Folklore is as old as mankind. It is the traditional art, literature, knowledge, and practices that are disseminated largely through oral communication and behavioral example. It exists in cities, suburbs and rural villages, in families, work groups and communities. Folklore is present in many kinds of informal communication, whether verbal (oral and written texts), customary (behaviors, rituals) or material (physical objects). It involves values, traditions, ways of thinking and behaving. It is about art and the people and the way we learn. Folklore helps us learn who we are and how to make meaning in the world around us. Folkloric knowledge includes the traditional elements of the way of life of a group of people and the creative expressions developing naturally as a part of this way of life. In addition to folksongs, dances, tales and handcrafts of a group, folklore includes the generally held beliefs of members of this group and their activities resulting from these beliefs.
Bangladesh is one of the richest countries of the world as far as Folklore is concerned. Folklore is considered as the soul of a nation. It is a broad field of study that concerns itself with the ways in which people make meaning in their lives. It is indeed informal expressive culture, experienced in groups and is almost as ancient as that of the language of human being. As a part of human culture, the elements of folklore were subjected to various changes. Folkloric elements are the products of human experience and knowledge.
The Department of Folklore Studies kicks off its journey at Islamic University Bangladesh in 2015. Since inception, the department has been fostering students with a global outlook to make them capable of facing 21st century’s challenges as global citizens from this part of the planet earth perceiving concrete sense of Bengali nationhood and its distinct culture. Initially, the department was headed by the then Pro- Vice Chancellor and senior most professor of the department of English, Islamic University, Professor Dr. M. Shahinoor Rahman who later was succeeded by the then Vice- Chancellor and senior professor of English of the university Prof. Dr. Md. Harun Ur Rashid Askari (Rashid Askari). The Department of Folklore Studies was indeed very enlightened and indebted to the top bosses of the university having had them as head during the start-up period. Dr. Mohd. Saidur Rahman, Professor of the Department of Bangla later chaired the department for a full term of three years.
MISSION & VISION
Folklore is a field which stretches to every possible corner of the world, and where the quality is diverse and varying. But what is the role it has in today’s society? Is it slowly disappearing from many regions without us noticing, or is there a way for it to embrace our contemporary world. In our modern times, despite our differences and varied opinions, we are coming increasingly closer to each other, as a result of globalization and the spread of popular media and culture via internet. Our world is getting more interlinked, international, and the individualistic expressions through fashion and design are becoming boundary-less, where national identities are increasingly vanishing. It hasn’t always been like this; in many parts of the world folklore and folk art had a dominant role where local symbolism expressed our identity and defined who we are.
Study of folklore is all-inclusive as it includes all the genres of our culture both spiritual and material aspects. Folklore has been used as a mechanism to reconstruct ancient beliefs, customs and rituals. In understanding and appreciating the folklore of our ancestors, we develop an understanding of their culture from whence we sprung. Another motive for the study of folklore was nationalism, which reinforced ethnic identity and figured in struggles for political independence. Folk culture is a way of establishing unity among the different people living in the same country.
Folklore passes the information and wisdom of human experience from generation to generation. In this sense folklore is the original and persistent technology that gave us human culture in the first place by allowing us to build on our experience over the generations. To attain a better, safer, culturally expressive and meaningful humanistic society we nurture and stick to our missions and visions as mentioned below:
MISSION
• Strengthening Research based folkloric education
• Contextualizing folklore as one of the main communicative tools that humans have
• Help validating culture and social norms through folkloric practices
• To represent socio-cultural milieu of the people over ages
• To help maintain conformity
• To disseminate both social values and technical knowledge through original folkloric form of education
• To use the knowledge of folklore as a kind of community binding process, as a way of expression and continually strengthening the sense of group cohesion
• To serve to develop a flexibility of thinking and a critical consciousness to eliminate all forms of religious extremism, fanaticism and militancy
VISION
• To explain natural world
• To provide understanding of a culture’s values, beliefs, mores, etc.
• To provide order to a society
• To establish unity among the different people of different community
• To help create a society with good human qualities
• To help building a nation with progressive spectrum
• To understand nationalism, ethnic identities and our struggle and great sacrifices for independence
In societies, folklore is considered as gift from one generation to another. We academically mean and treasure folklore in such a way that without which human lives are inexpressive and ineffective.