Ram Sahay Pandey
Ram Sahay Pandey receives the Padma Shri award for art from President Kovind. He is a folk artist from the Bundelkhand region who has travelled abroad to promote India. The Bundeli Lok Nritya Natya Kala Parishad was founded by him.
Who is Ram Sahay Pandey ?
On March 11, 1933, in the Maddhar Patha village of the Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh, Ram Sahay Panday was born into a Brahmin family. Ram Sahay Panday was the youngest of four brothers, and his father Lalju Panday was a farmer.
When Panday was 14 years old, he experienced the Rai dance for the first time. He started practicing the dance after being fascinated by it. The Bedia community in Madhya Pradesh is connected to the Rai folk dance. They are a nomadic tribe about which the Criminal Tribes Act had been informed. Additionally, some people link the neighborhood to the flesh trade. Panday’s family was adamantly opposed to him practicing the Rai dance form because of the stigma associated with the group and their dancing style.
He performed the Rai dance at Akashvani Bhopal in 1964 in front of Govind Narayan Singh, the then-chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, and many other dignitaries. They were astounded by the dance form, and that encounter proved to be a pivotal moment in his life because he later started to gain recognition in the society. Ram Sahai Panday deserves a great deal of credit for helping this Bundelkhand dance develop its own personality today. For many years, Panday has been teaching young men and women the Rai dance. The Madhya Pradesh government showcased the Rai dance in Dubai in 2006, under the direction of Panday.
