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Paper short abstract

This paper examines the Assamese Bihu songs as oral archives that preserve ecological knowledge and cultural memory. Examining both traditional and contemporary forms, it traces how these songs link seasonal change, environment, and community identity across shifting contexts.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines the potential of Assamese Bihu songs, performed during Rongali Bihu. These seasonal celebrations are central to shaping environmental awareness and communal identity through their dual role as markers of seasonal transitions and repositories of cultural and ecological memory. Beyond festive entertainment, these songs preserve detailed knowledge of rivers, crops, birds, and flowering cycles, linking agrarian life to wider community experience. By examining both traditional and contemporary versions drawn from oral repertoires, archival sources, and mediated performances, the study traces how ecological memory adapts to shifting cultural and environmental contexts.

This analysis integrates folklore studies, cultural memory theory, ecocriticism, and performance theory. Folklore studies focus on performance and transmission, while memory theory highlights intergenerational continuity. Ecocriticism examines the representation of human and nonhuman relationships in songs. Performance theory addresses the embodied and dialogic enactment of ecological knowledge, and posthumanist perspectives emphasize the agency of nature within these performances. Their interaction demonstrates how Bihu positions ecological forces as active participants in cultural memory by depicting nature not merely as a symbol but also as an agency, with rivers influencing migration, winds signalling seasonal change, and flowers announcing fertility. The paper also considers how environmental disruption and commodification transform Bihu traditions, particularly through stage performance, media circulation, and festival economies. Regional and class variations are examined, contrasting rural agrarian repertoires with urban, commodified performances. Ultimately, the study demonstrates that Bihu persists as a vital site where ecological knowledge, ethical sensibilities, and multispecies relations are continually reimagined through song and performance.