The issue of Odia Asmita (identity) comprising language, literature and cultural symbols continues to be an emotive issue in Odisha. In the recently held elections of 2024, the two major political parties portrayed themselves as its best custodians and accused the other of jeopardizing Odia’s interests, heritage and conservation. Odia speakers constitute over 82% of the population in the state. The border states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Bengal also have a sizable Odia speaking people; Odia is the second official language in Jharkhand. In Odisha, rise of private schools is seen as alarming for the survival of Odia, because they continually nullify its learning, whereas it (Odia) is the medium of instruction in govt. schools. On that count, since 2020-21, the enrolment in govt school is on rise with its corresponding fall in private school, i.e., 19 % in 2020-21 and 20% in 2021-22. As per the sample survey of the ASER (Rural) 2023, in rural Sambalpur 77.4 % children in the age group of 14-16 years possess the ‘Basic Reading’ skill. Recently the engineering and medical colleges have been instructed to use Odia as their medium of instruction. All these apparently indicate a healthy status for Odia as a language and literature. The classical status conferred in 2014 has added to its health.
However, this doesn’t lessen the challenges to the language. It is common that, compared to other curricular areas, the % in ‘Basic Reading’ in mother tongue language, despite questionable learning avenues, keeps growing, if retention is ensured and dropout rate minimized in school – a prime reason being the running perception that mother tongue is easier to learn. That is why, the above ASER mentions, the ‘Basic Reading’ in English in contrast to Odia is only 52.6% in the same place and same age group. But, does this ‘Basic Reading’ skill necessarily ensure sustenance in reading habits in the language? When the youths after schooling are pushed to jobs quite unrelated to reading or writing, their literary tastes might get trampled. In medieval Odisha, the need for reading puranas, with the objective of both ‘redemption’ and creative engagement, in comprehensible Odia had stirred people to have informal chatshali education.
Today the needs are diverse and the avenues are numerous, which is a big challenge for the upkeep of the vernacular. The craze for English medium education through private schooling is not on wane. Had this craze been for trilingual or bilingual learning inclusive of both Odia and English, the challenge would not have been gross, because multilingual learning is a need for sustenance of the vernacular in present scenario. Further, the official instruction for tertiary learning in Odia medium without ensuring the availability of multiple quality texts in vernacular might not yield the desired results. That is why, the number of candidates opting to write in Odia medium in any national level competitive exams is rare, and the number of successful candidates there even rarer. This dissuades the youths from pursuing higher studies in Odia medium. In the late 19th century, the local intelligentsia had collectively rushed to mitigate the dearth of textbooks to save Odia. Today, after 150 years, such an ‘urgency’ is unfelt and unheard of.
Besides Odia, the state is fortunate to have multiple languages; they enrich its cultural diversity and multifariously contribute to the making of the society. This is true of other regions as well. Koshali-Sambalpuri used in Western Odisha and at least the 21 tribal languages spoken by 62 tribes, who constitute nearly ¼ (as per the Census of 2011, the tribals constitute 22.84%) of the population, have both similarities and numerous divergences with Odia. The language spoken in south Odisha also has its own uniqueness. Their survival, even without scripts or written literature or patronage from the intelligentsia, needs appreciation. The tag of ‘dialect’ undermines their self-esteem. The Odia literati need to address the question of endangerment of these languages. They need to appreciate that these languages enrich the existing Odia literary forms and lexicon. The discord between Odia and these ‘other’ languages persists, and grudges against Odia are openly nurtured. Further, the discord within the Koshali-Sambalpuri is not unnoticeable; even a consensus on a common name of the language is yet to be arrived at. The challenge before Odia is to grow as an inclusive, accommodative and truly living and evolving language. In today’s time of democratic polity, they would supplement one another, and a little figment of internal intolerance might prove grossly ruinous to them, especially Odia. Even the exalted status of ‘classical’ needs to be notionally a d heartily shared among all.
During the medieval period as well as in the late 19 th century, the colloquial diction and forms used in rural Odisha had proved to be the redeemers of Odia from imminent extinction. But this ‘colloquial’ mostly remained centred around coastal Odisha, the ‘core area’ of polity and culture since medieval times. This is because, barring Bhima Bhoi (1850-1895), a Khond tribal and the ‘saint’ poet, and Gangadhar Meher (1862-1924), the ‘weaver’ poet from western Odisha, all the authors hailed from the coastal region. In present cultural and literary scenario, the ‘colloquial’ from the ‘periphery’ also needs acceptance in mainstream Odia language and literature. Assimilation without diluting the distinctness of each is the challenge as well as the solution to its existential issue. However, to our dismay, only in the last decade, the Primers have been developed in a few tribal languages, though their efficacy at the ground level requires assessment and scrutiny. Further, Odia got its first novel Padmamaili in 1888 (by Umesh Chandra Sarkar), celebrated its epoch-making novel, Chhamana Athaguntha in 1902 (by Fakir Mohan Senapati), and gifted the illustrious novel, Amrutara Santana (by Gopinath Mohanty) based on the Khond tribal life in Koraput in 1949. However, its first Dalit novel, Bheda (by Akhila Naik from Kalahandi in western Odisha), came only in 2010 (translated into English and published by the Oxford University Press, New Delhi, in 2017). One wonders, if any tribal has ever penned any novel or autobiography in Odia so far, although each tribe has many long stories to tell. It is more miserable that, no tribe has ever scripted it even in his mother tongue outside Odia, although their telling and foretelling in oral form may not be precluded. Has the ‘domineering’ official Odia been a deterrent in their literary pursuits? Such dilemmas pose multiple challenges to Odia as well as to other sister languages in contemporary times. Like multilinguism, horizontal proliferation of Odia across the social and geographical domains of the state could be a solution. Are these solutions far to seek? Are not they concealed within the challenges? Is the intelligentsia unaware of this? These are some pertinent questions for brooding today.
