POSTPONED - Oral History  and “the Keepers of Memory”:

A one-year interdisciplinary MA program training students in oral history method and theory. www.oralhistory.columbia.edu

Columbia Oral History MA Program

Oral History and “the Keepers of Memory”: Knowledge of Past times in Cultures of Orality in India.
Workshop by Indira Chowdhury.

NOTE:The Student Workers of Columbia are on strike for a living wage, comprehensive health insurance, and outside arbitration for workplace harassment cases. In solidarity with the striking students, we are postponing public events during the strike. We apologize for any inconvenience and will let you know as soon as this event is rescheduled. What kind of knowledge do we encounter when we conduct oral history interviews within diverse cultures of orality? Do cultures that are often non-literate and primarily oral offer us new insights not only into the topics being explored but also into the nature of our practice as oral historians? My talk is based in the context of my practice in India but much of what I say might be relevant for other parts of Asia and in other regions where oral traditions though increasingly marginalised, still form part of everyday life. I begin with an exploration of ‘oral histories’ that were created prior to audio recording technologies; such oral reminiscences were listened to and transcribed by the listener and checked by the speaker to create a record of lived experience from the past. One such example initiated by Rabindranath Tagore in 1941 was transcribed reminiscences of his nephew, the artist Abanindranath Tagore which offer us a glimpse of Tagore’s childhood and the times he grew up in. But while encouraging his nephew, the artist Abanindranath Tagore, to speak about his life and times and he also asked the writer Rani Chanda to transcribe these memories. Abanindranath called Rani Chandra - the srutidhari - the keeper of memory. Tagore or his nephew were not inventing a new term . The “keeper of memory” plays a significant role in transcribing and recording traditional epics, songs and performances in India. Tracing the role played by “keepers of memory” in a few traditional oral repositories I suggest a different approach to understanding the kind of insights into knowledge creation and understanding of memory that oral history in such contexts offer. Such an approach enables us to understand the dynamic relationship between what is spoken, what is remembered and the complex negotiations that intertwine past, present and mythical time within local contexts. I shall end my talk with an analysis of my interview with Ranjit Chitrakar, a traditional scroll painter about his Covid scroll and his understanding of the pandemic. The role played by the “keeper of memory” within the interview helps us to gain a nuanced perspective of the intertwined nature of what is spoken about and what is listened to and pushes us to recognize the unacknowledged presence of the mythical within the historical thus deepening our understanding historical knowledge and inviting us to transform our oral history practice. Indira Chowdhury is Founder-Director of the Centre for Public History at the Srishti Institute of Art, Design, and Technology, Bengaluru. Formerly professor of English at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, she is also the founder of Archival Resources for Contemporary History (ARCH), Bengaluru, now known as ARCH@Srishti. A PhD in history from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, her book, The Frail Hero and Virile History (Delhi, OUP, 1998) won the Tagore prize in 2001. She was awarded the New India Fellowship to work on the manuscript of her recently published book titled Growing the Tree of Science: Homi Bhabha and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (OUP: 2016). Interested in a number of fields he has translated novels from Bengali to English, compiled the Supplement of Indian English words in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (1996) and also created Archival books that bring archival material to the public. She researched and directed a book project on Asia’s oldest museum entitled The Lives of Objects: Stories from the Indian Museum (2017). Indira is a founding member of the Oral History Association of India. She was President of the Oral History Association of India (2013-2016) and President of the International Oral History Association (2014-2016). She blogs about oral history at http://theoralhistorian.comImage Description: Indira Chowdhury smiles into the camera, a brick wall in the background. These events are open to all. You can use <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf_dqlzjv7DAaypptOguQHafOyLcmCkM47OssjndWtOQcSkdw/viewform" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">this quick survey</a> to let us know how we could make these events more accessible for you. Note that we are able to provide ASL interpretation for any event, but need two weeks&#x27; notice. Please contact Rebecca McGilveray at rlm2203@columbia.edu with specific access requests or questions.

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