Comparative Study of Nagpuri Spoken by Chik-Baraik & Oraon's of Jharkhand

1. Paper for 3rd SCONLI 2008 (JNU, New Delhi) Comparative study of Nagpuri Spoken by Chik-Baraik & Oraon’s of Jharkhand Sunil Baraik Senior Research Fellow (UGC) Deptt. Of Tribal & Regional Languages Ranchi University. Ranchi. (Jharkhand) s_baraik_in@yahoo.com Mob-09939350362

2. Introduction of Jharkhand • A newly born state of Jharkhand forms the eastern part of the central tribal belt of India. It has been the homeland of different indigenous tribal, artisan and peasant communities who migrated into it in different periods of history. Through time they have evolved a common way of life where their diversities converged into a unity to a large extent.

4. The Sadans • “Except for the Munda, Oraon, Khadia, Ho, and Santhals residing in Jharkhand other categories like Ghansi, LohraJhora, Binjhia,,Teli, Kewta, Vogta, Kumhar, Ahir ,ChikBaraik, etc. come under the Sadan nomenclature.” The castes which are mentioned above are called ‘Sadan’ but since when these castes have been living with Mundas and Oraons is difficult to anticipate.”

5. ChikBaraik • ChikBaraik is one of the 32 tribes who live in Jharkhand. This is a weaver artisan tribe. According to the survey of 1981 and 1991 their population amounts to about 40 thousands. It is very difficult to understand why their population is stable. Their central residing place is in Ranchi, Gumla and Simdega districts. Their mother tongue is Nagpuri (Sadri, Sadani). ChikBaraiks had an important position among the 30 tribes residing in Bihar; but their population average was only 0.69% of the total tribal population. Apart from Jharkhand, ChikBaraiks are also in great numbers in Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Orissa, Assam and Bangladesh.

6. Concentration • In different tribe inhabited villages, this community resides as an inseparable organ of the village. Though they are scarcely populated, there is no village in this region which does not have the members of this community. This is primarily because in each village there are only 10 to 15 families of this community excluding some exceptions of 25 to 30 families in a village. There are some villages where they are as the only ChikBaraiks in the village. In such villages this community lives congruously between chief tribes, namely Munda, Oraon & Kharia who also become linked with the culture and customs of these chief tribes. In such villages there is also sufficient population of Thakur, Brahmans, Kshatryia, Kumhar, BaniaTeliLohra, etc. All these people depend on each other on the basis of functional relations. But as an exceptional case, there is a colony of about 120 ChikBaraik families in Siliguri (West Bengal).

7. Oraon or Kurukh • It is said that they ruled a place called Rohtasgarh(now known as Rohtas), but after the Muslim invasion they were forced to move to Jharkhand and were given shelter by the Mundas and Sadans. Earlier they were known as Kurukh and when they came to Jharkhand they were named as Oraons by Sadans and Mundas.

8. Nagpuri, Sadani, Sadri • It is said that to know anybody’s culture, one must know his or her Mother tongue. From their mother tongue it is possible to know the ancient culture and beliefs of this region. Nagpuri is the pidgin of Jharkhand. In this state many ancient tribes like Munda, Oraon, Khadia, ChikBaraik and the total of 32 tribes dwell together peacefully, all from different language groups (Austro Asiatic, Dravidian and Indo Aryan). Mothertongue of • ChikBaraik is known by several names like Sadri, Sadani, Ganwari, Nagpuri, Nagpuria and even Jharkhandi language by the people of different parts of the country. “Sadri is spoken over a vast area stretching from the eastern part of Madhya Pradesh to Twenty Four Parganas in West Bengal and the Tea Gardens of Jalpaiguri to the borders of Orissa. It is known by many names such as Gawari, Sadani, Sadri, Nagpuria, Nagpuri, etc. It is used by a large section of tribal as well as non-tribal population either as a Mother tongue or as lingua franca. There are different views regarding the origin and status of Sadri. According to the Encyclopedia Mundarica, Sadri is the language of Sadans.” “Almost all the tribal people speak Sadani with some local variation” Now also when villagers (I; e Munda, Oraon, Kharia, ChikBaraik, etc.) sit together, they use Nagpuri as a mode of communication. Nagpuri is used as the Mother tongue among the families of Munda, Oraon as well as Kharias residing in some parts like Simdega, Gumla, Palamu, Hazaribagh and Latehar Districts of Jharkhand who don’t know their own Language. Same situation prevails in some parts of Orissa, West Bengal, Assam and Chhattisgarh, where these communities reside. It is to be noted that only four candidates have qualified U.G.C. NET/JRF exam, out of which, two of them come from the Oraon community. Another three Oraons have qualified for U.G.C. NET. These Oraons don’t know their language Kurukh and Nagpuri is used as Mother tongue among their family.

9. Language solidarity • It is noticed that the ChikBaraiks show their solidarity by speaking the pure variety of Nagpuri among themselves in the family. They have a strong effinity towards their mother tongue. They speak the second language or the other variety of the language when they come across non-Nagpuri speaker. They are well aware of the other varieties spoken by non ChikBaraik. The following are the prominent and easily noticeable distinct pronunciation which is made by the non ChikBaraiks.

11. Special quality of Language acquisition • Jharkhand is a state of multilingual. Here different language communities co-exist. Due to this there are a lot of reciprocal influences. A lot words are borrowed and exchanged. However it is remarkable that the ChikBaraik tribe has been able to keep the purity and originality of the language intact. It is to be noted that ChikBaraik have not been affected much by the other languages. Still they have maintained the purity and originality of the language amidst multilingual environment. This is due to the special gift of language acquisition to this group. This group is known for acquiring the languages of the region in their accent, intonation and they can speak other languages (Mundari, Kharia, Kurukh etc) like that of the native speaker. When a ChikBaraik speaks Mundari, Kharia, Kurukh or any other language of the region the listener would not identify that the speaker is a ChikBaraik. For eg there is a ChikBaraik of Khunti District who is a very famous Munda folksinger and has been called several times to perform at Ranchi Radiostation and surprisingly he is a very good Nagpuri speaker. It is a known fact that the ChikBaraiks have been endowed with special ability of acquiring languages. Thus in spite of being able to interact with many languages there is no interference with their mother tongue.

12. The use of Language • There is a special phenomenon among the ChikBaraiks that they use Nagpuri within the family set up. When they interact with other speech communities they speak Nagpuri but they would speak the language variety of the person with whom they are talking. i.e. if a ChikBaraik is talking to a Mundari speaking person, he/she would talk the Nagpuri of the Mundari variety with their tone and accent. If he/ she is interacting with a Rautiya he/ she would talk the variety of a Rautiya and the same with Oraon.

13. Prestige and low prestige varieties • In the case of Nagpuri there is no question of prestigious and low prestigious variety. Instead in regards to Nagpuri, people are more concerned and talk about its authenticity and purity, in its sound and phoneme. Purity in its use that is when one speaks Nagpuri there is no code mixing and code switching. One often comes across educated Nagpuri speaking people who openly accept that they are not able to speak the pure Nagpuri. A pure Nagpuri is spoken by an illiterate man and woman in the interior village. All accept this fact unanimously. An illiterate ChikBaraik woman would say “bais’ [bais] ‘sit down’ and an educated ChikBaraik would say “baith” [baith] which is the influence of Hindi. The woman would say “muda” [muða] for ‘but’ and the educated ‘lekin’. Thus the educated people show their inadequacy that they cannot speak the original and the authentic Nagpuri due to the influence of Hindi, English and due to their formal education. By speaking the original form of Nagpuri persons social status is not revealed instead people have high admiration for such person who can speak Nagpuri with its authenticity and purity.

14. Difference according to class: • Nagpuri speakers could be divided into literate and illiterate, city dwellers and village dwellers. The city dweller ChikBaraiks are very much influenced by the dominant language of city. Therefore it certainly has the influence over their Nagpuri language. For instance in Ranchi the people speak a variety which is very different from the so called original Nagpuri that is spoken in the district of Simdega. Those who dwell in the village speak pure Nagpuri. Those who are literate, as it is mentioned above, in their speech have a lot of code mixing and code switching. Those who are illiterate they are well versed in its vocabulary and they do mix words from other tribal languages in contact.

15. Turn taking. • In normal conversation the listener follows the cooperative principle. They would not take their turn in the conversation unless they disagree with the person. Otherwise they would show their agreement by saying ‘hou’ [hοu] means yes after each sentence, or equivalent response. If they disagree they would say ‘nihi’ [nihi] means ‘no’ and make their statement and give the reasons of disagreement. They end the conversation by saying ‘lage tab jawa’ [lage tab jawa] literary means, ‘ok then you go’ meaning you go ahead to your next intended work. And they disperse. While talking they do not use terms to confirm whether one is agreeing or disagreeing, as it is in English i.e isn’t it, ‘am I right’ etc. It is interesting to know that the ChikBaraiks do not express their gratitude explicitly. For instance when a guest comes he/she receives hospitality and while departing the guest would not say thanks explicitly but would invite the person to his/her house ‘hamar bate aba tab’ [hamar bate əbatəb] ‘you should come our side’. It implies that you come to our place too and give us a chance to serve you in return. The person responses ‘lage tab khisatejaba’ [lagetəbkhisatejəbə] literary it means ‘ok then go ahead grambling’. But the implied meaning is that ‘we are sorry that we could not serve you well. If there was any inconvenience in our service please forgive us’.

16. Politeness and Respect: • There are situations where the ChikBaraiks have to be conscious of their salutation and the manner of conversation that is extremely polite and they show respect. A son or daughter would address their father calling ‘tonye’ [toeỹ] ‘you’ but a prince or princess would address their father (ie; King) as ‘apne’ [apne]. ‘tonye’ [toeỹ] is used among the equals and mostly among the younger generation. Among the elderly equals, they address each other by calling ‘raure’ [raure] ‘you’ term to show respect. A servant also addresses the son with the word ‘apne’ to show the respect and the son would call the servant with tonye’ [toeỹ]. The word [toeỹ] is used among equals as the Hindi word ‘tum’’ ‘you’ and for respectful address second person singular ‘aap’ [a:p] is used. In Nagpuri for respectful address third person singular is used.

19. Taboos: • Among the ChikBaraik certain names are restricted. For instance a wife would not address her husband with his name. She would use the third person singular ‘apne’ [əpne] ‘he’ while she is telling someone about Husband and rəure while calling her Husband. Husband too would not address his wife by name instead he would call her by saying ‘e babuker main’ [e babukermaĩ̃] ‘o mother of the son’. Similarly the wife does not call the name of her husbands elder brother or of the father in laws. Among the ChikBaraik they do not utter the name of the deceased family member. They would say ‘marlaharahekhane’ [mərlaharahekhane] ‘when the dead one was alive then’.

20. CONCLUSION • During the British regime research works were done for Nagpuri, but in today’s situation it’s been neglected, and why it is difficult to understand. Foreign scholars started doing research works from 1896. The foreigners like Conrad Buckout etc. compiled grammar as well as dictionary and folklores but after their death, it was not even printed. Some grammars can be collected from the states like Orissa and West Bengal also. In the Indian context it should be noted that the Nagpuri literature is found in Meghalaya, Assam, West Bengal, Orissa and Chhattisgarh also. The translated Nagpuri Bible was printed in Meghalaya in 1908 by Fr. P.Ponnette, we can see the importance of Nagpuri in 1908 in Meghalaya and this book surprisingly is not found in Churches of Jharkhand from where the language actually belong to. It is very necessary to throw light upon this language and its folklores, as it is the link language of three language families of the world. It was the (RAJBHASHA) official language of Chotanagpur since the reign of PhaniMukutRai (0064 A.D.) till the British invasion (I e; for around 1800 years). Not less than 4 to 5 Crore people speak Nagpuri, but it is difficult to find the actual number of Nagpuri speaker, as the Government has not conducted Language Survey after 1961.

21. Knowing the importance of Nagpuri, some literate people (not the native speakers) like Sharma, Tiwari, Goswami etc. started writing books which started affecting the language badly, because they started mixing Bhojpuri, Magahi as well as Hindi because of the lack of Standardization. Apart from this, more than 5,000 Nagpuri audiocassettes, hundreds of music videos and more than 10 films have been released and the progress is going on. Few years back a film ‘Chal to Gori’ released from Assam shows the importance and value of Nagpuri in Assam. There is a tradition of several magazines also in Nagpuri language. It was also announced then that if and when Jharkhand state was formed,Sadari would be the Official language of the State.” Jaipal Singh Munda had started the Jharkhand movement (revolt for separate State), and he used to give speeches in Nagpuri for the people despite being a Munda. He had even stated, that “When Jharkhand will become a separate State, ‘Nagpuri’ will be the State Language,” but his dream remains a dream today also. Probably the reason behind not paying attention to this language is because of Abraham George Greirson’s BIG Mistake of calling the Mother Tongue of Chik Baraik’s as a Dialect. Nagpuri should be given the status of tribal language, as it is used by more than ten tribes as a MT. It is to be noted that Nagpuri has evolved from Prakrit and Apbhramsh in the forests of Chotanagpur independently just like Bangla, Oriya, Bhojpuri, etc. that can be justified from the book- Nagpuri Sadani Boli Ka Vyakaran1965 by Fr. P.S.Navrangi.

22. JOHARTHANK YOU