How citizen archivists in South Asia confront the online marginalization of oral cultures and languages

November 21, 2025

Citizen archivists across South Asia are working to preserve endangered oral traditions by recording folk songs, oral histories, and traditional knowledge from 14 language communities and uploading them to open-access platforms like Wikimedia Commons. This initiative, called "Enhancing Indic oral culture on Wikimedia projects," has produced 227 recordings that capture generations of knowledge at risk of disappearing due to cultural homogenization and socioeconomic changes. The oral narratives reveal aspects of daily life rarely emphasized in mainstream education, such as agricultural practices, alternative depictions of religious figures, and marginalized communities' resistance to cultural suppression.

Who is affected

Tulu community farmers in southern India who traditionally sang O Bele folk songs
Tharu language speakers in northern India and Nepal
Angika language speakers from India and Nepal, particularly Dalit women who sing religious folk songs
Torwali speakers in Pakistan, an endangered language minority community
14 South Asian language communities participating in the documentation project
Citizen archivists collecting and preserving oral traditions
Idara Baraye Taleem-o-Taraqi (IBT) organization

What action is being taken

Citizen archivists are recording oral culture videos using camera phones
Videos are being uploaded to Wikimedia Commons
Recordings are being transcribed for accessibility
Content is being linked to open knowledge platforms like Wikisource and Wikipedia
Archivists are writing blogs about their experiences
Sanjib Chaudhary is conducting research to establish links between a Tharu folk song and the Kosi river's history

Why it matters

This documentation work is significant because oral narratives explore the realities of common people that are rarely emphasized in mainstream education, knowledge sharing, and mass media. The preservation is a race against time, as these traditions are vanishing due to cultural homogenization, changing agricultural economics, mechanization, and shifts in lifestyle. By having native speakers document their own cultures, the project supports epistemic and social justice while decreasing chances of unethical data collection. The work makes previously oral-only knowledge accessible on mainstream platforms, challenging text-centric bias and ensuring marginalized communities' knowledge systems are not excluded from online knowledge repositories.

What's next

No explicit next steps stated in the article

Read full article from source: Global Voices