Abstract:

My understanding of Siraiki folk culture is based on my subject positioning as a native Siraiki speaker who remains immersed within the culture through interactions with the local writers, folk artists, intellectuals, and political activists. Building on the argument that the Siraiki literature faces the threat of endangerment due to little or no importance given to its literature and the lack of state level patronage, the current discussion is focused on the importance of the oral and folk literature as a form of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) and identifying the possibilities of preserving Siraiki literary heritage. Folk and oral tradition creates the backbone of Siraiki culture as it continues to influence the contemporary Siraiki writers and audience. This discussion is organised into four interlinked sections. Firstly, I review previous studies on ‘Folk Literature and Sufism within the Siraiki context'; previous studies on Siraiki folk literature and some problems of dealing with Sufi influences. Secondly, I present a comparison of western and Indian approaches to folk literature in the section entitled, ‘Folk Literature: The Challenges of Defining’. It presents two divergent views on the idea of ‘folk’ in the western and Indian contexts. The third section discusses ‘Siraiki Folk Literature: Nature and Accessibility’ by shedding light on the kind of folk literature available in Siraiki and briefly reporting some private resource centers where it may be available. The final section of the paper proposes Adebayo and Adeyemo’s model of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) as a means of tackling the challenges of preservation and dissemination of Siraiki folk literature.

Speaker’s Bio:  

Dr. Nukhbah Taj Langah ( Associate Professor of English) studied MA in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies at the University of Warwick (1998) and completed her PhD from University of Leeds (2004-8). She served at Forman Christian College University (FCCU) from 2009 to 2023. Her post-doc experience includes association with Center of South Asia Studies (Le Centre d'Études de l'Inde et de l'Asie du Sud), Paris in 2016-17 and  a  Charles Wallace Fellowship (2018) at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.  Her publications include a monograph Poetry as Resistance: Islam and Ethnicity in Postcolonial Pakistan (Routledge, 2011), Literary and non-Literary Resposnes towards 9/11 (Routledge, 2019); and a co-edited volume Film, Media and Representation in Postcolonial South Asia ( Routledge 2021) with Dr. Roshni Sengupta. Her upcoming work consider the post-Partition developments in Pakistan and South Asia. She has also co-translated acknowledged Urdu poet, Noshi Gillani’s poems with British poet, Lavinia Greenlaw (Poems: Noshi Gillani Enitharmon, 2008) and contemporary Siraiki poetry into English for Poetry Translation Center (London).  She is a political activist voicing the rights of Siraiki community.