LANGUAGE IN INDIA

LANGUAGE ATTITUDE OF THE ORIYA MIGRANT POPULATION IN KOLKATA
Satarupa Dattamajumdar, Ph.D.

1. INTRODUCTION - ATTITUDES

Attitude is an important notion in the study of bilingualism and multilingualism. Attitude may be defined as the sum total of a person's psychological construct towards certain objects, institution, persons, ideas, etc. Attitude owes its origin to the collective behavior of the members of a social group. It plays a crucial role in the social behavior of an individual as it defines and promotes certain behavior.

According to Baker (1988), attitudes are learned predispositions, and are not inherited. They are relatively stable and are affected by experiences. Attitudes are complex constructs. Choudhry (1993:22) emphasizes the factors like motivation, prestige, identity, language loyalty and the importance of their relationship to attitude.

2. LANGUAGE ATTITUDE

Linguistic attitudes may be positive or negative, as well as neutral feeling attached to a particular language situation.

Fasold (1984: 148) suggests that the attitude towards a language is often the reflection of the attitudes towards the members of that speech community. People's reaction towards a language variety reveals their perception regarding the speakers of that variety -- their social, political and economic backdrop. Edward (1982: 20) discusses the major dimensions along which the views about language can vary. They are social status and group solidarity.

The social pressures to maintain a language or language varieties that do not carry any social prestige reflect the in-group solidarity or language loyalty.

Choudhry and Verma (1996:391) rightly pointed out,

Factors like numerical strength of the minority group, their time and pattern of settlement and length of stay, their social and political power, their socio-economic status and linguistic factors such as the patterns of language use in various domains, attitudes and motivation towards the mother tongue and the dominant language of the host community, and political factors influencing language planning in education play a vital role in determining the retention or loss of the mother tongue among minority groups.

3. MOTIVATION

Thus, the concept of language attitude automatically brings into consideration the concept of motivation -- the instrumental motive and the integrative motive. When the knowledge of a language is considered to be a prestige marker, the acquisition of that language is said to be instrumental. On the other hand, if a learner wishes to learn a language in order to identify himself with members of the speech community, the motive is called an integrative one. However, motivation may also arise from a sense of academic success or from a sense of communicative success. All these motivate one's attitude to learn and speak a foreign language or a second language.

4. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The present study investigates and analyzes the motivation behind language choice and use, and the language attitude as a whole of the Oriya migrant population in Kolkata. This is supposed to throw some light regarding whether the speech community is undergoing a process of acculturation, or is it inclined to maintain the identity on its own. This attitudinal survey will examine the role of socio-economics and the power relationships, which will ultimately be found to contribute to the rationale of the 'attitude' itself.

5. THE CASE FOR ORIYA

Oriya is the official language of the State of Orissa. Oriya is also spoken by a substantial number of speakers in the neighboring states of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Maharashtra, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh. Among the eighteen scheduled languages, Oriya occupies the tenth position in terms of the number of speakers according to the 1991 Census. The number of persons who returned Oriya as their mother tongue in the 1991 Census is 28,061,313.

Among the different migrant populations in the city of Kolkata, the capital city of the State of West Bengal, Oriya population constitutes an important community, the population being 33,637 persons according to 1991 Census. Through out India, the number of persons among the Oriya speakers who speak the Bangla (Bengali) language is reported to be 74,369 persons (1991 Census). Of this number, a greater bulk of Bengali knowing and Bengali speaking Oriya population is reported from Kolkata. This indirectly shows that Bangla (Bengali), as a second language, has a good deal of impact on the Oriya speech community in Kolkata, due to the contact situation.

The migration of the Oriya people to the city of Kolkata started approximately before 1690 A.D. Bhuiya (1990) opines that the commercial and cultural interaction between the people of Cuttack and Kolkata was already in existence, which is evident from the translation of Bhagavat Purana from Sanskrit into Oriya by a Bengali scholar and poet, Sanatan Ghosal in 1679-1680. It is interesting to note that Sanatan Ghosal chose to translate a Sanskrit work into Oriya. He would not have done it unless he had a good appreciation of the socio-cultural necessity to get the famous literary piece translated not only into Bangla but into Oriya (the language of the neighboring state) as well.

The Great Famine of 1866 gave an impetus to the migration of the Oriya people to Kolkata basically in search of livelihood. The natural calamities that took place in the coastal belt of Orissa from time to time led the Oriya people to migrate to Kolkata for the same purpose. Initially the working class constituted the majority of such a migrant population. Later on the migration of the class of Oriya intelligentsia also contributed to the formation of modern Kolkata, according to Bhuiya (1990). These migrants naturally must have faced the problems of language use, language choice, language proficiency, etc. regarding their own language as well as the dominant local language (Bengali), keeping in view the symbolic function of the languages.

6. SAMPLE DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

Data collection for the present study was done by selecting the subjects based on the method of snowball sampling with respondents constituting men , women and children. (Only those who fulfilled the condition of 'staying five years or more' at Kolkata were considered.) A questionnaire was prepared based on the Likert method and was administered to the respondents. Taking a cue from Choudhry (1993), the questionnaire was framed in such a way as to elicit the individual opinions regarding their claimed status of language proficiency, language use or choice, their reading habits and the language they prefer, language teaching or learning for future prospects, language identity and attitude as a whole regarding language maintenance and shift.

The present study is an initial study looking on a small size of sample. Based on this study, a detailed study will be carried out with a larger representative sample in the future.

7. PARAMETERS OF THE STUDY

As the focal point of the present paper is to study and analyze the language attitude of the Oriya immigrants in Kolkata, the paper takes into consideration the following sociolinguistic aspects observed in the Oriya community in Kolkata.

1. Language use or choice in different social domains.
2. Language Proficiency.
3. Language Attitude: Pedagogical Perspective
4. Print media: Language choice
5. Instrumental function of preferred language in the speech community

I have collected my data from Oriya scientists (my next door neighbor), PSU Managers, Professors, Research Scholars, Pilots, Cooks, Plumbers, Water carriers, Shopkeepers, etc.

The earlier patterns of migration in which only the skilled, semi-skilled and the unskilled workers used to move to urban areas have now changed. Now most of the movements are from across different classes and this poses difficulty in giving an omnibus label to the Oriya population in Kolkata as in the past, say about 40-50 years ago, and to make generalization as if there are no internal differences. One may even venture to suggest that the earlier pattern of migration is rather changed in recent times with the emergence of multinational corporations, BPOs, etc. As a sign of changes taking place in the migration pattern, one may cite examples of the presence of a large number of students from Oriya in many prestigious universities in the country and also the well set trend of the Orissa students topping various All India entrance exams and the IAS, IPS, IFS, civil services examinations. This changing pattern actually explains the results obtained in this study, which is presented below.

The study has taken into consideration different classes of people belonging to different income levels (not only middle or upper middle class, but other classes as well) which is specifically reflected in the comments made at the end.

8. LANGUAGE USE OR CHOICE IN DIFFERENT SOCIAL DOMAINS

The survey brings into light the use of mainly four languages - Oriya (the mother tongue of the migrant population), Bangla (Bengali, the dominant local language), English (the language of higher professional education) and Hindi (a language of wider communication in many parts of India as well as the dominant language of the audiovisual media).

The use and choice of language in close interaction in different social domains seems to be relevant from the point of view of language identity which is reflected in the data regarding the maintenance of their mother tongue and shift to other tongues.

This also accounts for the motivation working behind the use and choice of such language patterns:

Table 1: Table (in %) representing the 'most frequent' use and choice of language or languages in various social domains is presented in the following table

Table 1 highlights the fact that Oriya dominates the language use in the home domain in the interaction with grandparents, parents, spouse and children. This dominance decreases sharply in the domain of interaction with friends, neighbors, social functions and in the place of work. Rather it is found that English dominates in the sphere of social functions, workplace, interaction with neighbors and friends. It is in the domestic sphere where the use of English language decreases. Bangla, in spite of being the local dominant language, is found to have lesser impact in the use and choice of language by the Oriya migrant population. Only 14% of the respondents interact with neighbors and in social functions in Bangla. In the case of communication with the domestic help it is as high as 82%, possibly because the 'domestic help' is from the local Bangla speaking community in most of the cases. It is pertinent to mention here that Hindi was never used 'most frequently,' in any of the domains tested. Thus, Oriya and English are used by a significant number of Oriya respondents at different social domains. This is illustrated in the graph presented below.

Graph :1 Respondents who use Oriya and English at different social domains

9. LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY

The linguistic proficiency that is claimed by this migrant population brings into light the four languages - Oriya, Bangla, English and Hindi at different proficiency levels. The languages in which the respondents claim that their proficiency is at the 'very well' status, has been considered for the analysis of the present study. This claimed proficiency in terms of four skills - Understanding, Speaking, Reading and Writing is shown in the graph given below.

Graph: 2
Respondents who claim to be 'most proficient' across the four language skills in Oriya, Bangla, English, and Hindi

Apart from Oriya, the mother tongue of the Oriya migrants, the claimed proficiency in the English language across all the four skills seems to be quite high. Though the claimed proficiency of Bangla and Hindi is almost same, Bangla exceeds Hindi in respect of the understanding skill which may be due to its position as the dominant language and also because Oriya is much closer to Bangla as a cognate language. In this connection it is worthy to mention that the responses regarding the formal learning of the four skills of their mother tongue revealed from the section III of the questionnaire shows the attitude of the respondents towards learning their mother tongue.

10. LANGUAGE ATTITUDE - PEDAGOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

This section of the paper deals with the preference of language for learning purpose and with the appropriate pedagogical strategy of the Oriya migrant population in the multilingual setting that prevails in Kolkata.

Keeping in view the development of the future generation and the roles a particular language may play in higher education and professional education, and keeping in view the job opportunities that the use or non-use of a language may open up, the Oriya community is found to prefer the English language as the medium of instruction and as well as a subject of importance. This language attitude in the pedagogical perspective of the Oriya migrants brings into light some personal observations which seem to be pertinent in this context.

People belonging to the working class prefer to have Bangla as their medium of instruction especially at the primary level. Though there are secondary schools (where the medium of instruction is Oriya) in different parts of Greater Metropolitan Kolkata like Titagarh, Khiderpore, Bhowanipore, most people (especially those who belong to higher income group) even do not know about the existence of these schools. The working class Oriya migrants residing in the industrial belts of Greater Metropolitan Kolkata like Sibpur, Salkia, Shobhabazar, Titagarh, Belghoria, Sreerampore, etc. send their children to these schools. A limited number of people are found to prefer Bangla as a medium of instruction for their children.

11. PRINT MEDIA - LANGUAGE CHOICE

The data on the preference for print media, that is, newspapers/magazines (dailies, weeklies, and monthlies) reveals that English language print media is preferred by a high percentage of the respondents. The respondents who prefer Oriya print media are 46%, Bangla 12%, Hindi 32% and English 92%. It is necessary to mention here that most of the respondents have reported to prefer and subscribe to dailies, weeklies, monthlies in more than one language. The section of people who do not prefer to subscribe to Oriya dailies, weeklies or monthlies reported that they either did not know the Oriya script (especially the younger generation) or are not interested in Oriya print media.

Preferences for Print Media (Newspapers, magazines, etc.) in Oriya, Bangla, English and Hindi by the respondents are represented in the following graph.

Graph: 3 (in %) Preferences of Print Media (Newspapers, magazines, etc.) in Oriya, Bangla, English and Hindi

12. INSTRUMENTAL FUNCTION OF PREFERRED LANGUAGE IN THE SPEECH COMMUNITY

The significance of language as a symbol of identity, social status, i.e., the instrumental function of language, is evident from the actual use or choice and preference of language or languages in various contexts by the Oriya migrant population in Kolkata. The above table, graphs and their analyses reveal that English has a significantly dominant position in different social domains (except the home domain), pedagogical context, as media language and also in the case of the claimed language proficiency.

The maintenance of mother tongue only in the home domain, and the attitude of not preferring Oriya in the print media or in education, stands as an evidence of definite shift. The use or choice of language and the claimed proficiency of Bangla and Hindi as revealed from the already discussed table and graphs speaks only of the natural impact of the dominant local language (Bangla) and the impact of the audiovisual media or the lingua franca of the country (Hindi).

Interestingly enough, when the total use or choice of languages at different social domains is considered as a whole, (either 'most frequently', 'frequently', or 'rarely'), the picture that emerges shows a balanced multilingual setting -- Oriya constituting 23.71%, Bangla constituting 26.80%, English constituting 23.71% and Hindi constituting 25.78%. The graph considering the use or choice of the four languages as a whole is presented below.

Graph: 4
The proportionate use of the four languages as a whole across different social domains

13. COMPARISON OF DATA ON GRADED RESPONSE

A comparison of the data available from the graded responses of the Section III of the questionnaire has been dealt with in this section. Statements which are in favor Oriya are selected for the estimation of difference between the two data . The Mean, Standard Deviation (SD), and Standard Error (SE) of the two data are calculated and then statistical analysis is done by the method of Student's 't' test. In order to compute the 't' value, the following calculation was done:

In favor of Oriya (in %)

As 't' 11.56 is greater than 't' = 5.04 at P= 0.001 against 8, i.e., (5+5-2) degrees of freedom, the probability of no significance in the present data is P< 0.001. Therefore, the difference between the two responses (Agree and Disagree) is highly significant.

14. CONCLUSION

Thus to sum up, it can be said that the Oriya migrant population is not very much maintenance-prone regarding their mother tongue. Bangla, being the dominant local language and with a close history of genetic (cognate) relationship and contact situation (geographical as well as socio-cultural and commercial) that contributes to ease in learning and use, exerts some pressure to use and learn the language. The influence of Hindi (a language of wider communication) can be traced to the immense impact of the audio-visual media throughout the country, including West Bengal. The attitude towards maintaining English language exhibits the instrumental motive of the people. The very attitude of the migrant Oriya respondents towards English reflects the importance of the language for better education and job opportunity that this language is assumed to provide, as well as a marker of 'global status.'

COLOPHON

I am grateful to Dr. Amitav Choudhry for guiding me constantly to carry out this present study and to Dr. Rabiranjan Chatterjee for his guidance in statistical analysis of the study.

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