Ritual Songs as Gendered Discourse: Exploring Women’s Oral Traditions in Haryana

This paper explores the birth ritual songs of Haryanvi women as gendered discourse that reflects, reinforces, and at times resists patriarchal structures. Performed during childbirth and related ceremonies, these songs form an essential part of Haryana's oral tradition, transmitting cultural values, beliefs, and gender expectations across generations. The study foregrounds women's voices as they narrate anxieties, joys, and ambivalences associated with childbirth—particularly the preference for sons, the burden of reproduction, and the negotiation of a woman's social identity within kinship structures. Through feminist and folkloristic frameworks, the analysis reveals how birth ritual songs operate simultaneously as cultural affirmations of family continuity and as subtle critiques of gendered hierarchies. By situating these oral traditions within broader discussions of performance, gender, and cultural identity, the paper highlights the ways in which Haryanvi women use ritual song to articulate their lived experiences, preserve communal memory, and inscribe their voices into the social fabric. This study contributes to scholarship in folklore, gender studies, and cultural anthropology by demonstrating how seemingly ordinary birth ritual songs embody profound discourses of gender, power, and tradition.