Kapil Tiwari

Kapil Tiwari is a scholar of tribal and folk culture, art and oral traditions, who has spent more than thirty years studying, recording and publishing them. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2021 in the field of literature and education, from Madhya Pradesh ^[1].

The academy

Tiwari was born on 21 March 1952 and took a PhD in Hindi literature from Dr Hari Singh Gour University, Sagar, in 1980 ^[2]. In 1982 he joined the Adivasi Lok Kala Academy of the Madhya Pradesh culture department in Bhopal, and from 1992 to 2011 he was its director ^[2]. In those years he did major work recording India’s tribal and folk cultures and oral traditions ^[2].

Choumasa

He started Choumasa, a quarterly on traditional arts and oral traditions, and edited ninety issues; its special themed numbers are still landmarks in the study of folk and tribal culture ^[2]. He has edited more than a hundred volumes in all ^[2].

Tiwari sought out and supported many folk artists and writers of folk literature, and designed a careful framework for classifying what they recorded ^[2].

Ram Katha

He has specialised in the folk arts of the Ram Katha, the story of Rama, and set up Saket, the first Ramayana art museum, at Orchha ^[2].

He has advised the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and a UNESCO project on intangible heritage, and has been a trustee of Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal ^[2].