The idea, the word, ‘folk’ has wide range of understanding and connotations – ranging from ‘natural’ to ‘native’ to ‘traditional’ to ‘rural’ and in some cases ‘from the heart.’ The ‘outpourings from the heart’ of native or traditional people later takes the form of folklore.
All folklores are oral traditions, the lore, traditional knowledge and beliefs of cultures often having no written language and they are transmitted, generally, by word of mouth. Like the written literature they contain both prose and verse narratives in addition to myths, dramas, rituals etc. All the cultures have their own folklores. In contrast and traditionally, literature is understood to mean any written work.
All folklores do more than merely conveying heart-pourings of natives about the nature around them. They are often, nay, always the carriers of culture, of social mores, customs and forms of behaviour – that is a society, nay, life in a nutshell. Folklores contain the lofty thoughts of yore and highest metaphysical truths, normally incomprehensible to laymen, in a subtle, story forms.
Literature, in written form, helps in preserving the folklores and oral traditions. But for the literature in this form, the world would have lost almost all the folk and oral traditions. Written books, as recordings of folklores help in passing on the lofty thoughts and ideas to posterity with no or very little changes in contrast to oral traditions where they often get lost in transition. Literature also can highlight the relevance of the stories of the past to the generation of the present, something which the oral traditions cannot strongly do.
Indian Literature, compared to any other literature in the world, played a dominant role in the preservation and propagation of oral traditions and folklores. Very ancients of this land, India, were past masters of all art forms that is folk. Sama Veda, to name one, is probably oldest form of folk music that has survived till date. Even if one takesSama Veda as a rusty folk music, then it is the finest and ancient folk music that the world has ever witnessed.
From the Epics of India, Ramayana and Mahabharata to Jataka tales of Buddhism to Pancha Tantras and Hitopadesha to Katha Saritsagarain the medieval period to mystic songs of Bauls of Bengal to numerous works in almost all the main languages of India, the scholars, saints and writers have kept the oral traditions and folklores alive by writing down many a tale.
What is more unique to Indian attempts over centuries in preserving the folklores is the role played by women in it. The roles played by Gargi and Maitreyi of the distant past to Andal of Tamil Nadu at the beginning of the previous millennium to Lalleswari of Kashmir to Molla of Nellore in Andhra Pradesh to Akka Mahadevi of Karnataka to Sahajo Bai, is nothing short of stellar.
India remains one of the world’s richest sources of folktales. Not merely folktales but all forms of oral traditions – proverbs, aphorisms, anecdotes, rumours, songs, impromptu folk street plays – mirror the culture and values of the land in which they take place. They have also helped in binding vastly differing mores and customs of even a single given place. India is one place where the speech of even the most illiterate farmer is filled with lofty thoughts and metaphors.
By preserving and adopting many a tale and numerous songs and plays peppered with the proverbs and aphorisms of the region, Indian Literature has played a huge role in binding together vast cultures in an unseen way. The role of Indian Literature in maintaining and fostering cultural unity and identity in the vast land such as India cannot be diminished.
Indian folk literature holds out a strong and loud message for other parts of the world where these art forms have disappeared thick and fast in consonance with rapid industrialization and globalization. Folk literature and folk art forms are not merely carriers of culture or philosophical poems, but rather the expressions of strong self-reflections and deep insights accrued therein. Simple life, self-reflection and treading the path of the righteous contained in traditions. Again, folk traditions are not merely platforms for holding high moral ground having no relevance to the present day reality. Several folk plays like Chaakiyar Koothu and Veethi Naatakam are used even today as satire plays and commentaries on the current social and political reality. Same holds true for many folk songs from the vast pages of Indian literature.
It is also true that when recorded and propagated in a printed form these folk literatures also gain mass reach which is otherwise confined to a smaller space and reach out only to smaller groups and communities. Through medieval Indian literature to 20th century we see the reality of Indian literature holding up for oral traditions contrary to popular perception when it is very true of European cultures and others where they have almost completely lost folk literature. Most recent example of this phenomenon we can see in the effort of famous Rajasthani folklorist, Sri Vijay Dan Detha.
In the modern democratic India, folk literature is pursued both within the academia and outside it unlike many other cultures. Efforts of Sahitya Akademi and other similar organizations form part of this collective attempt to preserve and disseminate Indian folk literature.
Sahitya Akademi, India’s premier institution of letters is devoted to the preservation and promotion of Indian Literature in all the 24 languages recognized by it. The core of the Akademi’s work is translation among various Indian languages including minor languages and dialects with the objective of promoting cultural unity in India and enhancing regional co-operation in a vastly diverse country with so many languages, traditions and cultures. The Sahitya Akademi also promotes Indian folk literature in all possible ways – by giving awards to folk literature; by holding conventions and giving awards in minor languages, languages without scripts and tribal dialects; publishing folk stories in its journals in the form of second tradition; publishing folk literature books and has centres to preserve and promote oral traditions within India.
Archives
The genesis of the National Archives of India may be traced back to the year 1860 when Sandeman, the Civil Auditor, in his report stressed the need of relieving the offices of congestion by destruction of the papers of routine nature and transfer of all valuable records to a ‘Grand Central Archive’. Nothing could come out, however, in concrete shape until 1889 when Professor G.W. Forrest of Elphinstone College, Bombay was entrusted the job to examine the records of the Foreign Department of the Government of India. Earlier he had earned reputation as an Archivist for his work in the Bombay Records Office. In his report, he made a strong plea for transferring all records of the administration of East India Company to a Central Repository. As a result, Imperial Records Department (IRD) came into existence on 11 March 1891 which was located in Imperial Secretariat Building at Calcutta (Kolkata). Professor G.W Forrest was made its Officer in Charge. His main task was to examine, transfer, arrange and catalogue records of all the Departments and to organise a Central Library in place of various Departmental Libraries. After G.W. Forrest, the work at Imperial Records Department (IRD) progressed well under S.C. Hill (1900), C.R. Wilson (1902), N.L. Hallward (1904), E. Denison Ross (1905), A.F. Scholfield (1915), R.A. Blaker (1919), J.M. Mitra (1920) and RaiBahadur A.F.M. Abdul Ali (1922-1938) who were scholars as well as Records Keepers in their own right.
Subsequent to the transfer of the National Capital from Calcutta (Kolkata) to New Delhi in 1911, Imperial Records Department (IRD) shifted to the present building in 1926. After independence, the IRD was rechristened as National Archives of India and Head of the Organization was designated as Director of Archives from Keeper of Records. Dr. S.N. Sen, who succeeded A.F.M. Abdul Ali and held office till 1949 gave an overall orientation to the activities of Imperial Records Department/ National Archives of India. For the first time, records were thrown open for bonafide research in 1939 and by 1947 all pre 1902 records were available for consultation. A Conservation Research Laboratory (CRL) was established in 1940 to conduct researches into problems relating to conservation which was, Dr Sen’s visionary contribution. Training in Archives Keeping was introduced in 1941 and in 1944, a scheme of Post War Re-organisation of Archives offices in India was laid down by the Indian Historical Records Commission. In 1947, the Departmental Journal The Indian Archives came into existence which contains research papers on source material of modern Indian history, conservation of documents, records-management, reprographics, archival awareness and all other allied aspects of functional archives.
Thus, National Archives of India marched towards the path of progress after independence to play a more dynamic and inspiring role in the archival field of the entire country. It witnessed manifold expansion of its activities since then in the field of accession of public records, acquisition of private papers/ collections and library material, records management, research and reference, publication, training, conservation, reprography, outreach programmes, coordination at national and international level and expansion of office at regional areas. The Department witnessed further impetus to its status in June 1990 when the office of the Director of Archives was re designated as Director General of Archives. At present National Archives of India is an attached office under the Ministry of Culture and has a Regional Office at Bhopal and Records Centres at Jaipur, Puducherry and Bhubaneswar.
Preservation
- The National Archives is making earnest efforts to ensure longevity to documents in its custody through preventive, curative and restorative processes.
- The Department has conservation Research Laboratory which was setup in 1941. Since its inception, it is engaged in research and development work like developing indigenous technique for restoration, testing of materials required for restoration and storage.
- The Laboratory is equipped with latest models of Paper Testing Machines viz. Tensile Tester, Folding Endurance Tester and Bursting Endurance Tester etc to facilitate examination of various kinds of preservative material.
- A unique process of repairing and rejuvenating documents with the help of cellulose acelate foil and tissue paper which is known the world over as Solvent or Hand Lamination process has been invented by the Department.
- The Laboratory has been successful in formalizing a process for rejuvenating palm leave that have gone dry and cracking because of age or loss of flexibility.
- Another very significant achievement has been fabrication of a portable thermostatically controller airtight vault which is a multifunctional chamber and could be used for sterilization, vapour phase de-acidification and drying of documents, books and other material.
Reprography
- The National Archives is as well trying to ensure longevity to documents in its custody through an elaborate Microfilming Programme which is being practiced by it for over 3 decades now,
- Microfilming is being used as a measure for preservation of records against deterioration from use or loss due to natural ageing and fading of inks.
- The Reprography Division equipped with modern machines not only attends to the needs of scholars apart from its normal function but is also engaged in the gigantic task of preparing security microfilm of valuable records as a precautionary measure against loss by fire, flood, war and sabotage.
- his set of negative copies of microfilm rolls is being kept in the Regional Office at Bhopal. The Division is also converting the analogue microfilm images to digital images to incorporate the same with the specially tailored, Archival Information Management System Software.