For hundred years, Jharkhand tribals have not had a script. In the past five, courtesy the efforts of one man called Francis Ekka, they have taken a straight leap from there to the 21st century: Now they not only have a script but they also have a book written in Tolong and a software based on it.Till 1997, Khasi and Santhal were the only tribal languages that could boast of a script, but even these virtually disappeared a century ago. Since then, Jharkhand tribals have had to use Devanagri or English. That year, Ekka, director of the Mysore-based Central Institute of Indian Languages, along with Narayan Oraon, revealed a script called Tolong they had been developing for 10 years. It was a universal script, structured in such a way that it could be used with all the tribal dialects spoken in Jharkhand. A Church-owned publishing house, Satya Bharati, took the onus of making it popular. The rest is part of tribal history. A Satya Bharati publication, Kaliga, (1988) authored by Ekka and Oraon, is now in its third edition, while a software based on Tolong is doing the rounds. Today, in Jharkhand, Tolong is a compulsory subject in at least two schools — Adivasi Vidyalaya in Gumla and Adivasi Bal Vikas Vidyalaya (ABVV), Ratu, 10 km from Ranchi. Since 1999, students from Classes III to VIII have been learning it. Compatible with all tribal languages, the script is slightly longer than its Roman and Devanagri counterparts, with 47 letters in its alphabet. It has its own digits from zero to nine, with each image resembling nuts and bolts. ‘‘At least, 1,500 students have learnt Tolong from here,’’ claims ABVV’s Vice-Principal Ishwar Bhagat.His students seem more than eager to learn the new script. ‘‘I write to my girlfriend in Tolong and she replies back in Tolong,’’ giggles Ashok Bhagat, a student of Class VII.The reason why it’s not taught from Class I is that once the students reach higher classes, the books are all in Hindi to noted linguist Narmadeshwar Prasad, nearly 28 per cent of Jharkhand’s 2.69 crore people are tribals — belonging to 30 communities. Among them, Mundas, Hos, Santhals, Kharias and Korwas speak in dialects belonging to the Austro-Asiatic linguistic families, while Oraons speak their own dialect rooted in the Dravidian linguistic family.Like the Khasis of Assam, the Santhals had developed their own script during the last century, says former chief of the Tribal and Regional Languages Department at Ranchi University Ram Dayal Munda. But over the long period, the script has almost disappeared for lack of use. ‘‘We were compelled to use these alien languages (Hindi and English) since we had no script of our own. We had to work for a decade to script Tolong to keep our languages alive,’’ says Narayan Oraon, author of Kailga.The next step was development of a software. A Ranchi centre took this up, coming up with Kelly Tolong.But isn’t it all a wasted exercise in today’s world where the Chinese are beginning to learn English? ‘‘No,’’ assets Munda. ‘‘It’s a question of our identity.’
