Songs of the Silenced: Folk expression of women’s protest in the Garhwal Himalayas

This paper explores the folk songs of women in the Garhwal Himalayas as vital yet often overlooked forms of protest. It examines how women in the Garhwal Himalayas use folk- songs genres- laments, work-songs, ritual songs (including jagar) and migration and protest songs- as embodied and oral forms of protest against social, economic and ecological marginalization. By transforming private pain into collective expression these songs act as counter narratives that challenge silence and create spaces of solidarity, remembrance, and subtle resistance. Beyond their aesthetic and cultural significance, these songs illuminate the gendered dimensions of life in the Himalayas, foregrounding issues such as patriarchal restrictions, loss due to migration, environmental degradation, and the invisibility of women’s labor. By situating these songs within feminist theories of voice, subversion, and cultural production, the paper highlights how women’s oral traditions in Garhwal articulate protest in ways that both preserve collective memory and contest dominant structures of power.”