Geet Gawai in Mauritius: A Reflection Through Performance Theory

Abstract

Geet Gawai, a Bhojpuri folk musical tradition recognised by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016, is far more than a ritualistic and festive communal practice. Indeed, it serves as a vital repository of Bhojpuri-Mauritian history and identity. This study applies Richard Schechner’s (2003, 2020) and other allied scholar’s Performance Theory concepts, particularly those of “restored behaviour,” “The Efficacy – Entertainment braid”, “liminality” (Turner) and “participation,” to explore how Geet Gawai operates as a complex social “performance sequence” and “theatrical” event through which Indo-Mauritians continuously construct, contest, and affirm cultural identity. Drawing on participant observation, interviews, audiovisual documentation, and desktop research, the paper offers a succinct overview of Geet Gawai’s origin in Bhojpuri life-cycle practices, its migration and reconfiguration in Mauritius, and its contemporary presentation in domestic and public spaces. Data collected from these methods also assists in deconstructing Geet Gawai as a performative act. Findings indicate that Geet Gawai transcends the status of a mere cultural artefact and functions as a vital, sophisticated social performative engine for the Mauritian Bhojpuri community. It perpetually restores, adapts, and redefines itself through performances in a diasporic setting while asserting cultural continuity and dynamically negotiating its position within modern Mauritian multiculturalism. It functions simultaneously as a ritual practice, social pedagogy, entertainment, and cultural heritage—maintaining community cohesion even as aestheticisation introduces new layers of interpretation and spectatorship. The paper concludes that Schechner’s performance theory offers a robust framework for analysing ritualistic musical traditions akin to Geet Gawai, providing profound insights into these phenomena not as fossilised traditions but as resilient, living, and adaptive practices vital to cultural sustainability, in which the past actively shapes the present and future.