Cultural Transition, Ecological Anxiety, and Digital Alienation in Contemporary Haryanvi Ragni Tradition

This research article critically examines selected contemporary Haryanvi Saang-Shaili Ragnis composed by Anand Kumar Ashodhiya through interdisciplinary frameworks of oral tradition studies, folk-performance theory, ecological humanities, cultural semiotics, digital sociology, and Pingal prosody. Focusing upon the Ragnis “हरियाणे में व्याप्त कुरीति,” “हरियाणे की सभ्यता और संस्कृति,” “पर्यावरण,” “किसा रँग बदल्या संसार नै,” and “इंटरनेट मोबाइल खतरा,” the study investigates how modern Haryanvi folk literature responds to cultural transition, ecological degradation, ritual exploitation, consumerist modernity, technological dependency, and digital alienation within rapidly transforming rural societies.

The article argues that contemporary Haryanvi Ragni has evolved beyond entertainment-centered oral performance and now functions as a sophisticated medium of ethical reflection, performative pedagogy, communal memory, and regional knowledge production. Special analytical attention is devoted to Lavani-Mishrit and Dirgha Samamatrik Chhand structures, Yati distribution, Guru-Laghu sequencing, refrain systems, tonal descent, and oral-musical cadence within the selected compositions. The study demonstrates that Pingal-based prosodic architecture intensifies emotional participation and transforms social critique into collectively embodied oral experience.

The selected corpus reveals deep anxiety regarding weakening intergenerational communication, vulgar commercialization, erosion of embodied rural life, algorithm-driven digital culture, and environmental destruction, while simultaneously preserving regional linguistic texture, folk-symbolic consciousness, and performative continuity. The article further identifies a significant scholarly gap in the absence of integrated research combining Pingal Shastra, ecological criticism, oral-performance studies, and digital sociology in relation to contemporary Haryanvi literature. Consequently, the study positions modern Haryanvi Ragni as an important epistemic archive of North Indian folk modernity, ecological ethics, cultural memory, and performative resistance.