[ Bebli Kri ]
What happens when a community forgets its stories?
Our land is abundantly rich in cultural diversity, where many tribes live with their own customs, languages, attires, festivals, and traditions. From the mountains to the valleys of Arunachal Pradesh, oral storytelling has long remained a sacred tradition passed down from generation to generation. These stories are not merely tales told to pass time; they are living vessels of memory, wisdom, and identity.
In many homes across Arunachal, children once gathered around the kitchen fire or sat beside elders on quiet evenings, listening to folktales told in their mother tongue. Those moments were not just storytelling sessions – they were lessons about life, respect, courage, and belonging.
But what remains of a culture when its stories are no longer told?
In today’s rapidly evolving digital age, we often spend more time on mobile phones, social media, and television than sitting together with family and sharing stories. The warmth of human connection is slowly being replaced by screens, notifications, and endless scrolling.
In a world ruled by screens, who still sits beside elders to listen?
Earlier, grandparents and village elders played a vital role in preserving culture. They passed down folktales, myths, legends, and cultural knowledge through spoken words that stayed in our hearts forever. These stories carried moral values, historical memory, and ancestral wisdom. Oral storytelling was not just entertainment; it was a powerful way of safeguarding identity, preserving memory, and strengthening community bonds.
Who will carry the wisdom of our ancestors if not us?
Today, competitive lifestyles and modern influences have reduced family interactions and weakened interest in traditional storytelling.
Many young people are becoming more familiar with outside cultures than with their own local identity and heritage. Gradually, indigenous languages are being spoken less, and with them, stories that once shaped communities are fading into silence.
If the younger generation stops listening, who will remember?
The decline of mother tongue is especially concerning because language is more than a tool of communication – it carries emotion, history, worldview, and belonging. When a language disappears, it takes with it songs, stories, prayers, and memories that may never return.
What will future generations inherit – stories or silence?
Therefore, instead of allowing this modern age to erase our traditions, we must consciously protect, preserve, and actively practice them.
We must encourage conversations at home, listen to our elders, speak our mother tongues, and pass our stories to the next generation.
Preserving oral storytelling means preserving our dignity, ancestral wisdom, cultural identity, and roots.
Our stories are our memories. Our memories are our identity. If we do not preserve our roots today, what will we pass on tomorrow? (The writer is a postgraduate in English literature from Jawaharlal Nehru College, Pasighat)
