Sukandighi

Recently, I have come back from my two-month stay in a small village named Sukandighi near Malda. Sukandighi is very close to NH34 connecting Malda and Raiganj in North Bengal. I was accompanied by my batch mate and friend Partha Sarothy Roy. The village stay itself was an experience worth remembering, but one of the most best thing that has happened to us, is the introduction to Khon Gaan.

Khon Gaan is a kind of folk theatre and it was exclusive to Sukandighi. One explanation we have for the name Khon is that ,it is a mixture of various plots (khond) stitched together to take forward the main plot. Khon Gaan is a dying art today with very little patronage of the artists most of whom are mainly small and marginal farmers. It also cornered with the advent of electronic medium of entertainment. The events taking place in surrounding villages are staged in a different manner with a pinch of salt through khan. As such it does not have a religious element or any mythological story as the core.

We have witnessed one khon gaan show during our stay in Sukandighi . It was staged in our host family’s house and the name of play is Sati Hebla. Like in most of the folk theatre, man plays the role of woman in Khon Gaan also. The show was significant for us as well as for the whole community of sukandighi as it was staged after a gap of 7 long years.