BHUBANESWAR: What can a handful of rice, a song about rain or a weekend gathering achieve? For state’s tribal communities, including the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs), they have become tools in the fight to keep their mother tongues from fading into silence.As smartphones, formal education and migration draw younger generations towards dominant languages such as Odia, tribal communities are making determined efforts, both collectively and individually, to preserve their linguistic heritage.From the Bondas and Saoras to the Didayis and Oraons, communities are spearheading innovative initiatives to revive and promote their native languages, complementing govt efforts to preserve the state’s rich tribal linguistic diversity.In Titimiri panchayat of Rayagada district, every time a meal is cooked in any of the 14 Saora tribal villages, a handful of rice or pulses is set aside.Collected every month, the grains help feed the 14 teachers of SP Mangali Ashram School in Engerba village. The school is a testament to the community’s determination to preserve its language.Established in 2000 by 14 villagers, it was founded with a singular purpose, to teach Saora children their mother tongue through Sorang Sompeng, the indigenous script of the language.“The villagers pooled money, built the school and have sustained it collectively ever since,” said Chakrapani Sabar and Balaram Sabar, secretaries of Sabar Sankrutika Sangha, which manages the institution.Chakrapani, a retired govt officer, and Balaram, a retired govt school teacher, oversee the institute’s functioning. But the real backbone of the school is the community itself. Families contribute in cash and kind, ensuring that the school continues to run despite limited resources.The most remarkable aspect of the school is its teachers.None of the 14 educators charge a penny to teach the 62 students enrolled from Classes I to VIII. Their only compensation is a simple meal each day, prepared from the grains and pulses donated by the villagers.“Every member of the community wishes that their child should learn Saora and this thought gave birth to the school. Villagers did not know the formalities required to run a school initially, but we have recently secured a certificate of recognition and a UDISE code from the school and mass education department,” said Chakrapani.Several kilometres away in Malkangiri district, language activist and researcher Gobardhan Panda has devoted much of his life to saving Remosam, the language of the Bondas, the rare PVTG that inhabits the remote Bonda hills.Literally meaning ‘language of man’, Remosam is classified by Unesco as a severely endangered language.The Bonda hills are divided into Upper and Lower Bonda regions.While the Upper Bondas continue to speak Remosam, many Bondas living in the plains below the hills are gradually shifting to Desia, a dialect that serves as a linguistic bridge with Odia. Yet, amid this transition, songs remain the community’s strongest repository of its linguistic heritage.Having lived with the Bondas for decades to document their language, Panda estimates that Remosam is now spoken by only 6,500 to 7,000 Upper Bondas.“There is no denying the fact that children of the community are not entirely aware of the richness of their language, which is slowly dying. Even in their conversations, they are including small Odia words. The good part is that the community still sings its traditional songs in Remosam and children learn from them,” he said.Elsewhere in Malkangiri, across Korukonda, Chitrakonda and Khairiput blocks, three Didayi farmers, Rajendra Palasi, Rupen Gudia and Chabi Bisoyi, are leading a quiet effort to preserve their mother tongue, Gta Asa, which they say is steadily losing ground to the Desia dialect in the absence of a written script.“Our bhasa (language) should not die because it is our identity,” said Palasi.The trio has been voluntarily documenting forgotten words, folklore and festival songs in Gta Asa while translating them into Odia, Hindi and English to make them accessible to Didayi children. They now plan to compile their work into a book.In Sundargarh district, meanwhile, the traditional Parha panchayat system has become an unlikely tool for preserving Kurux.“Functioning in nearly 500 villages, it encourages members to converse in their mother tongue during its weekly Thursday meetings, allowing traditional vocabulary to be passed on to younger generations,” said Suresh Oram, a community member.
