Facilities

Folklore Association

William Carey, apart of establishing Serampore College, was also insistent on knowing the regional culture,language and the variegated yet basic modes of life in Bengal, the evidence of which is still being borne in such books as ‘Kathopokathon’ and ‘Itihasmala’. Since then,over the years, a rigorous and consistent endeavor to exercise the regional folk culture has been noticed in the various Humanities departments of Serampore Collge.

In 2013,Bengali Dept. organised a UGC sponsored National seminar on ‘Oral Tradition and Bengali Literature’.

On 20th September 2016, late folk singer Kalikaprasad Bhattacharjee inaugurated the Serampore College William Carey Folklore Association. Our basic intention behind founding this association was to make our students aware of the regional folk music and culture. On the first day seminar, Kalikaprasad gave a speech on the different mores of Bangla folk song and its philosophy.

On 26.03.2018 we arranged for a Wlliam Carey Lecture series as part of our agenda of observing the bicentennial celebration of Serampore College.

On the first session of the seminar, Joint Co-ordinarors of Folklore Association, Prof. Dr.Bhaskar Chaudhuri and Prof. Dr. Isha Paul respectively offered their lectures on ‘Serampore in the Light of Regional Historiography’ and ‘William Carey and the Culture of Folk Tradition’. In the second session and last session,famous Folk Singer and Folk Researcher Abhijit Basu gave his captivating and thought-provoking talk on ‘Ethno-Musical Journey of Bangla Folk Music and Aculturation’. Dr. Isha Paul’s book ‘Rupkothar Uchharon’ has recently been published where she has done a profound research on the different aspects of Bangla fairy tales.

Folk Studio, a musical album of 10 famous folk songs, has recently been out from Times Music. Dr. Bhaskar Chaudhuri has been the Creative Producer of this project.

We have a plan to archive the regional folk culture and tradition for the posterity. Side by side this task of archiving, we also want to digitize the almost extinct Bengali regional proverbs, riddles, rhymes.