Of Rongali Bihu and its preservation

Of Rongali Bihu and its preservation

Staff Reporter

DIBRUGARH, April 11: With only a few days to go for the Rongali Bihu celebrations to begin, various organizations have geared their preparations to hold Bihu functions. There seems to be an undeclared competition among them to offer bigger prize money to Bihu Konwaris and husori teams.

It is, therefore, not surprising that the commercialization of the festival had invited criticism with voices of dissent growing louder. As against the tradition of celebrating the festival for the first seven days of the month of Bohag, the functions continue well beyond the month, sometimes till the month of June, though the first month of the Assamese year long gets over. These issues came under discussion during a programme organized by Lok Sanskriti Sangrakhyan Aru Samannay Parishad, Assam (LSSASPA) here yesterday.

Eminent critics and writers focused on how organizers of functions can play an active role in the preservation of the heritage and tradition of Rongali Bihu. The session was conducted by Dr Bhimkanta Barua of Dibrugarh University. Critic Prabir Dutta stated during the session that the measure of a Rongali Bihu function did not lie in the budget. Saying that Assamese culture was way past the stage of folk culture, he cautioned that all should remain rooted to their origin.