Book Excerpt: An Austro-Asiatic language that has struggled to find its place in modern India

600 Santhals attack a party of 50 sepoys during the 1855 Santhal Rebellion. Illustration by The Illustrated London News via Wikimedia Commons

In 2003, Santali (sometimes spelt Santhali) was included in the list of scheduled languages in the Constitution of India, an important recognition of both the Santal community and its tongue. The long wait for this status to come to Santali tells us something about the complicated language politics of India.

The Santali-speaking population in India is large — the 2001 Census recorded 6.4 million speakers, which increased to 7.3 million speakers in the 2011 Census. But the majority of its speakers are spread across four states — Jharkhand (forty-four per cent of Santali speakers), West Bengal (thirty-three per cent), Odisha (twelve per cent) and Bihar (six per cent). In none of these states are Santali speakers a majority. This was largely why Santali was denied its due for a long time. Besides India, Santali speakers are also found in Nepal and Bangladesh.

The people and their history

Santali is the predominant language of the Santals, India’s largest tribal community.

Scholars believe that the Santals came to the Indian subcontinent in prehistoric times, probably much before the people whom we today call the Aryans and the Dravidians. The oral traditions of the Santals also suggest a history of migration. Their tales refer to places with names like ‘Hihiri Pihiri’, ‘Khoj Kaman’, ‘Harata’ and ‘Sasangbeda’ as areas where they had lived in the past. At some point in time, they also lived in ‘Champa’, where the legends
say they lived under their own ruler. It is unclear, though, where these locations are.

Since Santali is an Austro-Asiatic language, it is likely that the ancestors of the Santals came from southeast Asia, where other Austro-Asiatic languages like Khmer, Mon and Vietnamese are found today. Eventually, they came to occupy parts of the Chota Nagpur plateau, which is spread across much of Jharkhand and parts of Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Bihar and Odisha. They hunted game in the thick forests besides also practising some form of shifting cultivation.

The first recorded mention of the Santals is in an article published in 1795, where Sir John Shore, the governor-general of Bengal (1793–98), refers to them as ‘Soontar’ and as living in Ramgarh in today’s Jharkhand. Other British accounts record their presence in many other parts of Jharkhand and Bengal. From 1790s up until 1810, the British relocated a number of Santals to the Rajmahal Hills region in another part of Jharkhand.

The reason behind this relocation was the demand for agricultural labour in the Rajmahal Hills. The Santals soon began to work as agricultural labourers and some also got land on lease. The region in which the Santals were relocated came to be known as ‘Damin-i-koh’. This region soon attracted Santals from neighbouring districts. They thought that they would have a homeland of their own and preserve their culture and identity. But over the next few decades, this changed as more and more outsiders made their way into Santal territory. Merchants and traders often fleeced the Santals by paying them less than the fair price for their crops and overcharging them for oil, cloth and other commodities. Many Santals fell into debt as a result, creating a vicious cycle of exploitation.

Between June 1855 and January 1856, the Hul rebellion took place when the Santals in large numbers, led by the brothers Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu, rebelled. The rebellion began as a reaction against the moneylenders and merchants and eventually became a full-fledged war against the British. Though the Santals were hardy warriors, the superior firepower of the British forces overwhelmed them. Close to 20,000 Santals perished. Sidhu and Kanhu were captured and executed. Nevertheless, the British did introduce some reforms to give the tribals a modicum of protection against exploitation.

The literature and script

For centuries, Santali was only a spoken language. Songs, rhymes, proverbs and stories narrated orally constituted its literature, giving its listeners a glimpse of Santali life. The first attempts to write the language were made in the nineteenth century. Since the Santals lived in different linguistic areas, a variety of scripts were used including Bangla, Devanagari, Odia and Roman.

Jeremiah Phillips, an American missionary, devised a writing system for Santali using the Bangla script. In 1852, he published An Introduction to the Santal Language and translated parts of the Bible, including the Gospel of Matthew, into Santali. He also produced a grammar and dictionary and opened a number of schools in the Chota Nagpur region.

Hor-ko-ren mare Harprarn-ko-reak Katha (The Traditions of the Ancestors of the Hor or Santal people) is a compilation of Santali stories and legends as narrated by a guru named Kolean. This narration was collected and published by a Norwegian missionary Lars Olsen Skrefrsud in 1887 in the Roman script. In 1873, Skresfrud had published a grammar of Santali. Another early compilation of Santali folk tales and their lives in the jungle was also made in the Roman script by another Norwegian missionary, Paul Olaf Budding. Budding also modified the Roman script so that it could accommodate the various Santali sounds. In 1914, he completed the translation of the Bible into Santali.

Kherwal-Vamsa Dharam-Puthi (The Sacred Book of the Kherwal Race) was published in 1902 in the Bangla script. This was the work of Ramdas Majhi Tudu, who compiled the oral literature about the traditions of his people and their religious and social culture, besides including original work of his own.

In 1925, Pandit Raghunath Murmu (Guru Gomke) devised the Ol Chiki (Alchiki) script for the language. This, he felt, was necessary to be able to pronounce the language correctly which the Roman and Indian language scripts were not able to achieve. The script uses signs and symbols familiar to the Santals. The letters are derived from the environment that surrounds the Santal people — hills, rivers, trees, birds, bees, plough, and sickle. This ingenuity in shaping the symbols of the letters and arranging the letters in the script has been helpful in popularizing the script.

Modern Santali literature is well-developed and a number of books of all kinds are published every year.

Shibu Tudu is a contemporary Santali writer whose Turui Maha (Six Days, 2007), a non-fiction work on the importance of Sohrai, the harvest festival of the Santals, and Tirla (Teenage Girl, 2016), a poetry collection have become popular. Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, a Santal writer who writes in English, has translated Shibu Tudu’s work into English. Hansda’s own collection of short stories (in English) entitled The Adivasi Will Not Dance is also a powerful portrayal of modern Santali life.

Santali is today a widely used language and is an additional official language in Jharkhand and West Bengal. It continues to struggle though to hold its own against Hindi and English. This is a struggle that is unlikely to ebb anytime soon.

Excerpted with permission from 10 Indian Languages and How They Came to Be @2024Penguin India