevant to four generations of students who studied there in two different campuses from the 30s to 80s.
Seven years after Rukmini’s passing in 1986, the government recognised the historical provenance of Kalakshetra, which had been modelled on Tagore’s Santiniketan, and declared it an institute of national importance by an extraordinary Act of Parliament in 1993. After the nationalisation of the institution, the task of updating the art and education pedagogy and making it relevant to the millennial generation was placed on the shoulders of the three women directors who oversaw the development of Kalakshetra for over 18 years from 2005.
Although the three safeguarded Rukmini’s arts legacy, they failed to modernise the conjoined art and education pedagogies during their tenure, which, therefore, is not responsive to the needs of new generations studying there. Although its faculty are excellent artists and teachers, they are unfamiliar with matters relating to the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) in the Workplace Act 2013, harassment, body shaming, caste and class discrimination. These emerged as key themes in Chennai’s #MeToo movement in 2018.
In my public lecture at the institution in March 2021, I urged updating the pedagogy and incorporating topics related to #MeToo into the curriculum. I could not foresee that in less than two years, Kalakshetra would be rocked by its own #MeToo movement, culminating in the suspension of four male staff members from the Rukmini Devi School of Fine Arts, followed by the arrest of one on April 3, under POSH.
While some see the developing situation as portending the beginning of the end, it is an opportunity to articulate a modern beginning for Kalakshetra. Frozen in time since its nationalisation, the institute was catapulted into global Indian modernity, and judicial history simultaneously. To understand the implications of this, its alumni, and the faculty in India and the world, must stop, rewind, reboot and reset the Kalakshetra timeclock and fast-forward it into the 21st century.
Avanthi Meduri
Scholar, dancer, playwright and curator
avanthi@hotmail.com