LANGUAGE IN INDIA

LINGUISTIC HUMAN RIGHTS IN TRIBAL EDUCATION IN ORISSA
Smita Sinha, Ph.D.

LINGUISTIC RIGHTS AND MINORITY LANGUAGES

Language rights help maintain other human rights. Linguistic human rights in education enable the maintenance of diversity in the world (Kangas, 1999). However, it is also necessary for the children of the linguistic minorities to be high level multilinguals, to obtain the basic necessities needed for their survival. Accordingly, the linguistic human rights for the minority include also unrestricted access to the learning and use of other languages.

Linguistic human right includes the right for a minority to exist, and this presupposes learning both first and second languages fully. It is a linguistic human right to learn one's mother tongue fully and also to learn an official language fully.

LINGUISTIC GENOCIDE

If the minority language is not used as the main medium of education and childcare, the use of minority language is indirectly prohibited in daily intercourse or in school, which is an issue of linguistic genocide. Linguistic genocide is defined as prohibiting the use of the language of the group in daily intercourse or in schools or for the printing and circulation of publications in the language of the group. Prohibition can, of course, be overt and direct, or covert and indirect, accomplished via ideological and structural means (Capotorti, 1979).

The term linguistic genocide first appeared in the preparatory work for International Convention for the prevention and punishment of crime of genocide by UN in 1948. Linguistically argued racism or linguicism is more sophisticated but equally efficient weapons as biological racism is, in committing ethnocide (ethnic genocide, the destruction of the ethnic sociocultural identity of a group) and linguistic genocide.

Linguistic and cultural human rights are necessary to prevent ethnic and linguistic genocide (Kangas, 1999). Lack of these rights results in the absence of these languages from school curricula, and thus the minority languages are made unimportant, insignificant, morbid and invisible. Sometimes, when the minority mother tongues are construed as non-resources and the majority language as the only valued linguistic resources, the minority language is abandoned on the plea that it is in the interest of the minority children. The children in such cases acquire the majority language, sacrificing their human rights to preserve, maintain and develop their mother tongue.

RIGHTS OF THE TRIBAL CHILDREN IN INDIA

The Constitution of India defines the scheduled tribe tribes or tribal communities or parts or groups within such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under article 342 to be scheduled tribes for the purposes of the constitution. Articles 15, 16 and 17 guarantee the rights to equality as the fundamental right. Under cultural and educational rights, article 29 protects the interests of the minorities. The article reads as follows:

1. Any section of the citizen residing in the territory or any part thereof having a distinct language, scripts or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same.
2. No citizen shall be denied admission into any educational institution maintained by the state or receiving aid out of state funds on ground only of religion, race, caste, language or any of them.

Article 46, Part IV of Directive Principles of State policy speaks about the promotion of educational and economic interests of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other weaker sections. It reads, "the state shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people and in particular of the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes and shall protect them from social injustice and all form of exploitation."

The National Policy of Education was approved by the Indian Parliament in 1986. The policy gives special place to the education of the Scheduled Tribes. Besides the general policy enunciating measures and directives for the rejuvenation of education in general, it states some special measures for the education of the Scheduled Tribes.

4.6. The following measures will be taken urgently to bring the scheduled tribes (STs) on par with others.

I. Priority will be accorded to opening primary schools in tribal areas.

II. The socio-cultural milieu of the STs has its distinctive characteristics including in many cases their own spoken language. This underlines the need to develop the curricula and devise instructional materials in tribal languages at the initial stages with arrangements for switching over to the regional language.

III. Educated and promising scheduled tribes youth will be encouraged and trained to take up teaching in tribal areas.

IV. Residential schools, including Ashram schools, will be established in large scale.

V. Incentive schemes will be formulated for the scheduled tribes, keeping in view their special needs and life styles. Scholarships for higher education will emphasize technical, professional and para professional courses. Special remedial courses and other programmes to remove psycho-social impediments will be provided to improve their performance in various courses.

VI. Anganwadis, non-formal adult education centres, will be opened on a priority basis in areas predominantly inhabited by the scheduled tribes.

The policy has very explicitly stated that there is a need to develop curriculum and instructional materials in tribal languages at the initial stages. The distinctive characteristics of the scheduled tribes will be the basis for the development of such materials. This definitely endorses the need for making education relevant to the community. Cultural orientation of the curriculum has been a long felt need (Ambasht 1971, 2001).

THE SITUATION IN ORISSA

Orissa has a substantial tribal population. According to the 1991 census, there are 90,32,214 tribals staying in Orissa, which constitutes 22.21% of the total population of the state. There are sixty two tribal groups speaking more than forty languages belonging to the Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, and Munda families of languages. Scripts were developed for the Santal, Sora, Ho and Kui tribal communities. Some of the tribal languages died totally, a case of linguistic genocide, as these languages could not be maintained and developed.

Some of the factors for the death or loss of a number of tribal languages are -

Dialectization or quick fragmentation of a tribal language into dialects and subdialects mainly due to the lack of writing systems in these languages. These languages were confined to spoken form, which is liable to quick changes.

Language loss - Some of the tribal language are losing out to other dominant languages of the state or becoming creolized Oriya.

Language death- Many tribal languages are dead now due to non-maintenance. The surviving languages can be prevented from death or loss only if they are used in education and in administration.

THE IMPACT OF THE ROLES ASSIGNED TO MAJOR INDIAN LANGUAGES ON THE TRIBAL LANGUAGES OF INDIA

The new roles of the major Indian languages in administration and education have necessitated the development of their corpus and these dominant languages have received greater attention and support for this kind of development. They got the major share from the resources of the state.

Language development tends to emphasize the distinctiveness and purity of languages and language distinctions are drawn categorically. The emergence of standard dialects and the social and economic values attached to them have made other dialects low and dispensable (Annamalai, 2001). The dominance of Oriya has given a low status to the other tribal languages.

THE TRIBAL EDUCATION SYSTEM IN ORISSA

The tribal educational system in Orissa is the same as the non-tribal educational system with the provision for the three language formula (Oriya, English and Hindi/Sanskrit) pursued in all secondary schools. Books in Ol Chikki scripts in twenty-nine Santali dominated tribal schools of Mayurbhanj, Sundargah and Keonjhar districts were introduced in primary schools in late 1990s. Santali speaking native teachers were posted initially who, however, got themselves transferred after their confirmation as tenure teachers. Non-Santali speaking teachers replaced them and the project became a failure subsequently.

Although the Constitution guarantees to preserve the minority languages, the tribals do not make use of the constitutional provisions. The State must provide a place for education in minority languages as a principle of pedagogy or preservation of linguistic human rights. As many tribals are not aware of their rights, the demand to use minority mother tongue as a medium in school education is largely to get the mother tongue a statutory status symbolically and not to make use of it for the education of the minority children (Annamalai, 2001). The Indian constitution gives minorities, including linguistic minorities, the right to establish and manage educational institutions for their advantage including the preservation of their culture.

THE SCHOOLS FOR THE TRIBAL POPULATION IN ORISSA

The Government of Orissa has set up tribal schools in all tribal dominated areas. Besides, there are tribal schools at the state capital. But the school dropout rates, especially in the age group of 11-14 years, are alarmingly high. Among the enrolled scheduled tribe school going population (1999-2000) between 6-11 years, a total of 10,18,000, and between 11-14 years 1,99,000 attended school (Source-Indian Child). At the college and University levels, most of the seats reserved for tribal students are lying vacant.

LANGUAGE AS A CRUCIAL FACTOR

The present system of language curriculum is one of the major reasons for low educational achievements of the tribals. The dominant language of the state, i.e., Oriya, is presented as the norm or standard, value based, culturally superior, powerful and resourceful. It is also emphasized in so many ways that the tribal child must master this language in order to assimilate with the mainstream. This ultimately generates among the tribal children a feeling of inferiority towards themselves, their language, culture and their own parents and family. Lack of school-related parental support, family pattern, gender roles, family insistence on the tribal child for active involvement as a labor force in the agricultural work also contribute to school dropout rate.

Tribal children who go to non-tribal schools face the language problem more severely as in most cases the non-tribal classmates and teachers make fun of their mother tongue and assign low status to it. These children are forced to sit in the same class with high status Oriya children. Usually, the teachers do not understand their language. The majority dominant Oriya language becomes a threat to the tribal children's mother tongue. It runs the risk of being displaced or replaced - a subtractive language learning situation. As a consequence, the mother tongue is not learned at all, sometimes it is forgotten and does not develop because the children are forbidden to use it, or are made to feel ashamed of it. When this happens it becomes a disastrous means of violation of linguistic human rights of the tribal children.

The tribal children in a tribal school do feel unmotivated to learn new non-tribal languages primarily due to cultural differences in learning. Tribal ways of learning is through cooperation and not through modern concept of competition. Tribal culture is oral culture and not written culture.

THE RESTRICTED DOMAINS OF USE FOR THE TRIBAL LANGUAGES

Although the Constitution guarantees the tribals right to preserve or develop their language, such guarantees cannot become a reality until these languages are used in education, administration and in mass media. In order to protect their linguistic rights, all the tribal languages of the state need to be developed. Their script, dictionary, and other study materials need to be developed. New planning must be made to make the tribals well versed in their native language (both orally and in written form), while enabling them at the same time to learn the other languages, namely, Oriya, English and Hindi to be at par with the mainstream.

It has now become imperative to preserve these indigenous tribal languages to prevent further linguistic genocide.

REFERENCES

1. Ambasht, N.K. (1971). The policy of tribal education, Vanyajati, Vol. XVIII, No. 1, 1971.

2. Ambasht, N.K. (2001). Tribal education, problems and issues. Delhi: Venkatesh Prakashan

3. Annamalai, E. (2001). Managing multilingualism in India: Political and Linguistic manifestation. New Delhi: Sage

4. Capotorti, F. (1979). Study of the Rights of persons belonging to ethnic, Religious and Linguistic minorities. New York: United Nations.

5. Census of India (1991)

6. Kangas, T.S. (1999) Education of the minorities in J. Fishman (ed.) Handbook of language and ethnic identity. OUP: New York.

7. The Indian Child: A profile (2002), Department of Women and Child Development, Ministry of HRD.

An earlier draft of this paper was presented in the International Conference on South Asian Languages, Osmania University, Hyderabad, January, 2005.

CLICK HERE FOR PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

LITERARY TRANSLATION - ART OR SCIENCE? A Renowned Literary Translator Discusses His View | THE INFLUENCE OF ENGLISH ON MALAYALAM LANGUAGE | A REVIEW OF LEARNING ENGLISH TEXTBOOK II FOR CLASS II Discussing the Problems of Presentation | LANGUAGE POLICY IN THE MOTILAL NEHRU COMMITTEE REPORT, 1928 - THE SEEDS OF THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION | MISSING LINKS - FROM RESEARCH TO DEVELOPMENT | ADVERB FORMATION IN TAMIL | LINGUISTIC HUMAN RIGHTS IN TRIBAL EDUCATION IN ORISSA | THE ECONOMY OF ARTICULATION IN MEWATI PHONOLOGY | HOME PAGE | CONTACT EDITOR