In 2008 I was helping an NGO put together an oral history archive. Armed with my minidisc recorder, I had travelled to some remote villages in India where this NGO had had an impact. I was visiting remote village in Madhya Pradesh because the children here had demanded that their elders hire for them aContinue reading ““We are not snake charmers”: Encounters with identity and reptiles”
Author Archives: Indira Chowdhury
The eternal sadness of an oral historian
I have often wondered if the realisation that we are listening to two voices shaped differently by the passage of time points to the transience of the human voice and layers our understanding of the transitory nature of life itself. Is that why our practice demands that we recognise the preciousness and precariousness of what we are entrusted with? And is that why we must carry the weight of what we listen to?
Growing up with stories
It took me decades of doing interviews with people from all over India to realize why these stories were important not only for my family but also for the history of contemporary India.
The Oral Historian 