Jharkhand is one of the states that was created in November 2000 after a long struggle carried by the Adivasis of the Chota Nagpur plateau and Santhal Pargana Division of South Bihar. Today Adivasis or the indigenous people stand as minorities in their own state and their languages struggle to survive.
One such language is Kurukh, spoken by the people of Oraon tribe. The language is not passed on to the next generation. In 2011, this Dravidian language spoken by the Northern tribe was marked “vulnerable” by UNESCO under the list of endangered languages. The non tribal people of the state express of never hearing the language of this second largest tribe in the state.
The Oraon tribe of Jharkhand
Satyendra Kumar Sahay, 44, a non tribal person and an IT professional with Tata Technologies Ltd from Jamshedpur said,
“I was born and brought up in Jamshedpur. Staying all my life in a state meant for tribes never heard the language Kurukh until 35 years of age. I heard just two old people speak at my friend’s wedding. Inquisitive, interested and I inquired about it. Then I came to know about its glorious past and how very few people of the tribe speak nowadays.”
Sangita Srivastava, 48, another non tribal person born and brought up in the city of Hazaribagh said, “The only tribe I have heard of is Santhal and Munda. This is the first time I have heard of Oraon or Kurukh.”
Jharkhand is a state with 23% of tribal people with total of 32 tribes. Hindi is the official language of the state. Widely spoken languages are Hindi and its dialects like Bhojpuri, Maithili, Magahi, Sadri and alongside Bengali, Urdu, Punjabi, Odia.
“I haven’t stayed among my community people. I was born and brought up in a metropolitan set up, in a city like Jamshedpur where most of the people are non tribal. All my friends were Bihari. I only interacted with people from my community while pursuing MBA in Ranchi,” said Fredrick Minz, 45, born in a Oraon family and currently works as a H.R Manager at NMDC Ltd, Hyderabad.
He added, “Kurukh spoken by the Oraon tribe is not an easy language. The only time I heard people speak Kurukh was when my father used to meet his brothers whereas, at home, my family and myself conversed in Hindi. So it happened that if two people from a family could speak Kurukh the third party didn’t understand the language.”
Fredrick explains that there are many tribes in Jharkhand. Sadri, a dialect of Hindi is common in the region and was comparatively easy to understand and practice. Thus, one of reasons that people started practicing it over Kurukh.
Kurukh Alphabets
“People in villages know the language. I think it’s more about survival. To survive I have left my language as it has to do with environment and ambience. There should be a common forum to communicate in Kurukh. Tribal people who move to city don’t continue with the language. Parents should make efforts to teach their children at least to practice within family so that the culture can survive,” he said.
Shammi Joseph Tigga, 43, another person from the Oraon tribe and who is working as the Regional Labour Commissioner in Guwahati said, “My mother tongue is supposed to be Kurukh. My mother comes from Munda tribe and my dad from Oraon. Due to inter- tribe marriage of our parents I and my siblings couldn’t continue with Kurukh and we had to learn Hindi. Now my mother tongue has become Hindi. “
He said that one of the initiatives to promote Kurukh is recent inclusion of Kurukh in a school in Gumla. Besides Hindi and English, Kurukh is a mandatory language to learn. The Oraon belt in Jharkhand comprises of Mandar, Murmu, Lohardaga, Gumla, Latehar, Mahuda, and Netarhat.
“In villages, tribes practice their languages and try to marry within their tribe. To converse with people of other tribe, Sadri- dialect of Hindi or plain Hindi is practiced. If people migrate to the cities their children don’t continue with the language. People from Oraon tribe have migrated to different states and there are people from other states coming to Jharkhand. To learn Hindi is a matter of survival, competition and diversification in the state. Thus, the next generation is finding it tough to continue with the language,” he added.
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