How Languages Resist Forces Of Time

Languages have a complex relationship with time – stories of their contestations with time are nothing new. Scripts are understood as a prominent and crucial step in the evolution of a language over time. A script allows for a language to be recorded, thus reducing losses over time. It provides a consistent way of representing the meaning of sounds and words in a language, thus allowing for the standardisation of the language. Written texts stand the test of time by allowing for propagation way after they have been formulated. They also allow people speaking in various dialects to communicate easier. Overall, scripts play an important part in the conversation about the cultural identity of a language.

On 5th May every year, Odisha celebrates one such indigenous cultural icon – Guru Gamke Pandit Raghunath Murmu – for his pivotal contribution to the evolution of Santali language through the creation of the Ol-chiki script. A social reformer and a freedom fighter, Murmu’s creation of the Ol-chiki script that is widely used today has enabled several generations of Santali people to engage with their spoken language through reading and writing as well. This has immensely impacted in safeguarding the language and identity of the community.

Murmu’s personal journey has been hugely influential in making him the cultural icon as the state celebrates him today. Born in 1905 at Dandbose (Dahardih) village in then Mayurbhanj state, he first attended primary school at the age of seven. On finding the teacher to be Odia, he was perplexed at the absence of Santali in his classroom. This led to his meditations on the absence of written scripts for Santali and about the larger questions of teaching in mothertongue.

If Raghunath Murmu was an institution in himself for architecting and building a practice around the widely used version of Ol-chiki, it’s pertinent to analyse State-led institutional efforts towards protection and evolution of languages. The Academy of Tribal Dialects and Culture (ATDC) was set up way back in the 1970s in cognisance of the need for culture integrated development processes for a state like Odisha with 62 Scheduled Tribes and 13 PVTGs. At the time of being rechristened as the Academy of Tribal Languages and Culture (ATLC) in 2008-09, the Academy had been able to build structural capacities for indigenous language evolution. Decoding these capacities may be seen in three broad categories:

1. Creating technical constructs for language evolution like primers and dictionaries
2. Documenting culture elements as is preserved in living memory through language
3. Creating and facilitating communities of technical practice around language like teachers, scholars and culture practitioners

These foundational capacities in indigenous languages have found their way into policy-enabled functional usage pipeline by the State in the form of access to nurture services like primary education (multilingual education) and health (multi-lingual health information), and availability of information on key rights in indigenous languages.

Today more than ever, there is a rejuvenated focus on revitalising and promoting indigenous languages in the world. It has come from the cognisance of the urgent need for taking concrete steps to prevent languages from falling into disuse. Multilateral organisations like the United Nations are making concerted efforts like creating International Decade for Indigenous Languages (IDIL) in order to bring awareness and formulating joint action frameworks to appreciate indigenous languages in their wider and deeper role in peace building, good governance, protection of the environment and safeguarding culture in all its forms.

Long term government mandates, democratising language evolution tools, policy led-functional usage of indigenous languages and nurturing institutional networks of indigenous communities are the four key outcomes that IDIL proposes. A State-mandated institution like ATLC can find its reinvigoration in this rising global consciousness around indigenous languages that anchor cultures which could be the pathways to learn and embody regenerative ways of living, being and development.