Abstract

Theorists go on to argue why the type of dance that has been consistently called Rabindranritya in Bengal is the culture of every Bengali family. This is a tradition involving spontaneous emotions. During Rabindranath’s life, a definite boundary of his music has been established while his dance thoughts remained as ideas. The songs of Rabindranath and dances on those together have become an essential element of Bengali daily life for decades. 

Dance schools, institution and other cultural organization all over Bengal teach and perform Rabindranritya. An unceasing flow from creation to re-creation of dance on Rabindrasangit determines the continuum of the tradition. “Today we perceive that the dance idiom introduced by him has stood the test of time and has now become an established tradition of teaching, practice and presentation as the dance-art of the Bengalis-a pedagogical structure is visible” as argued by scholars and practitioners working on the subject.

But it is also perceived that due to lack of knowledge and dedicated practice, Rabindranritya has been distorted and the correct idea has not reached the desired articulation. With this paper a humble attempt is made to involve the legal community in ensuring procedural fulfilment towards legal recognition of Rabindranritya as a traditional knowledge of the Bengal community as preached and practiced in reflection of Tagore’s dance idiom, so that the richness and sanctity of Rabindranritya is protected.

Keywords: Rabindranritya, Bengali Community, Traditional Cultural Expression (TCE), Performing Arts, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Traditional Knowledge, and Folklore (IGC).    

Introduction:

The beginning of traditional knowledge with regard to performing artists goes back to the time of the formation of the United Nations in 1945. With the development of the United Nations and the post-colonial legal order, there happens to be a recognition of the indigenism (NIEZEN 2003). The post-colonial era confirms tradition, culture and self-determination of people was ensured. Awareness among indigenous movements about common problems and aims started way back in the 1960s (H. Minde 1963). While this was confined primarily to indigenous peoples who were once suppressed over the years and their right to self-determination asserting their rights began with this approach especially with the formation of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples in 1975. But the movement began therefrom to recognition of the identify and rights through – Legal recognition of Traditional Knowledge and traditional Cultural Expressions that happened with the adoption of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage that entered into force in April 2006. (Nations 2003). The Convention defined Intangible Cultural Heritage as ‘the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups, and in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage’. “The example provided is oral traditions and expressions (including Language as a vehicle of the intangible cultural heritage), performing arts, social practices, rituals and festival events, knowledge and practice concerning nature and the universe and traditional craftsmanship.” (ANTONS, TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE, TRADITIONAL CULTURE EXPRESSIONS AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW IN THE AISA-PACIFIC REGION 2009). ‘Safeguarding’ is defined as “measures aimed at ensuring the viability of the intangible cultural heritage, including the identification, documentation, research, preservation, protection, promotion, enhancement transmission, particularly through formal and non-formal education, as well as the revitalization of the various aspects of such heritage.”

The Convention expresses for the most part relatively vaguely worded obligations to ‘safeguard’ intangible cultural heritage and by the way of which it calls for the Member States to draw up mechanisms customized for nations in which intangible cultural heritage would be recognized in is tainted in this on manner for its people. This came with its set of obligations and policy formulation responsibilities including institutional matters of research on legal technical administrative and financial majors, education, awareness-raising and capacity building which the convention expressed that member states would indevoure to implement. The South-East Asian nations and South Asia, in general, have adopted the Convention at its very first round of acceptance. An interesting fact about the Convention is the creations of fund that was termed as that was intangible cultural heritage fund “The most wide-ranging provision is Article31(1) guaranteeing the right ‘to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expression, as well as the manifestations of their sciences, technologies, and cultures, including human and genetic resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora, oral tradition, literature, designs, sport, and traditional games and visual and performing arts’ as well as the right ‘to maintain, control, protect and develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expression”.

While Article 31(2) and similar subsections in most of the other provisions requires states take ‘effective measures to recognize and protect the exercise of these right’. (ANTONS, TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE, TRADITIONAL CULTURE EXPRESSIONS AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW IN THE AISA-PACIFIC REGION 2009)

While this entire document is non-binding in nature, but it sets the tone for “traditional knowledge and cultural expressions” which builds the nations together universally for the purposes of maintaining territorial integrity and human rights. So, there is interlinking between traditional knowledge and human rights, and both these perspectives this present paper is attempted to forge the relationship and express it in terms of performing arts. Here the indigenous community, that the paper shall delve into might not legally be termed as ‘indigenous’. However, the exclusivity and the right to preserve the culture of this community – the Bengali Community is the focal point of this research.

Theorists go on to argue why the type of dance that has been consistently called Rabindranritya in Bengal is the culture of every Bengali family. This is a tradition involving the spontaneous emotions of Rabindranath Tagore’s songs. During Rabindranath’s life, a definite boundary of his music has been established. His philosophy has become embedded in his songs. The dance idiom introduced by Rabindranath Tagore has “stood the test of time and has now become a traditional dance form with an established teaching tradition with its unique practice and presentation of the Bengali community” (Troupe 2020). Language, time, nation whatever border we created for humanity, Rabindranath echoed with his ideas, literature, art, and contribution to culture. The songs of Rabindranath known as Rabindransangit and dances on those with Tagore’s dance aesthetics have together become an essential element of Bengali daily life for decades. It is proudly the most significant icon of the Bengali community across the world. The first cadenced movements of a child to the school children dancing a in a group everything is shaped through his idiom of dance. Dances on songs created by Rabindranath Tagore can be described to be the dance culture for the Bengali community which is popularly known as Rabindranritya in the same line as Rabindrasangit, both of which has its rich legacy and history.

Dance schools, institutions, and other cultural organizations in Bengal teach and perform Rabindranritya. “Most of the dance schools imprint on their signboards, the words ‘Rabindranritya sekhano hoy’ (We teach Rabindranritya).” (Troupe 2020) This is testament of the fact that spontaneously the Bengalis have taken to Rabindranritya while simultaneously pursuing other classical dance forms. It is this imaginative flow from creation of a Rabindranritya composition to the re-creation of the dance on the same Rabindrasangit determines the continuum of this tradition that dates back to a few decades ago, the pathway of which was shown by Tagore himself. Today, we observe that the “dance idiom of Rabindranath Tagore has stood the test of time. It has become established through its extensive teaching, practice, and presentation of the dance-art of the Bengalis that has a visible pedagogical structure” (Troupe 2020). Initiated by Tagore himself in Santiniketan, Rabindranritya with its distinctive identity has spread across the world. The dance form is practiced in all corners of West Bengal, Tripura, Bangladesh, and other countries where regularly artists from the Bengali community impart training of the dance form and perform the dance form. Rabindranritya is now a major cultural icon for the Bengalis irrespective of being in Bengal or other parts of India or even far across in other countries. Its identical and significant look through its costume, movements, ornaments and stage craft has made the dance form distinctly discernible which concretizes further the idea that it has a legacy and has a tradition attached to it.

Since the demise of Rabindranath, the visual and staging lyrical drama, dance drama in Rabindrasangit has taken the world of Bengali dance forward at a faster and faster pace. On the other hand, the Sangit Bhavana of Visva Bharati in collaboration with Pratima Devi and Santidev Ghosh has left the continuity of the Rabindranath’s era in the daily practice and staging Rabindranath’s thought-provoking dance and dance dramas alive even today, though many of them are not alive today.

The words Rabindranritya and Rabindrasangit, have been inextricably linked with the lives of the Bengalis since a young age. This is very deeply rooted in the hearts of all Bengalis and today it is a tradition of more than a century that is quickly identifiable by anyone looking at the dance form presentation. This is the discernible tradition. In the lap of this tradition, Rabindranritya has unanimously passed by passing the test of time.

Analysis:

1. Evolved jurisprudence on Traditional Cultural Expressions (TCE) and performing arts

The “traditional” in traditional knowledge is “not its antiquity, but the way it is acquired and used”. (I 1999) In fact, the social process of learning and sharing knowledge is key to the dynamics of TCEs, which is unique to each indigenous culture. This concept lies at the very heart of its “traditionality” whereby a legacy can be identified. “Much of this knowledge is actually quite new, but it has a social meaning, and legal character, entirely unlike the knowledge indigenous peoples acquire from settlers and industrialized societies.” (I 1999).

“Accordingly, there is a category of niche knowledge that we may call traditional knowledge, of which traditional cultural knowledge is a further sub-category. For example, “an Indigenous person and a scientist may both know that unique bark extract can cure malaria. But they are likely to describe what they know in very different ways that may be mutually unintelligible (even when communicated in the same language)”, (Dutfield 2001) but both name its own distinctiveness while must be dully presumed and protected. 

The final lap of the development in this was with the development at the international level with the work of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) along with the deliberation at Inter-Governmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge, and Folklore (IGC). The fact-finding committee conducted its research from in 1998 to 1999 and the report was published in 2001. Among the various principles and objectives that found expression in this, there were pointers on the protection of traditional knowledge in “WIPO/GRTKF.IC/12/5(c) of 6 Dec. 2007” and the protection of Traditional Cultural Expressions “WIPO/GRTKF/IC/12/4(c) of 6 Dec. 2007” alongside other components of protection concerning traditional knowledge like genetic resources. 

There were five specific aspects of that concept which the document dealt with on Traditional Cultural Expressions and Traditional Knowledge to out of which three concerned itself with Traditional Cultural Expressions in order to prevent any kind of misappropriation of expressions of a particular culture or spiritual value on significances via third party use or any other such efforts. The paper aims to take a look all these documents and this entirely evolving a jurisprudence for the protection of the traditional knowledge and cultural expressions in its pristine form without any distortion and dilution. Towards this end the authors expect to elaborate the discourse on Rabindranritya and how much and how the dance form deserves protection to sustain it under the penumbra of Traditional Cultural Expressions in the way that it was envisaged by Tagore in his idiom of dance form – Rabindranritya.

2. Historical evolution of Rabindranritya: Tagore, his idiom, vision and beyond

• If you want to know in detail about any art or any subject, you have to look for the roots to evaluate it in general, and this work must be done based on history. With firm steps, Tagore had widened the path of dance.

It is very important to determine how Rabindranritya has become a traditional dance form and the attempt here is to appreciate the same. Creativity is the main condition of every dance form, accordingly, while Rabindranritya is surely a creation of creativity, it is certainly, not a ‘creative dance’ because it has its own limits, boundaries, definitions and rules to be followed, just like any other dance form. Rabindranath’s idiom of dance has become a traditional dance with his creativity and the examples he has left for us to learn from and in that way has defined the traditional dance form. Going through one step after another, that is, from lyrical drama to drama (geetinatya গীতিনাট্য), drama, season drama (ritunatya ঋতুনাট্য), finally dance drama, which is a tradition flowing down for generations in adherence to Rabindranath’s literature, philosophy and aesthetics. After the establishment of the ashrama in Santiniketan, he created an open environment for music and dance practice by intermingling different dance styles from home and abroad. He collected elements of various dance forms that he admired and also applied those. 

Rabindranath saw the Manipuri dance in Tripura in 1919 and he decided to introduce Manipuri dance at Santiniketan. Buddhimanta Singh came from Tripura to teach the Manipuri dance. Initially only the boys of the ashram practiced this dance. The girls started learning the dance in 1932.

During a trip to Gujarat-Saurashtra, he came across a family, who excelled in dance and brought them to Santiniketan from whom the dance using cymbals (mandira) was composed his song “Dui Hate Kaler Mondira Je Sodai Baje”. In 1924, Professor Jahangir Vakil and his wife came to Santiniketan and the girls learned the Garba dance form. In 1925, Navakumar Singh and Vaidyanath Singh came to Santiniketan to teach Manipuri dance. Bothe the boys and the girls practiced this form. 

The milestone of Rabindranritya was made in 1926 when with the request of Pratima Devi, the poem ‘Pujarini’ was translated into a play named ‘Natir Puja’ by Rabindranath Tagore. The play was performed only by girls. At the end of the play, Gauri Devi, in the role of Srimati.

Even incomplete though the dance based on Rabindra Sangeet has been in vogue for so long, the beginning of Rabindranritya started after that. In 1926, Rabindranath went to Java-Bali, in his memoir ‘Java Jatrir Patro’, he wrote: “Human life is moving in danger-wealth-happiness-sorrow, not in emotion, but sound-touch. As music becomes, it is dance if we have to give up everything and express it with speed. Whether it is a rhythmic melody or a dance, it has a speed, that speed stimulates our consciousness and keeps it awake. Intensive perception of something. To do that, we have to speed up our consciousness”. (BANDOPADHAY, RABINDRANRITYA THE DANCE IDIOM CREATED BY TAGORE 2019) 

3. Cultural upliftment in the Bengali society with Rabindranritya- the inextricable relationship sets the tone for the traditional dance form

Rabindranath was not a dancer in the conventional sense, but there was an artist’s mind in him and there was his creativity. At the same time, there was a subtle moderation in the mix of harmony of different elements of dance forms, stage craft and other ancillary aspects of dance presentation. This man with extraordinary talent has therefore been able to establish a strong example of a unique achievement in the world of dance and dance drama. The stage at which Rabindranath’s dance thought about dance reached maturity can be found in his various writings. When we learn about Rabindranath’s dance ideas, we come across the following statement, “Our body carries the weight of the limbs wakes up when these two opposite substances meet. Dance varies the weight of the body in different ways, not for livelihood, but for creation; the body is a moving art form.” (“আমাদের দেহ বহন করে অঙ্গপ্রত্যঙ্গের ভার, আর তাকে চালন করে অঙ্গপ্রত্যঙ্গের গতিবেগ; এই দুই বিপরীত পদার্থ যখন পরস্পর মিলনে লীলায়িত হয় তখন জাগে নাছ। দেহের ভারটাকে দেহের গতি নানা ভঙ্গিতে বিচিত্র করে, জীবিকার প্রয়োজনে নয়, সৃষ্টির অভিপ্রায়ে; দেহটাকে দেয় চলমান শিল্পরুপ। তাকে বলি নৃত্য”)                                                                            

Traditional arts are learned individualistically in the community, passed from one generation to the next, and is heavily influenced by culture, family, ethnicity, and era. Following or performing or belonging to certain customs and behavioural patterns that have continued for a the specific group of people or society for a long period of time without changing or making modifications to is called tradition. The cultural practices and tradition of Rabindranritya with its element has lived up to that to becoming the rich tradition that it is. 

Santiniketan was established at the end of 1901 AD. To Gurudev, dance was considered a moving art form of the body. The joy of its rhythm entertained his mind, which is why he was able to build a flowing dance movement in Santiniketan without any hesitation. In Santiniketan, dance has since then become one of the most important festivals and celebration. Rabindranath was able to realize the lack of dance skills among the Bengali Middle Class Girls. This was because they were never trained in dance because dance was considered lowly among the community back then. Tagore thought then that why the girls of Bengal would be deprived of this unprecedented art only because of dark superstition and so after returning from Java Bali, Rabindranath produced Rituranga. The production took place in Santiniketan and Kolkata and there the girls participated. Along with Rabindranath Tagore, another pioneer in the field of dance education for girls in Santiniketan was Pratima Devi. This continued until a time when he shaped the dance-dramas. The conflict that was working in the mind of the poet was fulfilled through these dance dramas. During the period 1933-1939, Rabindranath wrote Tasher Desh, Chitrangada, Chandalika and Shyama. It is interesting to note that every dimension of dance-drama was given a modern look with new ideas. For sample; Chandalika is a story of a girl from the untouchable caste of India. Chandalika had a difficult life with two distinct identities that she constantly battled and made her vulnerable- one of being a women and the other of being a woman of a lower caste and hence untouchable. In Tagore’s dance drama she is found questioning her existence when one day a Buddhist monk requests her to give him some water. When she refused stating that as a low caste girl she couldn’t give water to a spiritual “high” class monk what transpired was inspirational at that time. The story revolves around how the words spoken by the monk finally enlightened the mother-daughter duo and how the message of removing untouchability was disseminated accordingly. So; we see that parallelly there were two things happening – a dance tradition was developing and the same was being used as an instrument of social change – elements of how a true tradition must be was in the making.  

4. Rabindranritya: A Traditional dance form within the Traditional Cultural Expressions (TCE) domain

“Traditional Knowledge is a living body of knowledge passed on from generation to generation within a community. It often forms part of a people’s cultural and spiritual identity.” No source specified. WIPO’s program on this also addresses Traditional Culture Expressions (TCEs) and Genetic Resources (GRs). So as mentioned earlier evaluating these concepts and notions vis-à-vis Rabindranritya gives an interesting understanding that the generations of the legacy of Rabindranritya have attained the status of ‘traditional’ dance form the people of Bengal in the country.

It is not possible to define Rabindranritya but it is very important to determine how Rabindranritya has become a traditional dance form since in the past. Creativity is the main condition of living dance, hence Rabindranritya has become a traditional dance with its own creativity. Going through one step after another, that is, from lyric drama to drama, drama, seasonal drama, finally dance drama, which is still a tradition for generations according to Rabindranath’s literature, philosophy, aesthetics. The Santiniketan stream that started with Rabindranath’s idea being implemented with Navakumar Singh, Pratima Devi, Gouri Devi, Nandita Devi, Amita Sen, Santidev Ghosh were carried forward with Amubi Singh, K. Jatindra Singh, Shubhra Thakur, Madhav Mukhopadhyay and at present Debabrata Mukhopadhyay, Basanta Mukhopadhyay to the present students of Sangit Bhavana. A distinct pedagogy is witnessed in dance pedagogy that was crafted by Tagore himself. (BANDOPADHAY, NRITYA ONTORE-BAHIRE 2016)

Rabindranath’s interest into dance as an extension of his writings was envisaged in four-dimensional space. His concept of blending all kinds of movement on his writings, especially songs and dance-drama, bore his signature in the dance form. This seems to be similar to the worldwide Modern Dance scenario, where freedom in every respect is given to the performer, choreographer, director, or visualizer. Such kind of freedom is also seen in Rabindranath’s approach to dance. Hence nritya (dance) when performed on Rabindranath’s writing following his aesthetics bound expressions with his thought process on dance compositions elaborated above will be Rabindranritya.

Rabindranath has showed us the way to compose on his writing. This pedagogy is followed diligently in Santiniketan continuously. Not just the compositions, but also the presentations on stage follow the trend of the times. The movements are tailored not just on movement repertoire of any one particular dance form, but are combinations of varied movements from many repertoires of dances all over the world. Again, there is a no-written system of this combination. Yet the tradition continues very strongly which relies on Rabindranath’s aesthetic principles. The costume and set designs were crafted by Abanindranath Tagore, Gaganendranath Tagore, Nandalal Basu and Suren Kar followed by Gouri, Jamuna, Biswarup and Nonigopal are carried on with innovations within that periphery today by Sudhi Ranjan Mukherjee. It is essential for a Rabindranritya dancer to understand, realize and recognize the philosophy behind compositions and presentation of the dance. The traditional four abhinayas – angika, vachika, satvika, and aharya in Rabindranritya need to be understood in the light of Rabindranath’s vision of stage performances. Only when such a tradition of the arrangement, in compositions, in costumes, in make-up, and stage decor is followed will the presentation be Rabindranritya. Any other way of presentation on Rabindranath’s writings that do not follow presentation according to his concept cannot be brought within this periphery of Rabindranritya.

5. Protection, preservation, and conservation of Rabindranritya- an effort towards ensuring the right to Traditional Cultural Expressions.

But due to various reasons, Rabindranritya has been distorted. Today it has been diluted and Tagore’s idea has not reached every breadth and depth. So, we appeal for legal protection to ensure this traditional dance form. Sustains and the identify of Bengalis is not distorted it is the earnest efforts of the authors to present with utmost details this traditional art form that requires legal protection in order to ensure that the richness and purity with the sanctity of Tagore’s idiom of dance become protected for years to come. With this paper, a humble attempt has been made to involve the legal community in ensuring procedural fulfillment towards legal recognition of the traditional dance form of Rabindranritya as Traditional Knowledge of the Bengal community as preached and practiced in the reflection of Tagore’s dance idiom.

Taking inspiration from the WIPO Model Law 2002 for the Asia-Pacific Region For The Protection of TCEs, there are few observations mentioned below that account for adequate and effective protection mechanisms and justifications for that protection mechanism for India. Thus, while there are no statutory provisions seeking protection of TCEs that could be used for Rabindranritya and its protection, this Model Law can definitively be a guiding force in that regard.

The history of the protection mechanism for TCE dates back to the most important initiative- the framework of the 1967/1971 revision of the Berne Convention. However, even now it seems that the ideal progress is yet to be made with regard to the concrete drafting of specific provisions for the protection of knowledge of particularities of indigenous heritage. The Draft Substantive of Provisions for the protection of Traditional Cultural Expressions/Expressions of Folklore (‘Draft Provisions’) provided by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) secretariat that also prepared a Model Law with comments from all stakeholders including governmental, non-governmental, inter-governmental experts from the region for the region of South and South-East Asia. This was provided to ensure efficient law making for protecting TCEs in the region. Reference to the discussions are drawn here.

• “Firstly, they should be results of inventive scholarly movement. It merits nothing that such action may incorporate both individual and shared imagination. The definition hence likewise covers articulations really acknowledged by people however (as follows from the second and third conditions) just if the articulations address the character of the local area and have a place with the local area. The way that an individual fulfills those extra two conditions, it is viewed as the result of a public imaginative interaction.
• Secondly, the forms of expression must be characteristic of a community’s cultural and social identity and cultural heritage. Indeed, these characteristics reflect the very reason for the need to protect expressions of folklore, namely the fact that folklore, as practiced, constantly re-established the links of the community members with each other and with the surrounding world, and thereby assists in reaffirming the identity of the community. The term ‘characteristic of’ for such identity and cultural heritage of the community should be understood in particular as referring to what  is the authentic expression of the community.
• Thirdly, it is necessary that these forms of expression are maintained, used, or developed by the community or those individuals of the community having the right or responsibility to do so in accordance with its customary law and practices. This condition reflects the common feature of folklore as living heritage as well as the reason for the need to protect folklore namely: folklore is important for a ‘lived’, i.e., practiced, even through further development. Where folklore is no longer living and does no longer serve the self-identification and linkage of the community to its ancestors, other members of the community, and the elements surrounding them, it no longer has importance for the community and is therefore not in need of protection. 
• While the beneficiary of copyright protection is the author who creates a work, the Draft Provisions proposed the beneficiary of expressions of folklore to be the communities rather than any individual who may have been the starting point for the creation of a particular expression of folklore. Communities are recognized as beneficiaries only if the custody, care, and safeguarding of the folklore are entrusted to them in accordance with their own customary law and practices, and if they maintain, use or develop the folklore as being characteristic of the cultural and social identity and cultural heritage. These conditions are again consistent with the purpose of protection which is inherently linked to the fundamental role of expressions of folklore for the identity of a community. Accordingly, the communal character of expressions of folklore as opposed to individual authorship has been taken into account in the provision on beneficiaries.

The Pacific Model Law seems to be even more detailed. Here, the beneficiaries are the ‘traditional owners of traditional knowledge or expressions of culture’, defined as:

1. The group, clan, or community of people; or
2. The individual who is recognized by a group, clan, or community of people as the individual; in whom the custody or protection of the traditional knowledge or expressions of culture are entrusted in accordance with the customary law and practices of that group, clan, or community. This definition even takes account of the inner structure of communities where individuals are recognized by the group, clan, or community to be the custodians of a particular expressions under customary law.

• In Article 2 of the Draft Provisions, WIPO uses the term ‘indigenous peoples and traditional and other cultural communities’ in order to be as comprehensive as possible and, in particular, to include cases where folklore is regarded as belonging to all the people of a particular country, as claimed in particular by Egypt and Morocco. In such cases, the term ‘cultural communities’ could include all nationals of an entire country. Article 2 of the Draft Provisions also takes into account cases where more than one community is the custodian of a particular expression of folklore; in this case, all those in whom the custody is entrusted according to their customary laws and practices would be benefits among communities would be addressed by rules on the management of rights and on formalities”.

It is the beneficiary of protection that decides the allocation of rights and potential benefits from their exercise. It is almost certain that potential conflict of interests between government representatives and representatives of indigenous or traditional groups will arise. This has been reflected most discussions of the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee. The traditional communities have always strictly opposed to governmental interventions in this respect and even in the managing of their rights pertaining to their cultural expressions. So, preservation and protection of folklore should be considered in the context of beneficiaries of protection.

The dimension of protection are designated in the Draft Provisions as ‘acts of misappropriation’. Different scopes of protection are proposed in respect of different kinds of folklore. The maximum scope of protection is proposed for expressions of the folklore of particular cultural or spiritual value that the TCE has for a particular community. The conditions that such expressions are registered or notified, and very specific protection is proposed for secret folklore is very crucial in this process.

The greatest advantage that arise from the protection for registered or notified expressions of TCE of a particular cultural or spiritual value that shows the significance for the community is the fact that its use must be with ‘free, prior and informed consent’, also known commonly as PIC. The benefits that the protection confers includes apart from the economic protection are rights which are comparable to the moral rights of paternity and integrity in the field of copyright that is possible the most satiating and quintessential. The other significant form of protection is the defensive protection by which the acquisition or exercise of Intellectual property – rights over the folklore or adaptations thereof can be prevented. This the element that authors are harping upon to be replicated and implemented for the legal protection of Rabindranritya as a traditional dance form of Bengal. Since the dance form happens to fulfil all these aspects of determinant of traditional knowledge that deserves protection.                                                                           

Conclusion:The distinctive identity of this dance form has reached the world since the time of the inception of the dance form in the 1926s. This identification of this unique idiom of dance as conceived and presented by Tagore marks the traditional aspect of Rabindranritya. The moment a dance with the costumes and attire of Rabindranritya is present it anywhere in the world it is very easily identified by the audience to the tradition of Bengal. This traditional art form has remained integral a rooted to the idiom created by Tagore and he has left before us in numerous examples of the presentation of this idiom which is followed while presenting this dance form. The authors being practitioners and now scholars of this dance form are ardently and with extreme devotion trying to disseminate those exemplary presentations of Tagore’s idiom of dance- a combination of several Indian dance forms as well as other dance genres of other parts of the world to the world and is selling and calling out to the legal fraternity for its help in making this a possibility for preservation of the identify of Bengal.