Jonbeel

Jonbeel is a photobook, essentially speaking, the result of my visit to a 500 year old indigenous fair in the historical grounds of Dayang Belguri in the Morigaon district of Assam. The fair, popularly known as Jonbeel mela has been in observance since the early 17th century, although some accounts would even trace its origin to the 15th century. A three day festival organized by the Tiwa tribe of Assam, every year in the month of January, a week after the Magh Bihu festivities of the state, the Jonbeel Mela is unique in that it is known to be the only event of its kind in the world where the barter system is still in practice as an integral part of an annual phenomenon. The three days of the festival attract people in hordes, especially from the Tiwa, Karbi, Jaintia, Khasi and Rabha communities. It is also that time of the year when the Tiwa community, which has, otherwise, been maintaining the split into the Hill and Plain factions over the years, comes to celebrate the harvest unitedly in the common pursuit of community fishing, cockfights, dance and music. The mela boasts of harmony and brotherhood also among the innumerable tribes and communities scattered throughout the length and breadth of Northeast India.

It has been my endeavour in Jonbeel to recreate for the viewers, to the best of my sincerity, my experience of being at a particular space, as an event in the history of time by means of a tour de photograph. In the process, I look forward to the establishment of an emotional connect between the viewer and the art, through my work, so as to eventually transport the former from the realm of the normal to an overwhelming sphere of instinct and empathic vibrations. The way a photograph is presented, I understand, can influence the perception of the viewer. While the emotional effect in a documentary image is absorbed but not dwelt upon in elaborate terms, the presentation of the same image in the form of art makes the artist communicate with the viewer in a way that it elicits a multiplicity of response from the latter. All the same, the artist’s views and interpretations, as evident from the presentation itself, serve to form a veritable vehicle for deciphering the layers of meaning implicit in the image, thereby investing the work itself with extended meaning and import. I present Jonbeel to viewers as a conduit between art, life and interpretation.