YOUTH DORMITORY IS A TREASURE TROVE OF THE INDIAN TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE SYSTEM: A STUDY ON THE ORAON TRIBAL COMMUNITY OF INDIA

Abstract

It is a common phenomenon that the youth dormitories in many tribal communities of India are considered as a communal living space for the children and younger generations of these communities, where the children and youth spend most of the evening and night, mainly to learn and perform various life skills, traditional cultural heritage etc. from experienced hands. The youth dormitories of various tribal communities play a very important role in their traditional knowledge system, which in its original form is a centre of learning and preservation of traditional cultures for many indigenous societies of India. The Oraon boys and youth of Chotanagpur have the habit of spending the evening and night in their traditional youth dormitories, called Dhumkuria. It is now a recognized fact that comparatively little attention has been paid to the system of youth dormitories of various Central and East Indian tribal communities. Hence, the present study has been conducted exclusively on the Oraons, an important tribal community in Central and Eastern India. This study is primarily based on the analysis of secondary data i.e., various books, journals, daily, monthly and weekly newspapers.