Echoes of Silence: Tradition and transgressions in folk songs of mithila
Author(s): Namita Singh
Abstract: This article explores the critical yet often overlooked role of women in the creation, preservation, and transformation of folklore. Moving beyond the perception of women as passive custodians of tradition, it highlights their active engagement in shaping folk narratives through lullabies, songs, rituals, and oral traditions. These expressions, often performed in domestic or communal female spaces, offer sharp critiques of patriarchal structures and articulate women's lived experiences, desires, and resistances. By foregrounding emotional labour and everyday struggles, women’s folklore presents an alternative cultural archive that challenges dominant historical and literary discourses. The article argues that folklore serves as a dynamic site of negotiation, where women both reproduce and reinterpret tradition, thereby asserting cultural agency in subtle yet powerful ways.
Namita Singh. Echoes of Silence: Tradition and transgressions in folk songs of mithila. Int J Hist 2025;7(5):102-110. DOI: 10.22271/27069109.2025.v7.i5b.411
