Folktales of U.P. Tribes

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This is the first book of its kind dealing with folktales of U.P. tribes. This work has many features which distinguish it from other books in this field. The stories have been directly collected from the tribal story tellers who live in far flung and inhospitable areas of the Himalayas, Tarai and northern fringes of the Deccan Plateau. Care has been taken not to interfere with the contents of the stories and improve them in any manner.

This book provides a good number of stories that will be of great interest to researchers, folklorists, those engaged in tribal upliftment, the general reader, and of course, children.

Amir Hasan, dedicated his life to the welfare of tribals. His interest was ignited when he was working as a research scholar of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research at the Central Fuel Institute, Jealgora, Dhanbad (Bihar) in 1953- 1954. This led to a long association with the tribals. Later, as a civil servant, he maintained a dedicated and productive association with the tribals and their welfare. His large collection of authored books is a result of his intensive live research.

Seemin Hasan (21) shares her father's interest in the primitive people and their folklore. She is studying English literature at the Muslim University, Aligarh.

Currently working as Professor in the Department of English, she continues to pursue and preserve her father's legacy.

Our earliest memories of our father, Dr. Amir Hasan (1929- 92) are of an author at work. Every morning, we would find him diligently working on some article, paper or book chapter. An early riser, his writing work would be taken up after a walk and a spot of gardening .He would be surrounded by reference books, loose sheets of paper and a tea tray precariously balanced in the midst of it all. One by one, we would wake up and troop to where our parents were having their morning tea. He welcomed us with a smile and read out parts of what he was working on. We were treated to beautifully worded narratives of Awadh, his experiences with the tribals of Tarai and on some rare occasions tribal folklore and also Awadhi shayari. All this was delivered in his deep mesmerizing voice which overrode the early morning chirping of birds and the whisper of breeze in the trees. The scents of the earth rose in the background from the plants he had watered when the rest were still asleep. We were given small proof-reading tasks in the summer vacations. We got to work after breakfast and competed with each other to complete our tasks. We were amateurs and perhaps our work yielded no real results but we learnt camaraderie, team work and we learnt to be proud of our ink-stained fingers. This was the nourishment we grew up on and this was the exposure that enriched our childhood and furnished us with a legacy for life. Our father did not teach us how to become authors. Through sharing his interests with us, he taught us a way of life. His writing was his hobby. He was a civil servant dedicated to the nation and his profession. By sharing his interests with us, he shared values, wisdom and notions of nobility.

A number of books on folktales of different regions and communities of India, have appeared in recent years. Their publication is to be welcomed because this shows that the long neglected study of folklore or at least some of its aspects has started receiving attention at last.