Dastangoi is an ancient form of storytelling in Urdu that would have been erased from the collective imagination of Indians if it hadn’t been for the dedicated efforts of the renowned Urdu scholar S. R Faruqi, his nephew Mahmood Farooqui, and the latter’s protege  Ankit Chadha. Ankit Chadha, a storyteller talks to The Better India about reviving an ancient Urdu storytelling form called Dastangoi. Dastangoi is a compound of two Persian words – dastan, which means tale, and goi, which is the act of narrating the tale. Initially, the stories revolved around the adventures of Amir Hamza, the uncle of Prophet Mohammed. This oral storytelling tradition became very popular in India but it almost disappeared with the death of Mir Baqar Ali, the last known exponent of Dastangoi.

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