Citizen archivists record South Asian oral traditions ^{CEFR A2}

Citizen archivists in South Asia record oral traditions to preserve knowledge that is fading. The project Enhancing Indic oral culture on Wikimedia projects supported native speakers from 14 language communities. So far they have recorded 227 items including folk songs, riddles, oral histories and traditional medicinal knowledge.

Archivists make videos, transcribe them for accessibility, and upload the material to Wikimedia Commons, Wikisource and Wikipedia. In Tulu communities, O Bele pardhana agricultural songs, locally called kabithe, were sung by farmers while planting and harvesting. Kavitha Ganesh said older people no longer practice farming and do not remember these songs well. Machines, changing jobs and a shift from grain crops to Areca farming reduced the social places where people learned the songs.

In Angika, about 80 collected folk songs often sung by Dalit women show a different image of gods; one Shibguru song describes Lord Shiva sleeping without his third eye and thieves breaking into a temple. Torwali practices were reasserted at the Simam Festival 2011 and IBT made videos available on Commons. In Eastern Tharu, Sanjib Chaudhary recorded a migration song that mentions crossing the Sursari/Saptari river and is researching Kosi's diversion history.