Keeping Folk Music Alive with Rajasthan Kabir Yatra

AFFILIATION
Lokayan

DESCRIPTION 
Rajasthan Kabir Yatra is India’s longest-travelling folk music festival, celebrating the oral traditions of the Bhakti, Nirgun and Sufi poetry of Kabir, Mirabai, Baba Bulleshah, Gorakhnath, Shah Lateef and other saints and sages. The festival voyages across the rural regions of Rajasthan every year from 2 to 8 October. The festival is a platform for musicians, artists, scholars, students and other enthusiasts from different communities, who immerse themselves and their audiences in the world of poetry, philosophy and music.  

The first Rajasthan Kabir Yatra was initiated in 2012 under the NGO Lokayan Sansthan. The Project Taana Baana held the festival from 2016 to 2019 in partnership with the Rajasthan Police and the Department of Tourism, aiming to nurture harmonious relationships between various communities to ensure peaceful coexistence. Due to the pandemic, the festival was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 but resumed in 2022 with its sixth edition. Starting from Udaipur, the Yatra travelled across the regions of Kumbhalgarh, Chittorgarh and Bhilwara and concluded in Jaipur.
 

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Beneficiaries

  • Folk artisans who receive economic support; 
  • Local businesspeople benefit from increased numbers of customers; 
  • The urban youth that travels with the festival gain an experience of a lifetime. 

Outputs

  • Different social groups brought together;

  • Participants acquainted with the essence of the desert state - be it through the music of rustic artists or a journey along the sand dunes tracing the footprints of Bhakti and Sufi saints who once spread the message of peace, questioning and dissolving boundaries of caste, class, religion and identity.

Outcomes

  • Financial support for the artists involved and local businesses that benefit from the boost provided to the rural economy;

  • An experience offered for audiences from different parts of India and abroad, fostering self-awareness and spiritual growth;

  • Rural and urban communities and cultures intermingled through a diverse range of interactions and digital platforms.