The language in use today is an evolved form of the language that the tribal people continue to use and it is wrong to consider the tribal language to be inferior, N. Gopi, convenor, Telugu Advisory Board of the Sahitya Akademi, has said.
Speaking at the inaugural of the two-day seminar on ‘Tribal languages and literatures in Telugu-speaking areas, jointly organised by the Sahitya Akademi and Girijan Cooperative Corporation here on Saturday, the former Vice-Chancellor of Potti Sriramulu Telugu University said: “It was not the Girijans that are getting alienated but in reality after getting ‘civilised’ we are going away from our Girijan roots.” He lauded the Sahitya Akademi for its efforts to organise such a programme for the first time.
Script was not essential for a language, Sahitya Akademi secretary K Srinivasa Rao said emphasising on the need for compilation of Girijan literature. The akademi had conducted a language convention for identification and promotion of tribal languages. The akademi was giving away Bhasha Samman awards in 24 languages, he added.
“There is a need for concerted effort to promote tribal languages. While there have been efforts to document the literature of some tribal languages and script developed, nothing has been done to sustain it, GCC Vice-Chairman and Managing Director A.S.P.S. Ravi Prakash noted.
Preconceived notions
There were a lot of preconceived notions about a language, most important being script. “It is difficult to make people believe that there can be languages without a script,” leading researcher in linguistics and former Registrar of Potti Sriramulu Telugu University B. Ramakrishna Reddy said. West European languages – English, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese – use the same Roman script and each one has its own rich literary tradition, he pointed out.
He went on to elaborate on how the language develops due to interaction and intermingling of people of different societies. “In the Indian circumstances there is no extinction of languages as the languages adapt and modify and live on for millennia.”
“We have to accept the fact that there are differences in perception among societies as the value systems are different. While the Mahabharata of urban society portrays Karna as born of a lower caste and tries to play down his role, the Mahabharata narrated by tribal people give him due respect as a warrior,” senior journalist and writer Chintakindi Srinivasa Rao said.
Academics, language experts and tribal scholars in large numbers attended the programme.
It is not the Girijans that are getting alienated but in reality after getting ‘civilised’ we are going away from our Girijan roots.
N. Gopi
Convenor of Telugu Advisory Board of Sahitya Akademi
