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that remain to be urgently undertaken, many areas of Indian Folklore have remained virgin regions unvisited and unexplored so far. To cite one instance from Gujarat : next-to-nothing was known, inside and outside, about the rich tradition of tribal oral epics and narratives which is only quite recently being brought to light. Little serious work has been done in Gujarati folklore after the brilliant pioneering work of Meghani whose centenary we are celebrating more as a sort of popular ceremonial rather than using the occasion to set up a few sound research projects for recording and studying the neglected areas of our folk literature and folk-culture which now faces the danger of extinction under the all-devouring invasion of modern Western consumeristic culture. Training a band of workers is a very urgent need. During the last decade, the Gujarat Sahitya Akademi did some work of recording and indexing of folk-songs and systematizling some already published collections. Shantibhai Acharya, Bhagvandas Patel and a few others too contributed their share. But until sufficient resources are made available, there is little hope for saving our fast disappearing cultural heritage. We earnestly hope that the presence of eminent folklorists here on this occasion and their work, deliberations and discussions would inspire Gujaratis to set up a folklore institution of Gujarat.
