This text has been printed in partnership with Samvaad – Enabled by Tata Metal Basis
Up to now 50 years, India has misplaced over 250 languages, as reported by UNESCO. This loss not solely impacts languages but in addition varied fields like historical past, biology, and anthropology.
However, there’s excellent news. Recently, there’s been a rising effort to protect cultural identities all through India, and the Samvaad Fellowship programme stands as a major contributor to this motion.
Began in 2017 to empower the tribal communities, the fellowship encourages their youth to doc their historical past, tradition, ecology, traditions, artwork and extra.
“The aim of the fellowship is to get tribal communities to deep dive into their tradition and assist them form their concepts in collaboration with varied consultants. The thought behind documenting completely different cultures is to create a repository of knowledge and make it accessible to the remainder of the world. At Samvaad, being a tribal is a supply of pleasure. The group solutions the hardest questions on their id and tries to handle them,” Sourav Roy, TSF CEO, instructed The Higher India.
The fellowship is a part of Samvaad, considered one of India’s largest tribal conclaves within the nation, enabled by Tata Metal Basis (TSF). It takes place from 15 to 19 November yearly to commemorate the start anniversary of Birsa Munda, a tribal independence activist and chief from Jharkhand’s Munda tribe.
Samvaad stepped right into a decadal journey in 2023 and the latest version’s theme was ‘Stroll with Me’. The theme recognised the journey of concepts, dialogues, people, and collectives inside and among the many tribes of India, aiming to handle future challenges by shared knowledge, thought change, and self-learning. The five-day conclave spotlighted varied solution-driven dialogues and initiatives which have emerged from previous conclaves.
It was hosted at 5 places — TSF Neighborhood Corridor (RD Bhatta), Jamshedpur Nature Path, Tribal Cultural Centre, Gopal Maidan, and Johar Haat. Gopal Maidan and Tribal Tradition Centre served as the primary exercise hubs whereas Johar Haat housed a cloud kitchen facility for getting ready meals for house supply in collaboration with Zomato.
Through the years, the conclave has celebrated and united over 40,000 individuals from over 200 tribes in India and 17 different nations. The Higher India spoke to previous fellows — Banwang Losu and Amabel Susngi — about their large motion in the direction of preserving their tradition.
Preserving lullabies and languages
For hundreds of years, individuals the world over have adopted the nightly ritual of singing lullabies to infants for a peaceable sleep. Nearer house, now we have 1000’s of lullabies in numerous languages. Nevertheless, this custom has pale over time.
Ask your self whether or not you keep in mind a lullaby out of your childhood!
When 28-year-old Amabel Susngi from Meghalaya noticed that the lullabies in her native language Khasi had been turning into a factor of the previous, she determined to doc them. As a part of the Samvaad Fellowship, she gathered varied lullabies and printed them in a e-book.
A PhD researcher and a singer, she travelled throughout Meghalaya for over a yr to gather these lullabies. She has documented 25 of them in her e-book ‘Ha Yupiam Ka Bei’ (On Mom’s Lap), which was printed in each Khasi and English this yr at Samvaad. It additionally comes with musical notations, and every bit has a QR code main the reader to its YouTube model.
“Whereas researching the people music of the Pnar group, I realised that not many individuals remembered lullabies. That was a shock. Lullabies have been handed down by generations. Whether or not conventional or one thing made up by dad and mom, it has been an vital material of 1’s tradition,” Amabel instructed The Higher India.
The highway to publishing had its challenges, she provides, the most important being analysis.
“Dad and mom don’t sing anymore, and aged individuals don’t fairly keep in mind all of the lullabies. Some knew just one line or two, and a few remembered solely the tune or lyrics. Scheduling conferences was not an possibility, so I needed to work round their availability. Samvaad solved the vital funding drawback, and it helped me join with different fellows across the nation,” she added.
In the meantime, Banwang Losu from Arunachal Pradesh developed a script to protect Wancho — a Tibetan-Burman language spoken within the Longding area of the state and a few elements of Myanmar, Nagaland, and Assam.
Banwang first felt the necessity to have a Wancho script when he was requested to gather information about his group as a part of his socio-economic examine in faculty. He was unable to seek out the suitable English phrases to convey refined tones. He tried to perform a little research and even began pursuing a grasp’s in linguistics at Deccan School Submit Commencement and Analysis Institute in Pune.
Whereas growing the script, he took inspiration from nature and Wancho cultural symbols, practices, and gestures. He developed a script with 44 letters (15 vowels and 29 consonants), every letter representing a definite tone.
Banwang was the primary fellow at Samvaad. “Whereas engaged on the Wancho script, I heard about Samvaad and got here right here in 2017 with none proposal. Nevertheless, the jury was delighted to see my work. Being a fellow right here was eye-opening as it’s the solely programme for tribals at this scale. Utilizing the grant, I made textbooks on the Wancho language,” he instructed The Higher India.
Banwang taught the language to 2,000 individuals, and 20 of them at the moment are lecturers. Due to his work, over 6,000 college students can learn and write in Wancho. He additionally bought the script permitted for on-line use by the US-based Unicode Consortium.
“Each language is equally vital regardless of how massive or small. We’ve got to take a look at different minority languages with the identical standing and construct scripts to protect them. Lack of language is a lack of our personal,” he added.
Reviving traditions and unveiling knowledge
Improvement, which was accountable for the decline in tribal populations, is now getting used to protect tradition. Amabel and Banwang are utilizing digital media to doc their language and lullabies. A easy act of writing and recording is doing wonders for the group.
Of the 35 functions, 10 obtained the fellowship after rigorous rounds of interviews and pitches this yr. And in between the method, all of the candidates went by talent upgradation periods.
“Most candidates have nice concepts however usually are not savvy sufficient to put in writing a proposal or give a presentation. After we consider variety, we frequently neglect in regards to the tribals. We predict they’re primitive and stay in jungles. However once you learn the proposals, you be taught their numerous knowledge, tradition and historical past. By means of this fellowship, we are attempting to protect that,” stated Oinam Doren, a jury member this yr.
A few of the Samvaad fellows 2023 embody — Saka Mashangva, a people artist who desires to doc Tingteila, a standard musical instrument of the Tangkhul tribe of Manipur which is nearly extinct; Santosh Pawar, a social activist who desires to protect and promote the folklore of the Bhil tribe; Madhavi Meravi, who desires to doc the people tales of Gond tribal communities as a part of kids’s literature; Pansy Jami, who desires to doc the advantages of fermented meals from the Lotha Naga tribe of Nagaland.
The candidates who get rejected are inspired to use once more, shared Oinam. The jury members and Samvaad crew proceed to offer assist by staying in contact to assist individuals improve their concepts or pitches for a stronger comeback.
(Edited by Pranita Bhat; All pictures courtesy: Samvaad by Tata Metal Basis)
