Saharay - A Photographic Journey

in Image Gallery
Published on: 18 June 2018

Suvadip Chakraborty

Suvadip is a community media worker with Masters in Journalism and Mass Communication from University of Calcutta. He firmly believes that if we believe in ourselves, together we can change the society. He has been working with MANT in the rural areas of West Bengal. He has attended the Global SBCC Summit at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and also presented at the 4th eNGO Challenge at New Delhi. He is also associated with a Bengali Little Magazine and recently had his first book of poetry published.

The essence of the tribal culture is unity. They sing together. They dance holding each other’s hands. They carry a huge legacy of the heritage of ancient India. But despite this, their own unique culture is struggling to protect itself.

 

From a very ancient time this tribe is following their very own language, life style and most importantly, folk culture. According to them, the whole Santhali Tribe would be extinct if they did not have this cultural legacy. Like other tribes, this Santhali tribe also has different types of folk songs depicting the nobility of their genesis (Santhali : Binti), following and practicing which a tribe and its heritage can survive.

 

Santhalis believe that “Saharay”, the most famous festival of the tribe can save their endangered folk culture.

 

Saharay” starts in the Amabasya Tithi of the month of Karthik and goes on for five days. They worship nature in these days and celebrate through different songs which describe the stories of their life, their eternal love for nature and the preservation of natural resources like soil, forest and water. So these celebrations help the people of this tribe to get back to their roots.