Social Development and Folk Theatre (Swang)

Page: 166-169
Sandhya Sharma (Department of Culture, CCSHAU, Hisar, Haryana)
Satish Kashyap (Exhibition Officer, CCSHAU, Hisar, Haryana)

Swang is India’s most ancient Folk opera Theatre. Folk Theatre is a composite art form in India with a fusion of elements from music, dance, pantomime, versification, epic and ballad recitation, graphic and plastic arts, religion and festival peasantry. Swang having roots in native culture is embedded in local identity and social values. Besides providing mass entertainment, it helps Indian society as indigenous tools of interpersonal, inter-group and intervillage communication for ages. Swang has been used extensively in India to propagate critical social, political and cultural issues in the form of theatrical messages to create awareness among the people. As an indigenous form it breaks all kinds of formal barriers of human communication and appeals directly to the people. Realising the importance and powerfulness of the traditional medium. People in rural areas should be approached through traditional-folk forms of communication in addition to electronic media. Bhagat, Mach, Tamasha, Nautanki and all most all the folk theatre is Generated from Swang. Different forms of Folk Theatre in India are traditional way of Communication and constitute a potential source for conveying messages for Social, Economic and Cultural Development which ultimately helps in overall Nationaal Development.