Lalit Gupta
The inclusion of Dogri in the eighth schedule of the Indian Constitution on 23 December, 2003, not only bestowed the language of Dogras the status of a national language but also a kind of fruition of the Dogra cultural renaissance started in 1940’s by founders of Dogri Sanstha such as Ram Nath Shashtri, Bhagwat Prashad Sathe, Dinu Bhai Pant, Laksmi Prasad, N. D. Mishra, D.C. Prashant, and Master Sansar Chand.
These intellectuals as part of strategy took the historic decision to resurrect and develop the native language to create such literature, which is true reflection of all aspects of local life and culture and also to search and publish true history of people of Jammu.
In this way the rich treasure of folklore with its eternal thread of narrative was not only discovered as powerful symbol of the Dogra community’s past, but also the immediate source for the modern Dogra renaissance. The folk heroes like Baba Jitto, Mian Dido, Data Ranpat, eulogized in folk ballads, were resurrected in modern avatar as symbols of Dogra identity, valour, sense of justice etc. These were also thought to function as the central icons that, psychologically-speaking could hold the Dogra society together: the personality of Duggar.
Further the process of search for roots led the urban Dogra intellectuals to rich treasure of folklore that became the immediate source for the modern Dogri literature in which the short stories were in many cases, the recasting of folk tales only. A classic example of the fact that how ancient traditions, culture, language and practices were able to replenish and leave traces for contemporary minds to articulate and make them part of their own creative processes.
Performance of Dogri play Baba Jitto, during the farmers’ conference at Tikri, near Udhampur, in 1944, written by Ramnath Shashtri, was not only a landmark in the development of modern Dogri Theater but also resurrected the folk hero and his supreme sacrifice in the imagination of the masses.
Therefore unlike rest of India, especially Punjab and Kashmir, where folklore studies had started much earlier especially due to the initiative of foreigners, the interest in Jammu’s folklore was developed as part of the Dogra cultural renaissance that too not for academic reasons but with the aim to resurrect identity of the races living in Duggar.
Dogras have rich tradition of oral literature. It has all that a folk-literature should possess both in form and material. It offers an easy comparison with the folk-literature of any other language. It has survived the baneful effects of industrialism because of its remote haunt in the mountains. Due to lack of printing facilities till recent times in those areas, it has preserved its native purity of form and language. The colloquial touches are the soul of this literature. This shows its close and active kinship with practical life of the people. It runs parallel to the stream of life. Dogri folk-literature reflects the social and religious life of the natives and also tells the modes of their thinking and reactions to nature. As such the Dogra folklore is a mirror to the personality of Dogras and a touchstone of their identity.
A considerable body of Dogri folk literature is available in print today, although what is available forms a very small part of the whole that is still to be tapped. The first incidental mention of the myth of Baba Phed, the Nag Devta, appears in the historical account of Dogra rulers in 18th century ‘Rajadarshani’, written in Persian.
After the Dogri play Baba Jitto, based on the ballads of hero, the publication of some odd folk songs that followed in the Jammu College magazine Tawi and some other journals in 1953, further reflected the status now being granted to the so-called marginalized folk expressions by the educated young men. Then in 1955, the first collection of nine folk tales entitled ‘Ik ha raja’ was published by Dogri Sanntha, Jammu.
Simultaneously Dogra Mandal, Jammu, brought out a collection of four folk tales in a thin volume entitled ‘Paungar’. In 1956, two books of folk songs came out, one from Jammu and other from Kangra in Himachal Pradesh. 1957 saw the publication of third volume by Bansi Lal Gupta. A book about Kangari folk songs published in 1958 and another collection of folk songs of Himachal Pradesh in 1960 were followed in 1960 by Karan Singh’s ‘Shadow and Sunlight’ which contained 31 Dogri songs and their English and Hindi renderings.
In 1962, the J&K Cultural Academy, launched its project of collection and publishing Dogri folk literature with ‘Dogri Kahawat Kosh’ and it went on to publish in subsequent years, fourteen collections of folk songs, eleven of folk tales, one volume of Dogri idioms and second volume of kahawat kosh. Gautam Vyathit has published a collection of Kangari folk songs and another of folk tales entitled Paharan de Atthrun’. Another half a dozen books of Dogri folk songs and same number of books of Dogri folk tales have been published by private individuals and organizations.
The establishment of Post Graduate Department of Dogri in the University of Jammu also played a seminal role in study of Dogri language and folklore. In fact, alongside seminal role played by Dogri poets\writer\scholars like Narendra Khajuria, Kehri Singh Madhukar and Om Goswami in their capicites of editors in J&K Cultural Academy, the scholars and faculty from Dogri Department in absence of relevant departments of folklore, folk studies, anthropology, ethnography etc have been acting as folklorist by default.
In this age of homogenization when traditional societies are breaking up and boundaries between the folk and urban are blurring at a fast speed along with phenomenal reach of the media and the new forms of narratives being offered for public consumption, have put a question mark on the folklore.
The only silver lining is the continuing practice of annual congregations and melas at the religious spots associated with folk deities and heroes that brings communities together. At such relio-cultural sites in a grand theater of religio-social spectacle, all forms and practices of folklore come alive. The myths, legends and tales are also brought into active memory of especially the younger generations, thereby getting revived and entrenched for posterity.
But academically speaking the present state of Dogra folklore studies is far behind the well-known academic centers in South India, Punjab et al. The main reason being the absence of departments of folklore, anthropology, ethnology in the University of Jammu. So far few creative writers as well as faculty members of the Post-Graduate Department of Dogri, University of Jammu, have undertaken the extant Dogra folklore studies.
Today there is a need for an proactive approach in studying Dogri folklore by researchers, folklorists, anthropologists, and experts of social psychology, marginal studies, developmental studies, culture critics, linguists and policy planners.
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