Page 199 - Communication Processes Volume 3 Communication Culture and Confrontation
P. 199
174 Badri Narayan
Table 5.5
Folk Techniques of Communication of Memory
Vak, speech Oral tradition and transmission Audience
Drish, sight Symbol, sign, temple, festival, statue, religious flag Audience
Krit, action Ritual, festival Audience
version of the myth of Chuharmal gains ascendancy over other versions
of the said myth. The upper castes adopt only the single technique of
vak to communicate the myth, which proves to be less effective. Had
this folk tale remained just in the form of a pure narrative or a pure
text, then it certainly would not have become so effective as to motivate
struggle and revenge.
This is a form of memory that is always alive and active. The rea-
sons for this can be discovered in elements of the social and cultural
environment:
1. Mokama Tal displays a social structuring that remains today
what it was formerly;
2. the statue of Chuharmal, the hero of the drama, stands even
today, and every year in the month of Chaitya, there is a fair on
the location and
3. the forward and lower castes narrate these memories as part of
a struggle for control and hegemony, even today.
Antonio Gramsci (Sachidanand 1996) believes that being ashamed
is a revolutionary feeling, capable of transforming personality. Here,
shame arouses violent reaction against a feudal society. However,
in a ‘low tempo’ society like India the relation between feeling and
‘personality’ is not like that in Italy and other Western societies. In
feudal societies ‘being ashamed’ does not easily cause one to be con-
scious of ‘realization’ of one’s own ‘social sin’. In urban and capitalist
societies the social role of shame is different.
Second, the narration of a marital relation between a Dusadh and
a Bhumihar is enough to make feudal lords fire guns. Moreover, the
memory of Chuharmal and Reshma is not just a story; every year
it is made alive again through dramatic re-enactment during the
fair and this too arouses the memories of the people of the area.
Myth and rituals maintain a close relationship. The performance of