Fouzia Dastango, as her name suggests, is an artist of the 16th century oral storytelling art, Dastangoi. She developed a deep interest in the field of arts and theatre from her early school days. She continued learning and participating in her school plays, but couldn’t pursue the art full time. Later, she got trained as an educator and worked several years, developing educational curriculum and supporting herself and the family. However, it took one performance in 2006 when she visited Dyal Singh College to watch a Dastangoi performance and she fell in love with this art form. She has dedicated, since, to learning and practicing this art form and quit her permanent job as a Lecturer at the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) to pursue her passion of being a Dastango (story-teller) full time. In this process, she has also become India’s first female Dastango.
Fouzia has had deep interest in and love for the Urdu language, literature and Dastangoi art. She was born in and lived most of her life in Old Delhi’s Pahari Bhojla locality, which coincidentally had once been a home to Mir Baqar Ali, the last legendary Dastango. The word Dastangoi is derived from the Persian word Dastan which means ‘a story’ and goi which means ‘to tell’. The art form, which dates back to 16th century in the Indian subcontinent, passed into oblivion with Mir Baqar Ali’s death in 1928, until efforts were being made to revive this storytelling tradition a few years ago.
Fouzia has been performing professionally since 2006. Having performed over 100 shows all over India and in UAE, she has focused her efforts to touch upon and bring out women-centric issues through her performances, while also covering a diverse range of other issues.
Fouzia specializes in telling stories from Urdu masters such as Ismat Chughtai, Sadat Hasan Manto and Intizar Hussain. However, her productions have gone well beyond the traditional Urdu retellings associated with Dastangoi. Originally meant to entertain, the political undertones in Dastangoi in its present form adds to its relevance. Hence, she has made a conscious effort to cover a diverse range of topics and issues in her practice. She has produced renditions of materials as diverse as the Mahabharata and Gandhi’s political struggle, in collaboration with writer Danish Iqbal.
