The Life and After-Life of Orality: Karam Binti and the Santal Identity

The Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich possesses a twelve-hour audio recording of the Karam Binti – a ritual of the Santal, the largest homogenous tribe of India. The central event of Karam Binti is the retelling of the creation saga through recitation in a musical and theatrical manner. In the light of the modernization of Santal life and education this ceremonial oration is likely to give way or take new forms. How do peoples maintain oral traditions and ancient cultures when the essence of those traditions are not oral anymore? These recordings allow us to think about ways of protecting and developing ancestral art forms to ensure that we remain rooted long after their creators and traditional keepers are gone. Ruby Hembrom is the founder and executive director of ADIVAANI, a publishing enterprise dedicated to English language literature by Indian tribal (adivasi) authors who are routinely neglected by the large Indian publishing houses. In 2013 ADIVAANI published «We Come from the Geese» — an illustrated and contemporary retelling of the Santal creation Myth. She’s currently in Switzerland as Artist-in-Residence (Research) awarded by Pro Helvetia New Delhi.