Malwa Kabir Yatra

What is this Yatra? How did it start?
In March 2010 the first Malwa Kabir Yatra took place over 9 days, starting from Luniyakhedi village, home of the renowned folk singer Prahlad Tipanya, and travelling across 8 districts, many village locations and Ujjain and Indore cities –creating intense all-night communions with the spirit of Kabir through live music and film screenings.
This was a critical celebration of Kabir, an opportunity to reflect on the pluralistic, non-sectarian spiritual and political message inherent in Kabir but also so many other bhakti, Sant and Sufi poets. It brought together lovers and seekers of Kabir – folk singers, scholars, activists, artists, students from urban India together with mass rural audiences ranging from 1,000 to 13,000. It brought together the diversities within the Kabir oral traditions, giving Malwi rural audiences a chance to appreciate for the first time the spirit of Kabir in Kutchi, Gujarati and Marwari folk music traditions through the voices of Mooralala Marwada, Hemant Chauhan and Mukhtiyar Ali. Urban singers such as the youngsters from Manzil Band from Delhi and Shabnam Virmani from Bangalore added their mix to the diversity of Kabirs being shared.
The Yatra was a rousing success with thousands participating with so much enthusiasm, that it is no surprise that it seems to be taking the shape of an annual event, with current plans underway for Malwa Kabir Yatra – 2011.

Malwa Kabir Yatra – 2011!
This year the Yatra will take place over 8 days in April, traversing 7 districts and 8 locations. The live music concerts from 9pm till 1 or 2am every evening would feature many old favourites and also many new voices –
Mooralala Marwada (Kutch) *17-24 April
Hemant Chauhan (Gujarat) *20-22 April
Bhanwari Devi (Rajasthan) *17-22 April
Shivji Suthar (Bikaner, Rajasthan) *17-19 April
Mukhtiyar Ali (Pugal, Rajasthan) *24 April
Parvathy Baul (Bengal) *23-24 April
Bharati Bandhu (Chhattisgarh) *17-18 April
Makeshift Band (Delhi) *17-24 April
Shabnam Virmani (Bangalore) *17-24 April
Prahlad Tipanya, Kaluram Bamaniya & Malwi folk mandlis *17-24 April
Special Guest – Latif Bolat (Turkish Sufi musician) *19-24 April

The live music concerts would be preceded at every location from 7-9pm with film screenings of the Hindi dubbed versions of four documentary films on Kabir directed by Shabnam Virmani. Suman Keshari from Delhi and other local speakers would address the audiences, sharply locating Kabir in the social, religious and political contexts of contemporary times.
Hindi versions of the Kabir films/CDs/books produced by the Kabir Project would be available for sale at affordable rates. Also available for sale would be a video CD capturing the spirit of last year’s Yatra and other Kabir festivals, calendars and kurtas/T-shirts inspired by the Yatra, the singers and Kabir’s poetry.

Participation & Support:
This Yatra is organized by Malwi village committees in collaboration with the Kabir Project in Bangalore. Each village committee raises funds for their local event and will be generously hosting not only the artistes but all visitors from outside Malwa every night. The Kabir Project raises funds to invite all participating artistes and take care of all other common logistical expenses.
Buses will be hired to ferry visitors from one location to the next during the 8-day Yatra and in some places accommodation and food would not be in the villages but enroute.

We welcome contributions towards your costs of local conveyance, food and accommodation – roughly Rs.350 per head per day. Please remember that this amount is not by way of a “ticket” to this Yatra, but more a contribution in the spirit of making this event self-sustaining. Those who cannot afford this amount are also welcome to participate, and those who can donate larger amounts are welcome too!
To plan logistics effectively, we need advance confirmations of your participation. Write to malwa.kabir.yatra@gmail.com giving us your name, cell/email contact, from where you are coming and which days you will journey with us. For queries call Namrata at 0-99867-38211. Advance contributions are also preferable by sending a cheque/dd in favour of “Srishti” or a direct bank transfer (with intimation of your transfer to the above email) to SB a/c 1812101014404
Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology
Canara Bank, Yelahanka Satellite Town Branch
Bangalore 560 064
ISFC / RTGS / NEFT Code: CNRB0001812
.
Planning your Arrival
Datewise:
17th:The Yatra starts at Luniyakhedi, which is 15 min from Maksi railway junction, 1 hour by bus/taxi from Dewas or Ujjain junctions, and 2 hours from Indore.
18th: Ujjain City is your arrival point
19th: For those coming in from Delhi/Bhopal Maksi is the closest railway station, for others Tonk Khurd is 2 hours (65kms) from Ujjain and Indore, and an hour (30kms) from Dewas junction.
20th: For those coming in from Delhi/Kanpur/Lucknow/Punjab, Shahjapur is the closest station (2 hrs to Mohanbarodia), for others it is about 3 and a half hours from either Ujjain or Dewas junctions.
21st: to be updated
22nd: The best arrival points by rail are Nimaj (jn Nimaj itself), Ratlam or Nagda junctions.
23rd: Indore is your best arrival point as Ramgarh is 3 hours (110 kms) from there.
24th: Indore city is your arrival point.

Indore is the closest airport no matter which day you join the Yatra.

Planning your Departure
Since the last halt of the Yatra is Indore, it would be useful to plan your train or flight departures from Indore itself on April 25th.

Contacts:
Ajay Tipanya (+91- 97708-34666) or Devnarayan (+91- 94259-79564) in Malwa
Namrata (+91-99867-38211) at the Kabir Project
For queries and confirmations: malwa.kabir.yatra@gmail.com
For updates: “Malwa Kabir Yatra” on Facebook and www.kabirproject.org