Uttaran NGO's efforts to preserve Assam's traditions
An NGO based at Bilasipara in Assam's Dhubri district is working to preserve and promote the cultural heritage, natural resources and tourism potential of the region.
IN THIS fast-paced world of cut-throat competition and the race for accumulating global information to keep one in tune with the changing times, there are still some who believe in conserving one's cultural roots. One such platform is Uttaran, an NGO based at Bilasipara in Dhubri district of Assam. With the aim of studying, preserving and promoting the cultural heritage, natural resources and tourism potential of undivided Goalpara district of Assam, the NGO has also been relentlessly working in promoting the folklore and culture of the region.
Uttaran recently organized a national seminar on "Folk-culture of Western Assam (undivided Goalpara District) in the colourful culture of Assam", recently at Bilasipara. The seminar was hosted by Bilasipara College, one of the premier educational institutes of the region.
The two-day long seminar was aptly flagged off with a soulful melodious goalporia folk number. The convener of the seminar and the president of Uttaran, Dhruba Jyoti Das, who is also the Sub-Divisional Officer (Civil), Bilasipara, in his welcome speech, stressed on the need for a sojourn backing to our cultural roots and reintroducing it to ourselves and more importantly, the youngsters, for its exploration, research and preservation.
Uttaran, according to him, has dared to take this risk of organising suck a huge venture, and to his satisfaction, he admitted that this risk was worth taken, with the participation of as many as forty five researchers presenting papers, and a host of scholars and littérateur attending the seminar.
The researchers dealt with multifarious subjects such as Goalporia folk songs, dances, food habits, language, literature, lifestyle, traditions, rituals, nature et al, presenting a unique spectrum of rich cultural diversity of this part of Assam.
A key attraction in the final session of the seminar was the august presence of 'the Queen of Elephants', Parbati Barua. Barua, who has a royal lineage, has the distinction of being the only female elephant hunter in the whole world. Besides her other qualities, she is also very much rooted to her culture and milieu, which makes her stand tall amongst her contemporaries. Transcending from mundane to a lively concluding session, she illuminated all present through her mesmerizing expertise of the land, its people and culture.
Barua couldn’t help herself from bringing in 'the elephant' that has surpassed from being a mere animal and acquiring pride of place in the Goalporia cultural ethos for generations. Her humming of a few melodious folk numbers was enough to make the audience feel the flavour of the soil.
In her brief speech, she appealed to all, especially the youngsters, to cultivate respect for their own cultural heritage, preserve and nurture it, and more importantly, defend it from the aggressive influx of the western culture.
It was a touching experience to witness another luminary, Pranab Das, who has carved a niche for himself as a sculptor and painter, added luster to the graceful seminar. Now an aging artist, Das, saw his long cherished dream realised when he presented Barua a portrait of her as a mahout, which he made a long time back.
Hats off to Uttaran, for their laudable efforts to bring out a bouquet of cultural diversities of the western part of Assam, in the form of a National Level Seminar. A visionary and a possessor of a cultural mind, Dhruba Jyoti Das, in his concluding lecture, urged everyone present to join hands with Uttaran in its mission to nurture, protect and preserve the rich cultural heritage of this region and bring forth a cultural and literary renaissance through legion of such endeavours in the days to come. He also apprised those present that Uttaran is keen on bringing out a compilation of the research papers presented in the seminar.
To add some more feathers to its illustrious wings, Uttaran is ambitious enough to set up a Cultural Museum and a Digital Library in near future. If these dreams and thousand others if its kind come true, then we can be rest assured that no threat, no hindrances can dare to stop us from establishing ourselves as one of the rich and culturally diverse region in the entire country.
The researchers dealt with multifarious subjects such as Goalporia folk songs, dances, food habits, language, literature, lifestyle, traditions, rituals, nature et al, presenting a unique spectrum of rich cultural diversity of this part of Assam.
A key attraction in the final session of the seminar was the august presence of 'the Queen of Elephants', Parbati Barua. Barua, who has a royal lineage, has the distinction of being the only female elephant hunter in the whole world. Besides her other qualities, she is also very much rooted to her culture and milieu, which makes her stand tall amongst her contemporaries. Transcending from mundane to a lively concluding session, she illuminated all present through her mesmerizing expertise of the land, its people and culture.
Barua couldn’t help herself from bringing in 'the elephant' that has surpassed from being a mere animal and acquiring pride of place in the Goalporia cultural ethos for generations. Her humming of a few melodious folk numbers was enough to make the audience feel the flavour of the soil.
In her brief speech, she appealed to all, especially the youngsters, to cultivate respect for their own cultural heritage, preserve and nurture it, and more importantly, defend it from the aggressive influx of the western culture.
It was a touching experience to witness another luminary, Pranab Das, who has carved a niche for himself as a sculptor and painter, added luster to the graceful seminar. Now an aging artist, Das, saw his long cherished dream realised when he presented Barua a portrait of her as a mahout, which he made a long time back.
Hats off to Uttaran, for their laudable efforts to bring out a bouquet of cultural diversities of the western part of Assam, in the form of a National Level Seminar. A visionary and a possessor of a cultural mind, Dhruba Jyoti Das, in his concluding lecture, urged everyone present to join hands with Uttaran in its mission to nurture, protect and preserve the rich cultural heritage of this region and bring forth a cultural and literary renaissance through legion of such endeavours in the days to come. He also apprised those present that Uttaran is keen on bringing out a compilation of the research papers presented in the seminar.
To add some more feathers to its illustrious wings, Uttaran is ambitious enough to set up a Cultural Museum and a Digital Library in near future. If these dreams and thousand others if its kind come true, then we can be rest assured that no threat, no hindrances can dare to stop us from establishing ourselves as one of the rich and culturally diverse region in the entire country.
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