Folk Education in the Writings of Padma Shri Haldhar Nag

Learning about other cultures and valuing one is known as folk education. It focuses on knowledge derived from local customs. It highly values practical experience, regional expertise, and cultural importance. His poetry acts as a medium of folk education, transmitting knowledge, ethics, and historical consciousness in an organic form to the rural population. By imparting knowledge, morals, and historical awareness in an organic way to the rural populace, his poetry serves as a folk education tool. His poetry addresses poverty, caste discrimination, women's rights, environmental preservation, and spirituality. Nag started penning poetry in the Kosali language, also called Sambalpuri, a Western Odisha dialect frequently ignored in popular literature. Haldhar Nag had composed and sung various lokgeet (folk songs) such as Dal Khai, Mayela Jada, Krusna Guru, and others. In 1990, two students from G.M. University took an initiative to promote poetry. They would collect money and organise poetry recitation sessions on the last Sunday of every month, displaying poems on public walls. Inspired by their passion, they hosted a Kabi Sammelani in their locality.