The folklore phenomenon can be termed as a tool of communication as it employs verbal, non-verbal, musical and visual folk art forms in transmitting messages to a society or agroup of societies from one generation to another. These are indigenous modes and have served the society as tools of communication for ages.

Therefore, folk media offer an important apparatus in the process of inspiring rural masses towards accepting social changes, which also establish a constructive means for the overall development of the common people and can build a scientific temperament among the mass. Folk media imply the people’s participation and spontaneity. Folk culture in a society is seen in different forms like oral literature or verbal art, material culture, proverbs, social folk customs, folk performing arts, fairs and festivals, folk games, etc.

The northeastern region of India has been the traditional land of the Indo-Mongoloid population. But neither the region nor the contribution of its people to the culture and civilization of India has received adequate notice, let alone their application. Nearly 80 per cent of the region’s total population reside in rural area. So the new and emerging media technologies cannot reach the far-off places because of geographical, economical and some social barriers. Therefore, folk media in the region can become an intimate and emotional tool of communication. Even the rural people do not know they are adopting technology and science from their ancestors. Now the time has come that we can deliberately incorporate science and technology to folk media through which we can communicate or disseminate scientific matters with the general rural mass.

Indigenous proverbs facilitate speech communication and help in cutting across traditional resistance to new ideas. For example, the Assamese society has paid a lot of importance to build a scientific temperament that can be traced back to the proverbs of Daka Purusha who flourished in Assam during the 4th century AD. Daka’s proverbs cover almost all aspects of the day-to-day rural life, including agriculture, health, hygiene, gynaecology, paediatrics, infant care and food and nutrition.

Assam is very much wealthy in folk communication forms with various categories — myths, legends, folk tales, ballads, riddles, proverbs, sayings, charms, folk drama, folk dance, folk painting, etc. It is also rich because of its highly diversified character. It is not a matter of joke that the northeastern part of India, which covers 7.7 per cent territory of the country’s total land mass, very much heterogeneous in character with more than 250 social groups and more than 75 languages. Therefore, folk media always play a significant role in the process of dissemination of information among the ethnic and other social groups. Particularly in Assam, it is not so easy to disseminate scientific information and to inculcate a scientific temperament among the rural mass, it needs a deliberate, planned and sustained effort to use the indigenous folk communication forms to popularize science among the people.

In this context, a strategy will be helpful as an alternative way to inculcate science among the people. To disseminate science and technology to the general people, first of all some objectives have to be set. The communicators must be clear of the problems they wish to solve or the need they want to meet. After the objectives, framing a proper planning of communication approaches, development and production of messages, selection of folk performers, train up and improve presentation are most important tasks. The government or non-government bodies need to decide regarding the financial resources. A group of communicators should identify their target audience, for whom they are providing information on science and technology. This is necessary where specific objectives are set and results expected. One person at each community level is needed to initiate folk media activities. Teachers, civil servants, youth leaders, social workers, health workers may play the role of organizers, who will get together a group of folk performers of their own locality and who have a mind to incorporate new messages of science and technology in their folk performing arts. For example, in Birbhum district of West Bengal, an NGO has sought the help of a group of Baul singers to disseminate information about the AIDS through music.

The principal organizer should select one group leader from the folk performers. The group leader should be sound in music, performance, and organizing capacity. He should be motivated enough to persuade people. The organizers and the government or non-government bodies have to take the decisions on the messages, which they want to communicate with the people. In states like Assam, the organizers also have to take initiatives to translate the messages into local languages and their own dialects.

In every community there are many people who have talents in one or more of the folk performing arts. It is not difficult to identify those people because some of them are well known in their own community. So with the help of the organizers, the professional folk performers have to be identified and they may train up the local artistes for the final performances.

Feedbacks can be found immediately from the audience while the performance is in progress and the organizers can ascertain how well it is being done in spreading the particular message to the target population. There are also so many challenges that one may find. For example, at the time of performance the weather may not favour an open performance, the characters might not turn up for different problems, volunteers may not support some messages that can create religious dilemma, etc. But all these problems can be sorted out.

Being an ancient form, the folk media is very close to the heart of the people. Its appeal is universal and its understanding is direct and at personal level. So the folk media can effectively be used as mass communication among rural and urban people. It is true that folk media can disseminate scientific information and it is the best medium to inculcate scientific temperament among the general people. It is not true that folk form of communication only dominates in remote and rural areas, they are present in various forms in urban centres as well.

Use of folk media can be most effective in changing the unscientific attitudes, superstitions, etc inherited as a part of tradition by the people in rural areas. In the course of folk performance, folk media transmit information and project ideas that may influence attitudes and behaviour as well as entertainment. Thus, it is a great revelation nowadays that the folk arts are quite sufficient, as a medium to inform and disseminate people to safeguard against superstition and other such beliefs. Each folk art form itself is a medium of communication because it is directly linked to the psyche of its audience. It is flexible and it can be modified in regard to its functional relevance to the society to which it belongs. That is perhaps why it has survived.

Ankuran Dutta/Anamika Ray