Devesh

Ritu Sharma

Editor and Translator

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A biologist, an army
jawan, a homemaker and a geography graduate. 



Off the busy road in
Ranchi, this unlikely group of people have come together on a warm summer&#39;s
day. They are all members of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) and
are participating in a writing workshop at Jharkhand’s Tribal Research
Institute (TRI) in the capital city. 



“I want our children
to read in their mother tongue,” says Mavno-speaker Jagannath Girhi of the Mal
Paharia community. The 24-year-old has travelled all the way from his village
in Dumka more than 200 kilometres away to come to the TRI in Ranchi to write
the grammar of his endangered mother tongue Mavno. 



He has more plans: “we
also want to publish a book in Mavno.&quot; He is the first and the
only person in his village Baliakhora to have obtained an MSc degree in
biology, and he did it in Hindi. “The language of the community which is in
greater numbers is taught in the university,” he points out. “Even the
Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) syllabus is easily available in
[Adivasi] languages ​​like Khortha, Santhali, but not in our language [Mavno].”



“If this
[marginalisation] continues, my language will slowly disappear.” About 15 per
cent of the Mal-Paharia speakers live in Jharkhand; the rest live in
neighbouring states.



Their language Mavno is an Indo-Aryan language
with Dravidian influences. An endangered language with less than 4,000
speakers, it does not have official language status. According to the <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/linguistic-survey-of-india--jharkhand/">Linguistic Survey of India</a> (LSI) Jharkhand, Mavno is not used as a medium
of instruction in schools and neither does it have a separate script.

The Mal Paharia
community survives on agriculture and forest produce. In Jharkhand they are
classified as the PVTG and a majority of them live in Dumka, Godda, Sahibganj
and Pakur districts. The community members speak Mavno only at home. With all
official communication happening in other dominant languages like Hindi and
Bengali, they feel their language may well die out. 



Another Mavno speaker,
Manoj Kumar Dehri agrees with Jagannath. The 23-year-old from Saharpur village
is a geography graduate from Pakur district. He says, “the use of Hindi and Bangla as a preferred medium of
education by the state is causing more harm than good to Mavno.” The
medium of education in most Jharkhand schools and colleges is Hindi and even
the teachers are Hindi speakers.

Other than dominant
languages, there is also the issue of ‘link languages’ – languages used by the Adivasi communities to communicate with others – often serving as a bridge
between the native and the dominant language of the region.



“It becomes an unsaid
expectation from the child to speak in the same link language commonly
understood by all.  This further takes
the child away from their mother tongue,” points out Pramod Kumar Sharma, a
retired teacher appointed by the TRI to assist the PVTGs. 



In the case of Mavno,
the link languages Khortha and Khetri are also influencing  speakers of the lesser-used Mavno. “We are
forgetting our mother tongue under the influence of the languages ​​of stronger
communities,” adds Manoj.

At the end of the
workshop spanning over two months, each of the speakers of these endangered
languages will come up with a primer — a basic grammar sketch for their respective mother tongues. This will
be the first of its kind book written by people from the community and not
linguists. They hope their efforts will
rescue the situation. 



“Other [non-PVTG]
communities have access to the ​​books written in their language. They get
better employment opportunities when they study in their language,” points out
Jagannath. But this can happen only if his community members continue to speak
their language. “Today only my grandparents and parents can speak fluent Mavno.
Only if our children learn the language at home, will they be able to speak
it.”

The 2011 Census lists
more than 19,000 distinct mother tongues in India. Of these only 22 languages
are officially recognized under Schedule VIII. Several mother tongues do not
get the ‘language’ status due to the lack of script or diminishing fluent
speakers. 



With more than <a href="https://www.jharkhand.gov.in/home/AboutTribals">31 </a>mother tongues in the state
that do not have an official language status, two Schedule VIII languages –
Hindi and Bengali – continue to be the dominant languages in Jharkhand – they
are taught in schools and used in formal communication by the state. Santhali
is the only Adivasi language from Jharkhand that is listed as a Schedule VIII
language.



For the speakers of
the 31 other languages in the state, and in particular those spoken by PVTGs,
there is a real danger of language loss. 

“Humaari
bhasha mix hoti ja rahi hai [Our mother tongue is getting mixed],” says
Mahadeo (not his real name), an army jawan representing Sabar community.

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He says the
marginalisation of their language is also reflected in the lack of community
representation in places like gram panchayats.  “Sabars are so scattered. In the village where
we live [near Jamshedpur], we have only 8-10 houses.” The rest are people from
other Adivasi communities and some non-Adivasi as well. “It hurts to see my
language die,” he tells PARI. 



Mahadeo points out that
his mother tongue, Sabar, is barely addressed as a language, “The voice of the
language which is in written form is always heard first.”

The TRI was
established in 1953, ‘with an aim to connect the tribal communities with the
other communities’ by researching their social, economic, cultural and
historical aspects. 



Since 2018, the TRI
has published language primers of several vulnerable Adivasi groups including
Asur and Birjia. The series of books further includes publishing the proverbs,
idioms, folk stories and poems of the language. 



Even though the
initiative has published such language primers devised by the community
themselves, it has not had much success. “If only the books from the TRI
shelves reached the schools our kids would be able to read in their mother
tongue,” says Jagannath.



The former director of TRI, Ranendra Kumar was
at the forefront of initiating the publishing of these primers during his
tenure but even he says, “the books should reach the schools where the children
from the PVTGs study only then will the real purpose of this work be
fulfilled.”

The biggest challenge
lies in identifying the fluent speakers of the language. Pramod says, “People
who are fluent speakers of their mother tongue are often unable to write.” But
with no other alternative, people who may not be as fluent or may use mixed
language and can write are called to prepare the grammar primers.



“We have not put a
condition of being a language scholar for this work.” It is only necessary to
know the language. “We believe that if grammar is prepared in the spoken
language, it will be more practical,” says Pramod, a former faculty member of
Jharkhand Educational Research Council (JERC). 



Ironically, language
primers, grammar books and resources of the languages of PVTGs use Devanagari
script. If a language has a letter or a sound which is
present in Hindi and not in their language, then they remove the sound from the
alphabet system of that particular language. “The letter ‘ण’ is present in the Mavno language and not in Sabar. So, we ensure we do
not write ‘ण’ in the Sabar alphabet, and write only ‘न’, Pramod explains. Similarly, when a sound or a
letter is not present in Hindi and is unique to the Adivasi language under
documentation, they introduce the subsequent letter and provide an explanation.




“But we only borrow
the script, the letters and words are eventually written according to the
pronunciation in their native language,” says 60-year-old Pramod.

It is evening now and
Jagannath, Manoj and Mahadeo step out with other participants for a quick tea
break at the Morabadi Chowk. The discussion of language has now started
touching other aspects including the hesitation of speaking in one’s mother
tongue. 



Even when they speak,
they are not always understood, as has been the experience of Class 8 drop-out
Rimpu Kumari who belongs to the Parahiya community. After staying quiet for the
entire day, she finally breaks her silence very hesitantly, “When I talk in
Parahiya people laugh,” says the 26-year-old who has married outside her
community, “What can I tell the world if my own in-laws make fun of me?” 



She wants to end the
‘shame’ she and others in her community feel when they speak in their mother
tongue. She signs off by saying, “I don’t want to talk about it here. If you
want to know more, come to my village.” 



The
reporter would like to thank Ranendra Kumar for helping with the story.



PARI&#39;s Endangered Languages Project (ELP) aims to document the
vulnerable languages of India through the voices and lived experiences of
people who speak it.

Doing it the ‘write’ way

قبائلی زبانوں کے تحفظ کی ’تحریری‘ کوشش

లిపి ద్వారా మనుగడ సాగించే ప్రయత్నం చేస్తోన్న అంతరించిపోతున్న భాషలు

‘எழுதி’ மொழியை காத்தல்

ਆਪਣੀ ਭਾਸ਼ਾ ਨੂੰ ਮਰਦੇ ਦੇਖਣਾ ਬੜਾ ਦੁਖਦਾਇਕ ਹੈ

ମାତୃଭାଷାର ସଂରକ୍ଷଣ ଦିଗରେ ଠିକଣା ବାଟ

बाराखडी गिरवत ‘भाषा’ बनण्याचं स्वप्न

'എഴുതി' ശരിയാക്കുന്ന വിധം

ನಮ್ಮ ಭಾಷೆ ಸಾಯುವುದನ್ನು ನೋಡಲು ನೋವಾಗುತ್ತದೆ

‘અમારી ભાષાને લુપ્ત થતી જોઈને ખૂબ જ દુઃખ થાય છે’

'अपन भाखा ला नंदावत देख भारी पीरा होथे'

লিপির জোরে বাঁচতে উদ্যোগী বিপন্ন ভাষাগুলি

‘নিজৰ ভাষাটো শেষ হৈ অহা দেখি দুখ লাগে’

‘आपन भाषा के मरत देख हमार जिउ कलपेला’

‘अपनी भाषा को ख़त्म होते देखना दुःख देता है’

Jharkhand

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Doing it the ‘write’ way

Jharkhand's Parahiya, Mal Paharia and Sabar Adivasi communities are drawing on their oral traditions to create grammar books and primers to preserve their endangered mother tongues. A story from PARI's Endangered Languages Project on International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples

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