Ram Sahay Panday
A Bundelkhand dancer who championed the Rai folk dance despite social boycott, honoured with the Padma Shri in 2022. He died in 2025.
Ram Sahay Pandey was a folk artist from Bundelkhand who spent his life performing and teaching Rai, a folk dance of the Bedia community. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2022 in the field of art, from Madhya Pradesh [1].
Dancing against boycott
Pandey was born on 11 April 1933 and began learning Rai at the age of eight [2]. Because the dance belonged to the Bedia community, the upper castes boycotted him before Independence, but he kept on [2].
Rai on world stages
With his troupe he represented India in Japan, Dubai, Hungary, Switzerland, Germany, France, Denmark and Egypt [2]. He also performed Rai in Hindi films, among them Shayad and Chowkidar [2].
In his village of Kanera Dev he founded the Bundeli Lok Nritya Natya Kala Parishad to train young people in the dance [2]. He received the Shikhar Samman, Tulsi Samman and Nritya Shiromani title from the Madhya Pradesh government and the Sangeet Natak Akademi’s Tagore Samman [2].
Pandey died in a hospital in Sagar in April 2025, aged 92, after a long illness [3].
Sources
- [1] Padma Awards 2022: list of awardees — Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Accessed 24 October 2026.
- [2] Padma Awards 2022: citation for Ram Sahay Panday — Padma Awards, Government of India. Accessed 24 October 2026.
- [3] Padma Shri Ram Sahay Pandey, icon of Rai folk dance, passes away at 92 — News On AIR, All India Radio. Accessed 24 October 2026.
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