Gondi Adivasi Language To Be Standardised, To Get A Dictionary Soon
By Aishik Chanda
02 October, 2014
Countercurrents.org
You may get to refer to a Gondi dictionary soon. That too in Devanagari script! Bhopal-based NGO CGnet (Swara) is working with top Gondi language specialists from 5 states to formulate a standardized Gondi language and bring out a dictionary.
The next step would be to apply for a national language status in the 8th schedule. “To apply for the inclusion into the 8th schedule, a language needs to meet several criteria, of which having a script is one. If Gondi is included into the 8th schedule, teachers will be appointed to teach the language in the schools of central India, which will revive the verbal language and also generate a lot of employment and research, leading to its flourishment,” said CGnet Swara founder and former BBC journalist Shubranshu Choudhary.
Two meetings of the 60-member team of people from central India who are well versed in Gondi have already taken place in Delhi and Hospet, Karnataka. The third meeting, scheduled to be held at Amarkantak, the source of Narmada river in MP, will decide the words that will be incorporated in the Gondi dictionary. Gondi has several dialects – three in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and two in Maharashtra. The Gondi spoken in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are heavily Telugu-influenced. The Gondi spoken in Telangana already has a dictionary, which is in the Telugu script.
“The experts will list all the words (in all the dialects of the language) and list out the words that are used in most of the dialects,” said Shatali Shedmake from Chandrapur, Maharashtra, who is a CGnet Swara moderator.
“The Maoists have produced some 12-13 books in Gondi language. Though it’s a small number but still its an achievement,” Mr Choudhary said. “However, we are trying to promote Gondi on a mass scale.”
Gondi is the second largest spoken tribal language in India (spoken in Gondwana or present day central India), after Santhali, which is spoken in Eastern India. Spoken all over central India, Gondi has over 30 lakh speakers but lacks a working script. Gondi expert Dr Motiravan Kangale of RTM Nagpur University says that the script found from the ruins of Mohenjodaro and Harappa is very similar to the ancient Gondi script. However, this script is understood only by a very few experts. It may be speculated that the language used in the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation may be Gondi, which makes the Gonds the most ancient indigenous people of our country. The ancient Gondi script is hieroglyphics (symbol language) like the ancient Egyptian language and also Mandarin.
“Of the 15,000-20,000 ancient Gondi hieroglyphics symbols, an expert team of 9 members have deciphered the meanings of 2,500 words,” Ms Shermake added. The expert team consists of Dr Motiravan Kangale and Dr Shyam Koreti of RTM Nagpur University, Dr. K.M. Maitri of Karnataka University, Hampi, Gulzar Singh Markam of Chhattisgarh, Sunair Singh Taram and Ushakiran Atram of Maharashtra, Manikrao Arka of Andhra Pradesh, Sushila Dhurve of Indore, Hirasan Uike, president of Gondwana Ganatantra Party of Balaghat, MP.
In contrast to Gondi, Santhali, the largest tribal language of India, has its own script, called Ol Chiki. It was developed by Santhali pandit Raghunath Murmu in the early 20th century in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha. By now, most of the Santhalis spread over Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha can read and speak the standardized Santhali.
The writer is pursuing M.A. in Dalit and Tribal Studies and Action in Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. He was a working journalist at Deccan Chronicle and The New Indian Express at Hyderabad. He is now an independent journalist. Email id: [email protected]
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