Activists in Jharkhand Preserve Endangered Tribal Languages Through Local Radio Stations
Preserving Endangered Tribal Languages in Jharkhand: The Fight for Birhor and Asur
In the heart of India, efforts are being made to preserve two endangered tribal languages - Birhor and Asur - from extinction. These languages, part of the Austro-Asian family, are facing pressure from dominant regional languages like Hindi, Sadri, Santhali, and Munda.
The Birhor community, historically nomadic hunter-gatherers, reside on the edges of forests in Jharkhand and Odisha. Unfortunately, they are being forced out of their forest land, a factor that exacerbates language decline. The Asur community, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) in Jharkhand's Netarhat, Latehar, Palamu, and Gumla districts, once practiced iron smelting but now primarily engages in agriculture.
Activists are employing innovative methods to overcome technical and funding challenges. For instance, Vandana Tete, who started a community radio programme for the Asur community in 2019, called Asur Adivasi Radio, uses public address systems instead of mobile signals and radio frequencies. The aim is to spread awareness and use of the Asur language in every village.
Similarly, for Birhor, significant efforts include the creation and distribution of children's picture books. Bikram Jora, a linguist with a doctorate from Delhi University, has published a children's picture book "Abun Ari Re" (Our Surroundings) and distributed 500 free copies in six districts, including primary schools. This book uses bilingual illustrations labeling body parts in both Hindi and Birhor to facilitate learning.
Jora, who has been working with the Birhor project since 2018, is also working on a dictionary and grammar book for Birhor. He encourages families to use the picture book to teach children Birhor, with illustrations showing body parts labeled in both Hindi and Birhor.
The Asur Adivasi Radio is run by 15 members of the Asur community, who record songs in the Asur language and play them over loudspeakers at weekly bazaars to help the community connect with their language. New songs are being written and sung in the Asur language, and they are being uploaded on platforms like YouTube.
Efforts are also being made to collect poems, mantras, shlokas, and rituals and rites practiced by the Asur community. This is part of a broader plan to document and conserve these languages, work that is being done by linguistic experts and organizations like the Living Tongues Institute.
The Jharkhand government is also taking steps to promote tribal and regional languages through education. Plans include appointing 10,000 teachers for tribal and regional languages, indicating institutional attention towards tribal language education.
However, high-profile support for languages like Birhor and Asur has not been reported yet. For example, while the Santhali language, another tribal language of Jharkhand, benefits from promotion by Padma Shri awardees such as Digambar Hansda, there is no such prominent support for Birhor and Asur.
In summary, key conservation efforts include community broadcasting using public address systems and attempting to expand Radio Asur coverage, publishing bilingual children's books for Birhor and Asur to encourage intergenerational transmission, work by linguistic experts and organizations like the Living Tongues Institute documenting and creating language resources, government initiatives to promote tribal and regional languages through education, and role models and local leaders promoting related tribal languages (e.g., Santhali) contributing to broader tribal linguistic empowerment. These grassroots and institutional efforts seek to revive daily use, preserve cultural knowledge tied to the languages, and stem the decline caused by socio-economic pressures and dominant languages.
- Although Birhor and Asur languages are part of the daily lifestyle of the communities, they face the threat of extinction due to the influence of dominant regional languages like fashion-and-beauty, food-and-drink, home-and-garden, and relationships.
- In the realm of education-and-self-development, innovative techniques, such as creating bilingual children's books and community radio programs, are being employed to preserve the linguistic heritage of the Birhor and Asur communities.
- For pet lovers, it's worth noting how similar efforts are being made to save endangered languages, just as we strive to protect and nurture our beloved pets.
- As we plan our travel itineraries for exploration and adventure, let's also consider supporting language conservation initiatives, ensuring the rich tapestry of diverse voices in travel destinations is preserved for future generations.
