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Academic
Seminar of Research Scholars
and
Folk Performances of Tribal and Adivasis
From all SAARC Countries
and from across different regions of India : from Kashmir
to Kerala, from remotest North East to Punjab
The Folklore Festival will explore
the common cultural and civilisational bondings of the SAARC
region through the ancient civilisational and cultural roots
of the region, which are intertwined and are
more common than anywhere else in the world.
This
Festival is being organized by the Foundation of SAARC Writers
and Literature (FOSWAL), APEX BODY of
SAARC, the only organisation in eight SAARC countries : India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh,
Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Afghanistan, legally authorized
to organise literature-related and cultural programmes under
the SAARC banner and SAARC logo.
In
other words, our FOSWAL is the cultural wing of SAARC.
We
were THE FIRST in the subcontinent who initiated the process of building bridges of dialogue
among writers and intellectuals of India and Pakistan,
through our cultural organisation, way
back in September 1987.
Our active exploration of Folklore
and Folk Music and Folk Performances was launched three decades
back, in 1977, when we brought mirasis from Punjab, particularly Nooran with the wild, passionate voice of the far-away forests,
with the resonance of centuries of folk songs and folk traditions,
who performed to a stunned audience in FICCI Auditorium. She
sat there like a sculpture chiselled out of black granite, with
the backdrop of red carpets all over the auditorium.
Then, in 1979, we invited folk musicians
who played folk instruments which are vanishing, like algozas,
rababs, toombis, dhadd-sarangis.
And a couple of years back we signed
an MOU with Jamia Millia to launch research on Folklore of the
SAARC region.
Folklore is a terribly ignored subject, particularly in our SAARC region,
where languages are dying, and so are the folklore
traditions. It is high time that mad and committed people
like me, and intelligent people like you should wake
up to the SOS call of our oral traditions of folklore, and try
to resurrect and save a vital part of our cultural and civilisational
heritage.
This Folklore Festival re-orients the entire cultural paradigm
by foregrounding the culture of our common people expressed
so fully and beautifully through folk tales, songs, myths, legends,
proverbs, rituals, dances and plays.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS EVENT EMANATES FROM THE FACT THAT CONTEMPORARY
LITERATURE AND RESEARCH AND CULTURAL PROGRAMMES FOCUS ON THE
INTELLIGENTIA AND THE ELITE. THE WHOLE CULTURAL THRUST IGNORES THE
VOICE OF THE MASSES, WHICH CAN BE HEARD AND UNDERSTOOD
THROUGH ORAL TRADITIONS OF FOLKLORE AND FOLK SONGS WHICH ARE
LYING AT THE ROOT OF HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL MEMORIES OF OUR
SAARC NATIONS.
It is within our oral traditions, our folk
theatre, folk songs and folk tales, that the souls of
our societies reside. They showcase the culture of the masses,
the simple and the naïve people who unravel the mysteries
of life through their centuries old oral expressions, and are
closer to life, nature, birds, plants, animals ! We sing of
changing season and rivers, of births and deaths ! We have songs
for all stages of life : right from the third month of pregnancy,
to death. We , the people of the SAARC region are the only people
who sing and cry, cry with howling songs for the dead body lying
on the floor.
It
is the
folktales, folksongs, myths and legends of the South Asian
region with common roots, which need to be deciphered and
understood if societal issues are to be adequately and comprehensively
addressed, and if we want to hear the voice of the voiceless,
and want to reach out to them through cultural connectivity
focusing on their way of life.
We must focus on the fact that ours is one of the oldest
civilizations in the world.
Through
cultural awareness, and rekindling the spirit of a shared cultural
and civilisational history, which is rich and unique in its
vastness and depth, crystallized over thousands of years, a
new and distinctive SAARC SPIRIT can be kindled, evolved, brought
into focus.
This Festival, which
will not only be a significant milestone for India, considering
its pivotal role as Chair of SAARC, but will also
help to strengthen the process of cultural connectivity,
in these times of terror when there is an imperative for recognition
of cultural identities – ethnic, religious, linguistic
and racial, a vibrant reality involving the creative fraternity
of the SAARC Region.
In this era of globalization, when communities and countries
are feeling that their local cultures are being swept away,
it is profoundly essential that cultural connectivity through
ancient traditions of folklore, the repositories of our common
cultural and civilisational heritage, are focused, projected,
strengthened and reinforced by initiatives of creative fraternity
and folklore scholars.
This FESTIVAL OF SAARC FOLKLORE, the first such Festival in
South Asia, is planned as a launching platform for an ongoing
process of research and exploration of our rich folklore heritage: a unique forum for providing a platform
to share, exchange and present the multi-faceted dimensions
of Culture of the
Masses ! The Folk !
AJEET COUR
President
Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature
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