Culture and Commodification: Bihu from Meadows to the Rostrum

Abstract

Bihu is the most important festival that manifests Assamese cultural identity. The community life comes alive in Bihu performances. It is part of the agriculture cycle and traditional agricultural economy. In its transition from an agrarian to a market economy, on the one hand, this folk form remains organically linked to Assamese cultural identity, on the other hand, it has been transited from the open-air meadows of rural Assam to the proscenium space of the cities being commercialized in the process of commodification of culture. From popular folk culture it has become part of global public culture in a digitised and globalised world. The context of this change is the subject of discussion in this paper. The paper examines the changing nature of the festival in the light of the new socio-economic, cultural, and political conditions and the ways it has influenced the greater community life.