SHILLONG: All India Radio, Shillong, organized a national workshop on ‘Preserving, Propagating and Promoting Folk Legacy’ at the State Convention Centre, here on Monday.
The main purpose of the workshop was to deliberate on the decision made by AIR, as the nation’s public service broadcaster to step in and record the folklore and ceremonial songs.
The project envisages recording of songs associated with different rituals, folk songs, folklores and folk legends and to encourage artists to compose folk songs and music on the unique style of original folk music, probe deeper into folk legacy so that the chain of continuity is maintained by the present generation and posterity.
The workshop aimed at enabling the authorities to have an insight into the rich heritage, customs, languages, dialects prevalent among various castes, sub-castes, tribes and other communities.
On the occasion, Additional Director General, AIR, New Delhi, Amitabh Shukla addressed AIR officials hailing from across the country and the Northeastern Region including experts in language, culture and performing arts.
“AIR needed to do something very unique and special to have an edge over the other social media and it has been given the liberty to use its own creativity in making the project a grand success and to become a trend setter,” he said.
Making a presentation on the languages of the North East with special reference to standard Khasi and its dialects, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Linguistics, NEHU, Dr. Saralin A. Lyngdoh, said that there are three major language families in the North East – the Tibeto-Burman, Indo-Aryan and Austro-Asiatic.
“However, speakers of the fourth language family of India, the Dravidian are also found scattered across North East,” Dr. Lyngdoh said, adding that the co-existence of these languages in the North East defines the region as a huge area of rich cultural linguistic diversity.
She also said the tribal and minor languages have been controlled and engulfed by more dominant, powerful and prestigious languages.
“When Thomas Jones, Welsh Missionary transcribed the Khasi language using Roman Script, fortunately the Sohra dialect emerged as a ‘Standard Dialect’ in 1841. Since then, it has been used as the link language among the Khasis. Khasi, Anal, Angami, Ao and other languages fall under the status of vulnerability,” Dr. Lyngdoh said, adding, “First UNESCO report (2009) included Khasi as amongst the 120 endangered tribal languages in India.”
Prof. Streamlet Dkhar, HoD, Dept. of Khasi, NEHU, spoke about the three major cultural dances of Meghalaya belonging to Garo, Khasi and Pnar communities while Somdutt Sharma, Deputy Director, Programme, AIR, New Delhi, explained the main purpose of the workshop relating to preserving, propagating and promoting the folk legacy of the country.
During the panel discussion, former Professor in the Department of Cultural and Creative Arts, NEHU, Dr. Helen Giri, suggested setting up of a strong advisory committee for performing arts and culture. Dr. Giri also reminded how U Kiang Nangbah had lost his life trying to protect the art forms from extinction.
AIR programme heads from all regional stations of North Eastern States, Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana, Andaman & Nicobar Island and Lakshadweep attended the workshop.
It was informed that AIR has been given the liberty to use its creativity in making the project a grand success and to become a trend setter.