Songs Of Methor Women

The Methors of Jalpaiguri who have not received the attention of any enquirer till now, have in their due course conserved and continued their rich tradition which is abundant with rituals, aphorisms and songs. These have been passed down orally from one generation to another. In the process they have been able to enact and continue their cultural practices in spite of the impact of the colonization and modernization around them. As one goes deeper into studying the tradition of Methor community it is very evident that it is the women who play the major role in preserving and continuing their culture and at the same time helping in maintaining the institution called family. Therefore, any attempt to study the life and culture of the Methors in general requires a better appraisal of women’s role in their culture and everyday practices. In this paper, I try to address some received conceptions and lay bare some striking realities which demonstrate the fact that women do play a major role in any oral tradition. Thus, it becomes very important to analyze the women’s songs. This, in fact, is an interesting way to explore the potential worth of the oral tradition of the entire community. This kind of study portrays contemporary life, documents the everyday behavior of Methor women. The songs reveal their ideas, hopes and fears, aspirations and conventions, which are connected with their traditional past. According to Karl Marx, “anyone who knows anything of history knows that the great social changes are impossible without the feminine. Social progress can be measured exactly by the social position of the fair sex. ” (Cited in Jane E.Way, 1981:3).However, woman as an entity remains mostly ignored in researches done on oral tradition. A subtle irony hovers around here. Although women in an oral tradition contribute a substantial cultural, traditional and economic portion to the society, their status and role have not been investigated fully, even to this day