Performance and ‘Begging Missions’

This paper offers a synoptic view of the first three decades of the 20th century through the lens of performance, located in alternative sites such as Santiniketan–Sriniketan, with radial arteries extending to and through metropolitan circuits in the “making of a modern India.” It foregrounds Rabindranath Tagore’s fundraising through dancing and singing tours which featured members of both sexes in order to underscore the tensions (even contradictions) between artistic excellence and independence, institution building and the modalities of funding, through and in performance. These varied trajectories, including responses to the “cultural tours,” raise fresh questions in our times.