Chholiya, the martial folk dance that has long served as the proud cultural emblem of Uttarakhand's Kumaon region, is witnessing a gradual yet alarming decline. Historically, no wedding, religious ceremony, or major mountain festival across the hills was considered complete or prestigious without the spirited accompaniment of a Chholiya troupe. Dressed in vibrant warrior attire and rhythmically clashing swords and shields to the resonant beats of the dhol and damaun, these artists preserved ancient martial sagas. Today, changing social priorities and modern distractions have pushed this ancestral art form into a grave existential crisis. Folk performers report that invitations to family and social functions have plummeted, directly gutting their primary livelihood, while promised state patronage and financial safety nets remain largely on paper.
Faced with mounting debts and irregular income, many hereditary performers are finding themselves compelled to abandon their craft and take up unskilled manual labor. Their concern transcends day-to-day survival; practitioners fear that if the younger generation sees no viable economic future in the discipline, the number of functional troupes will dwindle rapidly, severing an irreplaceable cultural lifeline.
Carrying a Sacred Family Legacy at Naina Devi Temple
Among those arriving in Nainital with his troupe is Bhagat Ram, a folk artist from Pankhu village in Pithoragarh district, whose household represents three unbroken generations of dedication to the art. His grandfather originally initiated the tradition of traveling to Nainital to play during sacred temple ceremonies, an assignment subsequently inherited by his father and now upheld by Bhagat Ram himself. For approximately 30 consecutive years, he has carried his dhol to Nainital to perform alongside his ensemble during the evening prayers at the revered Maa Naina Devi temple.
Bhagat Ram shares that this sacred engagement and seasonal bookings have historically sustained his family. However, invitations to perform at private weddings and community celebrations have withered drastically. The steep decline in bookings has severely eroded his household earnings, while young family members increasingly view the profession with reluctance due to financial insecurity.
Unpaid Performance Fees and Elusive Pensions
The plight of senior folk practitioners is compounded by a lack of institutional social security. Bhagat Ram notes that artists have long harbored hopes of receiving welfare pensions and structural state grants. He personally traveled to Dehradun on multiple occasions to navigate bureaucratic channels and apply for a pension, yet no monthly disbursement has materialized. Compounding the distress, payments for several past performances delivered at official government events remain unpaid, leaving veteran performers without dues they rightfully earned.
Self-Funded Regalia and the Call for Clear Policies
The ceremonial grandeur of Chholiya relies heavily on intricate traditional costumes, featuring pleated tunics, turbans, and ornate cummerbunds. Bhagat Ram emphasizes that artists are required to design, stitch, and maintain these specialized costumes entirely out of their own pockets. In an era of diminished earnings, funding such costly garments has become an immense personal burden.
The performers advocate for the formulation of a comprehensive state policy tailored to traditional mountain folk artists. They argue that guaranteed economic stipends, structured employment opportunities, and assured bookings in regional tourism programs would enable them to support their dependents with dignity. Chholiya is not merely a transient source of entertainment; it embodies Kumaon's living heritage, requiring both financial security and social prestige to endure.
Decades of Devotion Left Without State Relief
Echoing these sentiments, fellow artist Kishan Ram speaks of the systemic neglect confronting traditional musicians. Having inherited the art form across generations, his family relies completely on dhol-damaun performances for survival. Despite a lifetime dedicated to preserving local culture, he has received neither a government pension nor meaningful coverage under state welfare programs. Kishan Ram urges the authorities to institute regular pensions, hardship allowances, and welfare amenities so artists are not forced to abandon their heritage out of sheer destitution.
Administrative Stagnation Following Selection of 49 Artists
Leading another ensemble from Okhalkanda to Nainital, Narayan Ram highlights the administrative paralysis surrounding promised welfare schemes. He points out that the Uttarakhand government had previously unveiled an economic assistance initiative intended specifically for folk musicians playing traditional percussion instruments like the dhol and damaun. Under this framework, 49 eligible artists were formally selected from the district, and multiple rounds of rigorous administrative verification were completed.
Yet, according to Narayan Ram, the process halted entirely after verification, leaving the selected beneficiaries waiting without any financial disbursement. This inertia has bred profound disillusionment across the artistic fraternity. Narayan Ram warns that the cohort of active Chholiya exponents in the hills is shrinking every year, and failing to implement protective measures now will leave future generations completely alienated from their roots.
Clash with Modern DJ Culture and Demands for Revival
Performers identify the unchecked proliferation of mobile entertainment, loud commercial sound systems, and DJ music as major disruptors of indigenous folk traditions. Where community weddings once reserved their highest honors for the arrival of Chholiya dancers, families increasingly turn to automated sound systems playing popular tracks, crowding out live instrumentalists.
To preserve this heritage, artists are petitioning the administration to mandate the inclusion of authentic Chholiya groups across government-backed festivals and tourism summits. Their core demands include immediate clearance of overdue performance fees, an institutionalized pension framework, and the establishment of structured training workshops to instruct young community members in playing the dhol and damaun. The vibrant rhythm of these historic mountain drums continues to echo the identity of Kumaon, and keeping it alive requires sustained institutional patronage.
