LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 20:9 September 2020
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

Celebrate India!
Unity in Diversity!!

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIALS

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2020
M. S. Thirumalai

Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
11249 Oregon Circle
Bloomington, MN 55438
USA
Custom Search

Folklore and Indigenous Knowledge for Sustainable Living:
A Case Study of Disaster Preparedness and Management

Rimjhim Kumari, M.A., Livadora Lyngdoh Mawdkhap, M.A., M.Phil.,
Sweta Sinha, Ph.D. & Smriti Singh, Ph.D.

Abstract

India has been a home for diverse cultures and civilization since exceptionally long. It is rich in tradition and has been preserving its civilization over a period of around 5,000 years. The various communities and groups of people living here provide enormous resources for sustainable development through their Indigenous Traditional Knowledge. These kinds of knowledge systems are passed from one generation to other as a legacy or heredity. The ancient concepts, scriptures, and practices along with the regional idioms and proverbs is a storehouse of profound ideas, practices and teachings that has the capability to bind human and nature in one thread. So, there is a vital need to document these knowledge systems and use them by incorporating the technical and scientific knowledge with it to help the people. Disaster in India has been a very prominent issue that needs attention and the traditional knowledge has heartfelt concepts and ideas that can help the people for better preparedness. With the spread of modern practices, the indigenous practices have taken a back seat and have lost its essence. This paper tries to document some of the traditional indigenous knowledge from local communities of Bihar that can not only help in predicting disaster but will also provide a means of disaster preparedness and preventiveness.

Keywords: Indian folklore, disaster preparedness; disaster management; indigenous technical knowledge; traditional knowledge; folklore

Introduction

Indigenous knowledge is the core skill knowledge built up by a group of people living in close contact with the nature and interacts with the local environment (United Nations Environmental Programme, 2008). It is considered as the foundation or pillar of community practices that have helped various local communities survive from natural calamities. Indigenous knowledge is a valuable tool for identifying, recognising, assessing, monitoring and incorporating disaster risk at the local level. It is an important element that strengthens and builds up for the cultural safety and enhances disaster preparedness at various levels. It is the base for food preparation, agriculture, environment conservation, health care and many more such activities (Shaw, 2008). The local communities can predict the upcoming cyclones, sea erosions, floods, rise in sea level and earthquakes by observing natural signs and behaviours of ocean, water, wind, changes in weather conditions and behaviour of animals and accordingly the local communities prepare themselves for the hazardous situations, for example: the use local materials such as sand, thatch for constructing houses in flood prone areas in order to reduce the effects of floods.

Traditional knowledge is passed down from one generation to next through verbal or oral mode like in forms of stories, songs, proverbs, poems, and festivals. It is hardly documented in pages and this major reason as to why most of the traditional knowledge and practises are getting demolished with older people passing away. With the spread of modern practices, the indigenous practices have taken a back seat and have lost its essence. The ancient concepts, scriptures and practices along with the regional idioms and proverbs is a storehouse of profound ideas, practices and teachings that has the capability to bind human and nature in one thread. So, there is a vital need to document these knowledge systems and use them by incorporating the technical and scientific knowledge with it to help the people. The government now also is paying heed to such knowledge systems and thus it is trying to absorb much of it and mingle it with the contemporary technical tools and help the people in the time of crisis as both man- made as well as natural disasters are very common in Indian, especially the state of Bihar.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Rimjhim Kumari, M.A.
Research Assistant, Indian Institute of Technology Patna
rimjhimsingh36@gmail.com

Livadora Lyngdoh Mawdkhap, M.A., M.Phil.
Research Associate, Indian Institute of Technology Patna
lyngdohliva598@gmail.com

Sweta Sinha, Ph.D.
Coordinator-Centre for Endangered Language Studies
Assistant Professor Indian Institute of Technology Patna
sweta@iitp.ac.in

Smriti Singh, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Patna
smriti@iitp.ac.in
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.