Q5 of 15 Page 172

‘New literature’ is a misnomer for the wealth of the Indian literary tradition. How does G.N. Devy explain this?

Classifying tribal literature as ‘new literature’ is comical, at least to the literary community in India. It is a matter of being unaware of its existence, with absolutely no fault of the tribals themselves. The literature itself isn’t new, it is the attempt to see the imaginative expression in tribal language that is new. G.N. Devy thus emphasizes the need to hear tribal speech not as a dialect but as a language.


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3

How does G.N. Devy bring out the importance of the oral literary tradition?

 4

List the distinctive features of the tribal arts.

 1

Discuss the following in pairs or in groups of four

‘It is time to realise that unless we modify the established notion of literature as something written, we will silently witness the decline of various Indian oral traditions.’

 2

Discuss the following in pairs or in groups of four

‘Tribal arts are not specifically meant for sale.’ Does this help or hamper their growth and preservation?