Popular Jokes and Political History-The Case of Akbar, Birbal and Mulla Do-Piyaza

The Case of Akbar, Birbal and Mulla Do-Piyaza C M Naim Anonymous popular tales and other folklore can contribute to our understanding of political history, so long as we do not view them as essentially a kind of commentary on it. Folktales are themselves history of a sort They are not just artefacts, but also processes aiming quite varied effects within different traditions and contexts.