Page:Studies in Tamil folk literature.pdf/7

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Romantic nationalism has coloured Indian folklore in a different way. Neither the intensive scholarship of Finland nor the intensive propaganda of Russia has developed here. In the Republic of India the effectiveness of folklore study is mainly advanced by individual scholars of different linguistic regions. The works of the individuals are in most cases biased with aggressive nationalism and sentimentalism which is an obstacle for the development of folklore study in a scientific manner. Then most of the regional scholars of folklore of India have come from literature group. They have literary bias. But who can deny, a purely literary approach to the study of folklore is as profitless as a literary study of comic strips?

Ironically the lore of the folk is strained and trumpeted through the mass media as a patriotic act. Surely, India could offer some homegrown folklore materials because it is a country where a rich variety of folklore is available.

We are living in a period of great social change Indian society has been going through great changes for a long time. But the present change is much more profound in character than the earlier ones. The social and economic system is getting changed which have reflection in people’s minds. No doubt, people of different classes, strata and social groups react differently to the