Reacting on social media, Sarabhai said that she is not allowed to perform because she is a BJP critic. Meanwhile, the event was later shifted to another venue.
After the venue of her show was shifted, noted Kuchipudi and Bharatnatyam dancer Mallika Sarabhai performed on Saturday, 21 January, at the Kakatiya Urban Development Authority (KUDA) Open Grounds in Warangal.
Sarabhai was earlier supposed to perform inside the 19th-century Ramappa Temple, which was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in July 2021.
However, according to the organisers, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) officials denied permission for the dance festival.
The Warangal-based Kakatiya Heritage Trust was the organiser of the show.
The ASI is a Union government agency responsible for the preservation of cultural historical monuments, and falls under the ambit of the Ministry of Culture headed by G Kishan Reddy.
The dance festival, including Mallika Sarabhai’s performance inside the Ramappa Temple, was initially scheduled for December 24 last year.
“In the last decade, we worked on the promotion of the Kakatiya dynasty heritage. So, we keenly wanted to promote it as a World Heritage Site and decided to organise a one-day fest and invited Mallika Sarabhai. The idea of the fest was on the lines of Khajuraho (Madhya Pradesh) and Konark (Odisha), which have emerged as great dance centres with world-famous festivals,” BV Papa Rao, a member of the Kakatiya Heritage Trust, told South First.
But the organisers had to cancel it as they did not get permission in view of President Droupadi Murmu’s visit on 28 December.
“For around two months, the ASI delayed permission and later they did not give us any reason in writing but made it clear that the fest would not get permission if it featured Mallika Sarabhai. We have been forced to shift the venue,” said Rao, who is also a former IAS.
He alleged, “Culture Minister (Kishan Reddy) told one of my colleagues that he did not like her (Sarabhai).”
Calls to Kishan Reddy went unanswered.
Posting a message on Friday on social media, Sarabhai said, “So I can not celebrate Shiva Shakti at a UNESO heritage Shiva temple because I am a critic of the BJP. So, like the poor Dalit devotees who have to worship from outside the temple, we will perform just outside. No subtlety about official Ministerial views any more. [sic]”
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In another message on the same day, she agreed that the culture minister (Kishan Reddy) had denied her permission to perform inside the Ramappa Temple because she was a BJP critic.
Sarabhai, who featured against the BJP’s LK Advani in the 2009 general elections as an independent candidate, has been critical of the Narendra Modi government and the Hindutva ideology.
She voiced her concerns while speaking at the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival in Kolkata on 15 January.
“What I am witnessing around today completely decimates me… Never had I thought there will be complete destruction of our ideals in India, and so many people blinded by the glory of advertisement and brand-building,” she said.
Applauding Kolkata’s religious inclusivity, she compared it with her home state Gujarat and said that “ghettoisation seems to be so complete” there.
The dancer also remarked that while Hinduism allowed asking questions, Hindutva was being “shoved down the throat” of the people of India.
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