Progress Report: 2014-18

Centre for Endangered Languages

(CFEL)

Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan

Progress Report: CFEL, V.B. Page 1

Content 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..4 2. Aims & Objectives……………………………………………………………………..…4 3. Field Survey Module……………………………………………………………………..5 4. Administrative Progress…………………………………………………………………5 4.1 Major Communications with UGC…………………………………………………5 4.2 Major Steps at CFEL, V.B……………………………………………………………6 5. Financial Progress………………………………………………………………………..11 6. Academic Progress……………………………………………………………………….12 6.1 Survey…………………………………………………………………………………12 6.2 Resource Generation…………………………………………………………………13 6.3 Public Awareness Events…………………………………………………………….13 6.4 Academic Events……………………………………………………………..………14 6.5 Academic Participation………………………………………………….…….…….15 6.6 Publication……………………………………………………………………………23 7. Future Plan………………………………………………………………………………..35 8. Long term Plan………………………………………………………………………….. 36 9. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………36 10. Annexure-1 10.1 /Koda 10.2 Kurukh/Oraon 10.3 Birhor 10.4 Kharia 10.5 Mahali 10.6 10.7 Turi 11. Annexure-2 11.1 Report of National Seminar (DIAL-2018) 12. Annexure-3 12.1 Centre’s activities published in Visva-Bharati’s annual report-2016-17 12.2 Centre’s activities published in Visva-Bharati’s annual report-2017-18 13. Annexure-4

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13.1 Clips of some media coverage

…..we have to concentrate on the “...the unity of has been village being self-contained, and shall always be a unity in manufacturing mainly for use. diversity in which every Provided this character of the language, every religion and village industry is maintained, every culture shall have its there would be no objection to due place.” villagers using even the modern

machines and tools that they can Rabindranath Tagore make and can afford to use. Only they should not be used as a (Encyclopedia of Eminent Thinkers means of exploitation of others. pp.28)

Mahatma Gandhi (Harijan, 29-8-1936, p.226)

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1. Introduction Centre for Endangered Languages (‘CFEL’ in abbreviation) is an independent research Centre established by Visva-Bharati (vide REG/O-R/89(vi), dated 26.5.2014) through an office order based on the UGC Sanction order (F. No. 15-6/2012/CU dated 3rd April 2014) of a major national initiative (worth over Rs. 37 Crores) in nine central universities with Visva-Bharati’s CFEL as the nodal Centre. Prof. Udaya Narayana Singh of Rabindra Bhavana, Visva-Bharati was appointed by the University as the Chairman of CFEL with the responsibility of implementing the UGC’s mandate, and to report to the Upacharya, vide another office order on 26.5.2014.

2. Aims & Objectives

a. To undertake inter disciplinary research related to endangered languages. b. To undertake fieldwork, research, analysis, archiving and documentation. c. To produce monographs, grammars, grammatical sketches, dictionaries and lexicon, dialect atlases and ethno-linguistic & theoretical descriptions. d. To organize academic events for promoting advanced research. e. To train teachers and students from other departments/centres in Field Linguistics. f. To serve the indigenous and endangered language communities by making accessible the products of the researches of the Centre. g. To promote and foster various domains of endangered languages so as to ensure endangered language communities in maintaining and preserving language vitality. h. To co-ordinate and guide the CFEL clusters and other similar UGC funded projects. i. To form an independent centre purely devoted to the issues of endangered and indigenous languages & cultures.

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3. Field Survey Module Field survey module is being implemented on based on following architecture:

Figure 1 Architecture of work

4. Administrative Progress The administrative progress of CFEL can be divided into following points:

4.1 Major Communications with UGC a. UGC asked for proposal vide letter no. F.No.15-6/2012 (CU) to establish CFELs on 25th Feb, 2013. b. UGC asked for guideline vide letter no. F.No.15-6/2012 (CU) to establish CFELs on 16th April, 2013. c. Visva-Bharati submitted detailed proposal vide letter no. Reg-/UGC-IV/01/07 on 6th May, 5

2013. d. UGC underlined Visva-Bharati as Theoretical Cluster vide letter no. F.No.15-6/2012 (CU) on 11th Dec, 2013. e. UGC showed actual fund allocation vide letter no. F.No.15-6/2012 (CU) on 3rd April, 2014. f. Visva-Bharati submitted technical action plan with higher budget on 19th April, 2014. g. UGC underlined Visva-Bharati as Nodal University for this purpose vide letter no. F.No.15- 6/2012 (CU) on 19th May, 2014. h. Visva-Bharati submitted head wise breakup vide letter no. Ref./CFEL/2014-15 on 4th September, 2014. i. Visva-Bharati submitted detailed head wise breakup vide letter no. Reg-187 on 29th October, 2014. j. Visva-Bharati requested for money vide letter no. Reg-End-Lang/187 on 23rd January, 2014. k. UGC released grant vide letter no. F.82-9/2015 (CU) on 19th August, 2015. l. UGC credited money Rs. 4 Crore vide reference no. UGC-287 on 26th Nov, 2015. m. Visva-Bharati sent Progress Report-2014-15 & 2015-16 on 29th Sep, 2016. n. Visva-Bharati sent Progress Report-2016-17 on 4th May, 2017. o. Visva-Bharati made presentation of its progress at Mid Term Review Committee, held at UGC, New Delhi on 2nd August, 2017. p. Received observation of the UGC- Mid Term Review Committee on 17th Oct, 2017 against presentation made by Visva-Bharati on 2nd August, 2017.

4.2 Major Steps at CFEL, V.B 4.2.1 Infrastructure Development a. Acquired and renovated dedicated building for the Centre. b. Developed moderate work station with two small size class rooms and other required recourses. c. Installed Wi-Fi enabled work place.

4.2.2 Role & Responsibility a. Prof. Udaya Narayana Singh handed over the charge of Chairperson, CFEL on 28th October, 2016. b. Prof. Raman Shivakumar took over the charge of Chairperson, CFEL from 28th October,

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2016. c. Mr. Rajib Chakroborty, Assistant Professor resigned from his position from CFEL on 9th February, 2017. d. Prof. Rameshwar Prasad Mishra took over the charge of Chairperson, CFEL on 4th March, 2017. e. Prof. Rameshwar Prasad Mishra retired from Visva-Bharati on 31st May, 2017. f. The Registrar, Visva-Bharati acted as the In-Charge, CFEL during May-2017 to Feb, 2018. g. Prof. Kailash Pattanaik took over the charge of Chairperson, CFEL on 19th February, 2018.

4.2.3 Committee In order to smooth and obstacle free functioning, CFEL has constituted some major committees. Some of them are given here: a. Advisory Committee b. Purchase Committee c. Criteria Deciding Committee for Enumerators

4.2.4 Meeting a. Meetings held with SPPEL group working on Endangered Languages at CIIL, Mysore on 11-12th April, 2014. b. A series of brain-storming meetings were held in the first week of May, 2014 in JNU and DU in the presence of all nine CFEL Clusters Universities Vice-chancellors with whom VB-CFEL was to work were contacted by Prof. U.N. Singh to facilitate planning and document submission to UGC. c. Meeting of all research clusters in CFEL held at UGC on 29th May, 2014 to plan for the research methodology. d. The central India Cluster of CFEL meeting was held on 12th-13th July, 2014 in Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Amarkantak where Prof. U.N. Singh participated as the national co-ordinator of CFEL Cluster. e. An advisory board meeting of CFEL, Visva-Bharati was held on 18th July, 2014 to decide the action plan of the newly founded centre. f. Prof. U.N. Singh has attended a 2-days workshop cum meeting of Administrators of Centre for Endangered Languages Project held at Tezpur University 1-2 August, 2014

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where action plans of the centres were discussed and resolved. g. An orientation meeting on documentation methodology of Research groups working on Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages was held on 26-27th September, 2014. h. A meeting of Technical Evaluation Committee was held on 27th September, 2014 for purchasing GIS-Based Survey System Tools, Database Creation and Mapping Languages and Culture of small and Groups plus Training of Survey Personnel and System Maintenance. The evaluation took place on 11th December, 2014. i. First CFEL All India Cluster meeting was held on 6th October, 2015 at Bhasa Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan with the representatives from seven CFEL clusters. j. Meeting of CFEL Advisory Committee held on 28th May, 2016 at the Centre. k. Meeting with renowned documentary maker Mr. Ladlymohan Mukhopadhyay, Ms. Swati Chakraborty and Mr. Soumyajit Gupta with CFEL Chairperson and staffs regarding the suggestion on how to do the documentation and the necessary purchase required for documentation held on 31st May, 2016. l. Meeting with representatives of ADCC Infocad Ltd (the agency helping in surveying through GIS based system and have taken responsibility of other tasks too) regarding the server installation, app development and preparation of time frame for their tasks at the CFEL was held on 30th Dec, 2016. m. Meeting with CFEL Advisory Committee members and University officials regarding the server installation, recruitment of enumerators took place on 17th January, 2017 and was presided by the Chairperson, CFEL. n. Meeting of Criteria Deciding for Enumerators was held on 17th April, 2017 to decide basic criteria for hiring enumerators. o. Meeting with ADCC for requirement of tools at CFEL, Santiniketan on 7th April, 2018. p. Meeting of Scrutiny Committee for panel of enumerators at CFEL, Santiniketan on 24 June, 2018.

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Figure 2 : 1st Cluster Meeting Figure 3: 1st Cluster Meeting Figure 4: ADCC and University 4.2.5 Visit a. NAAC team visited the Centre on 27th April, 2015. b. Prof. Udaya Narayan Singh visited ADCC, Nagpur to discuss the Field Survey Arrangements and Software Design face to face. c. Three project faculty members attended a meeting of CFEL Southern Cluster was held on 22nd February, 2016 in Central University of Karnataka, Kalburgi. d. Registrar, V.B. along with faculty members of Centre (Arimardan Kumar Tripathi, Bidisha Bhattacharjee) and Sectional Officer Mr. Durga Shankar Das presented progress report and future plan of CFEL, V.B. in Mid Term Review Committee, held at UGC, New Delhi on 2nd August, 2017. e. Prof. U.N.Singh visited to CFEL for consultation on 29th June, 2018. f. Many interdisciplinary experts from outside of University such as Prof. D.P.Pattanaik (Padmshri and founder of CIIL, Mysuru), Shri Rahul Dev (Renowned Journalist), Prof. V.P.Jain (Linguist), Prof. Krishna Bhattacharya (Linguist), Prof. Girish Nath Jha (Linguist), Prof. Shailendra Kumar Singh (Linguist), Narayan Oraon (Language Activist), Prof. Kripa Shankar Chaubey (Journalist), Dr. Nirmal Kumar (Language Expert), Prof. Rajni Singh (Language Expert), Anjan Sen (Folk literature Expert), Haldhar Nag (Padmshri, Sahitya Academy prize winner), Shibabrata Karmakar (Folk Song Expert), Prof. Shri Krishana (Educationist) visited at Centre in the connection to deliver their talk in Seminar.

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Figure 5 : ADCC team testing App Figure 6:Group Picture in DIAL-2018 Figure 7: Haldhar Nag 4.2.6 Other Activities a. The first set of purchases of PCs, Laptops etc were initiated on 26th April, 2014. b. The tenders in two-bid systems were invited for GIS-Based Survey System Tools, Database Creation and Mapping Languages and Culture of small Tribes and Groups plus Training of Survey Personnel and System Maintenance on Visva-Bharati web and national newspapers in July, 2014 with the last date being 14th August, 2014. c. CFEL advertisement asking for applications from suitable candidates was issued on 31st October, 2014. d. April, 2015: Interview for recruitment of 2 Assistant Professor, Documentation Officer and 2 Field Assistants (on Temporary basis) has taken place on 11th April, 2015. e. Orders of appointment were issued on 13th April, 2014 for 2 Assistant Professor, Documentation Officer and 2 Field Assistants (on Temporary basis) after the Vice- Chancellor’s approval. f. The selected people reported and joined after following required procedure by the middle-end of April. g. 8 field enumerators empanelled for field survey in Feb, 2018. h. 20 field enumerators empanelled for field survey in June, 2018. i. Released 4 books of the Centre in presence of Founder Director of Central Institute of Indian Languages- Prof. D.P.Pattanayak, Veteran Journalist- Rahul Dev and Principal Bhasa Bhavana- Prof. Abhijit Sen during DIAL-2018 on 9th Sep, 2018. j. Centre continuously maintaining local free domain website and Face Book account for popularizing its activities at the wider platforms. k. Floated tender for website and app development for marginal linguistic resources in Jan, 2019.

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Figure 8 : Book Release Program Figure 9: Plantation Figure 10: Plantation

5. Financial Progress

Expenditure incurred Unspent Balances at the end of Year of of Grants Grants earned Interest Interest

s/Other s/Other year as on available Received Total Academic Academic Asset Salary Salary in Aid in Aid in Grants Grants Grants receipts etc. receipts Total Funds Total Capital st General Receipts/Fee Creation Creation 31 March

2014-15 Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil 2,69,855 8,97,659 11,67,514 -11,67,514

2015-16 Nil Nil 6,12,270 6,84,342 5,46,647 24,47,991 36,78,980 4,00,00,000 4,06,12,270 3,57,65,776

2016-17 Nil Nil 20,15,288 20,47,436 30,01,848 3,57,65,776 3,77,81,064 5,26,128.50 55,75,412.50 3,22,05,651.50

2017-18 Nil Nil 87,243 2,36,411 18,82,540 21,51,922 24,75,576 3,22,05,651.50 3,40,88,191.50 3,16,12,615.50

6. Academic Progress Academic task under this Centre can be viewed in following forms:

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6.1 Survey (Short report given in Annexure-1) a. Centre conducted survey in Birbhum and Burdwan districts of focused on Kora, Oraon/Kurux during March, 2017. b. Centre conducted survey in Purulia district of West Bengal focused on Birhor and Kharia during March, 2018. c. Centre conducted survey in Malda district of West Bengal focused on Turi, Mahali, Kol and Malpaharia during August, 2018. d. Centre conducted survey in Bankura district of West Bengal focused on Bhumij during August, 2018. e. Centre conducted survey in Nadia district of West Bengal focused on Kurux, , Lodha, Lahra and Sadri during November, 2018. f. Centre conducted survey in Alipurduar, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Kalimpong districts of West Bengal focused on Lepcha, Limbu, Banthawa, Rabha, Mech, Tamang, Asuri, and Toto during November, 2018. g. Centre conducted survey in South 24 Pargana district of West Bengal focused on Munda and Gond during November, 2018. h. Prepared a short linguistic & cultural report on the basis of surveys focused on the tribal communities such as Koda/Kora, Kurukh/Oraon, Mahali, Turi, Birhor & Kharia. i. Collected word & sentence list in Birhor & Kharia during field survey in Purulia & Bankura districts of West Bengal.

Figure 11 : Field Work Figure 12: Field work Figure 13: Field Work

6.2 Resource Generation a. Prepared database of lexicon resource in English--Bengali as base resource. b. Prepared word list from various regular domains in Kora/Koda, Kurukh (Oraon), Kharia and Birhor to develop English-Hindi-Bengali-Kora/Koda, English-Hindi-Bengali-

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Kurukh (Oraon), English-Hindi-Bengali-Kharia and English-Hindi-Bengali-Birhor vice- versa dictionaries. c. Prepared & maintained dedicated departmental web page of Centre hosted on V.B. website. d. Managed one small library containing books on marginal linguistic issues. e. Prepared database for online bibliography focused on endangered languages. f. Developed data (Image, Audio & Video) capturing GPS enabled Android App for field survey. g. Prepared online Census-India & UNESCO language Atlas referenced linguistic map to locate marginal languages . h. Prepared basic primer of Kurux/Oraon phonetically connected with Roman (English), Devanagari (Hindi) & Bangla. i. Prepared syllabus of ‘Certificate in Folkloristics’ and ‘Ph.D. in Folkloristics’ to strengthen theoretical background of marginal linguistic issues through teaching and research.

Figure 14 : Workshop for Lexicon Figure 15: Workshop for Lexicon Development Development Figure 16: Data Capturing App

6.3 Public Awareness Events a. Conducted language awareness interactions with endangered linguistic groups in the various regions in Alipurduar, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong, Birbhum, Barddhaman, Purulia, Bankura, Purulia, Nadia, North 24 Pargana districts of West Bengal. b. Distributed Basic Primer of Kurux/Oraon in Kamardanga village of Birbhum district in Oraon community. c. Organized marginal cultural activities and painting exhibition during DIAL-2018 for sensitizing the issues and its wide exploration. d. Distributed brochure on activities and mandate of the Centre among academician, journalists, researchers and community people during DIAL-2018.

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e. Demonstrated Centre’s activities at annual exhibition during Poush Mela organized by Visva-Bharati during 23-28th November, 2018.

Figure 17 : Community Awareness Figure 18: Painting Exhibition Figure 19: Exhibition in Poush Mela

6.4 Academic Events a. Paper presentation on “Languages and Cultures on the Margin: Towards An Action Manual” by Udaya Narayana Singh with assistance of Rajib Chakraborty, Bidisha Bhattacharjee & Arimardan Kumar Tripathi in a national seminar on “Multilingualism as Resource: the need for preservation of linguistic diversities, cultivation and enrichment of sociolinguistic resources in India” during 12-13th January, 2017 at The Asiatic Society, Kolkata. b. Delivered a lecture by Arimardan Kumar Tripathi in national workshop on ‘Languages of North East: Conservation and Promotion’ organized at Dera Natung Govt. College, Itanagar during 11-13 August, 2017. c. Arimardan Kumar Tripathi participated in workshop on ‘Language Documentation and Revitalization’ organized at Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysuru during 26 Feb-02 March, 2018. d. Presented a joint-paper (Bidisha Bhattacharjee and Arimardan Kumar Tripathi) titled ‘Linguistic Migrations in West Bengal: A Case of Birbhum and Burdwan Districts’ in a two-days National Seminar cum Workshop on Broadening the horizon of the current research on Endangered and Indigenous Languages of India, organized by Jadavpur University, Kolkata in March, 2018. e. Centre organized Training Program-cum-Workshop for Enumerators at Visva-Bharati, Bolpur on 19th March, 2018. f. Centre organized a field work for app development with ADCC (a private agency) at

th Kopai, Birbhum on 19 March, 2018. g. Centre organized a Lexicon Building Workshop for dictionary making during 10-19 April, 2018.

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h. Centre organized Training Program-cum-Workshop for Enumerators at Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan during 28-29th July, 2018. i. Centre organized a National Seminar entitled “Debating Indian Aspirational Languages: DIAL-2018” with collaboration of ICSSR, New Delhi during 9-11 Sep, 2018.

Figure 20 : Training Program Figure 21: Training Program Figure 22: DIAL-2018

6.5 Academic Participation 6.5.1 Chairperson 6.5.1.1 Prof. Udaya Narayana Singh (Tenure : from May, 2014 to October, 2016) a. 2014. Valedictory Lecture at the Seminar on “Multilingualism and the Literary Culture of India,” Centre for Comparative Literature, UoH, & Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi at the School of Humanities’ Auditorium, University of Hyderabad; 27-29 March 2014. b. 2014. What should UGC’s Centers for Endangered Languages do?’ Lecture at the University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi. May 29. c. 2014. Tagore, Culture & Education. DAV School, Durgapur; Annual event, Inaugural Talk; July 7. d. 2014. Vanishing languages. Talk at the Centre for Endangered Languages, Tezpur University, July 27. e. 2014. Multilingual Multi scriptal India: Bringing Diversity on a Unified Platform. Asia- Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum, Workshop #13 Bringing diverse linguistic communities together for a unified IDN ruleset; Aug 3-5. f. 2014. ‘Bangla Pramita Uccharan: Dui Banglar Sahajog’. International Seminar on ‘Bangla Pramita Uccharan’, International Mother Language Institute, Dhaka; September 6. g. 2014. Suniti Kumar in Search of a metaphor: policy, Perspectives & Pluralism. Seminar on Prof. Suniti Kumar Chatterjee’s Contribution to Indian Linguistics; IGNCA, New Delhi; November 26.

15 h. 2014. The Nature-Culture Dichotomy and Tagore: Must Culturation be like Sanskritization?’ Plenary Talk, ICOSAL, Linguistic Society of India; University of Kerala, Trivandrum, Dec 4. i. 2015. ‘Curse of Dialects: Crisis for Lingoes’, Special lecture; National Seminar on Dialect and Identity Crisis; 125th Birth Anniversary of Professor Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyay; Presidency University, Kolkata & CIIL, Mysore; 23 Feb. j. 2015. ‘Rabindranather niriksha’. 192nd Foundation Day Lecture, College, Kolkata; 25th February. k. 2015. Manifesto of the Unwritten World, Inaugural talk at the symposium on Unwritten languages, Sahitya Akademi, national Festival of Letters, 12 March. l. 2015. Special lecture at the National Seminar on The Region and the in the Indian Fiction, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi; from 12-14 March. m. 2015. ‘The linguistic landscape of Bangla Sadhu and Cholit, and Swami Vivekananda’. Talk on Classical Languages at the Second Conference by Institute of Odia Studies and Research on Monday, 30th March-2nd April 2015 at Instt of Physics, Bhubaneswar. n. 2015. Empowering Bhasa- s (भाषा) and the Role of Responsible NLP. Inaugural Lecture, Regional Symposium on NLP with a Focus on Bhojpuri, Magahi, Maithili, & Awadhi - Languages of the eastern Region of India; Indian Institute of Technology, Varanasi; Mar 21. o. 2015. ‘Translating the World: Approaches, Strategies and Innovations’. Extra-mural lecture at the Vishwa Konkani Samaroha, November 2015. p. 2015. 'Beyond Language - Towards Silence: A Reading of Tagore.'1st Tagore Memorial Oration scheduled on 12th August, 2015 at 4 p.m. in the premises of IIEST, Shibpur q. 2016. ‘Rajasthani aor Bharatvani: Bhasha, Bhumi aor Bhavishya’; (in Hindi) L.P.Tessitory Memorial Lecture, Rajasthani Pracharini Sabha & The Asiatic Society, Kolkata; January 2016. r. 2016. Lectured on Literary Translation; Granthan Vibhaga & Calcutta Book-Sellers & Publishers’ Guild, Kolkata Boook Fair 2016. s. 2016. Foundation Day Lecture on “Discovering the many life of Rabindranath Tagore”, Central University of , Koraput; August 29, 2016 t. 2016. Delivered a Lecture on ‘Tagore, Nature and Culture, Discovering the Roots of 16

Gitanjali’, Amity University Gurgaon; September 19, 2016. u. 2016. Special Lecture “Sanity and Insanity: The Concerns of Tagore and Lu Xun,” CCSEAS International Conference on Lu Xun and Tagore, JNU & University of Delhi; Oct 2016.

6.5.1.2 Prof. R.Shivkumar (Tenure : from October, 2016 to March, 2017) a. 'Venkatappa: The Calcutta Interlude', Mysore Modernity: Artistic Nationalism and the Art of Venkatappa, International Conference organised by the NGMA, Bengaluru and Somberikatte, at NGMA Bengaluru, 25th -27th Nov, 2016. b. Locating Bengali Aesthetical Ethos in the Development of Modern Indian Art Practice', Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata, 13th Jan, 2017. c. 'Rabindranath, Cosmopolitanism, and Cross-Cultural Encounters in Modern Art', Rabindranath and Cosmopolitanism, International Conference organised by Department of English and Other Modern European Languages, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, 27th – 28th Feb. 2017.

6.5.1.3 Prof. Rameshwar Prasad Mishra (Tenure : from March, 2017 to May, 2017) a. Presided a session in a National Seminar on ‘Muktibodh” at Hindi Bhavana, Visva- Bharati on 30th March, 2017. b. Delivered a lecture on ‘Bharatiya Sahitya mein Rabindranath’ in an orientation programme organised by Visva-Bharati on ‘Rabindranath and his myriad creativity’ at Natyaghar on 26th March, 2017.

6.5.1.4 Prof. Kailash Pattanaik (Tenure : from February, 2018 to till date) a. Presented a paper entitled, ’Current folklore Research in the Eastern India ’ in the national seminar organized by FOSSILS in Central University, Karnataka during 22-24 February, 2018 . b. Presented a paper entitled, ‘Folklore Research in Odiha ’ in the national seminar organized by M S Patel Arts College, Anand in collaboration with Sardar Patel University, Anand, Gujarat during 08-10 March, 2018. c. Delivered a talk on ‘Fakirmohan and His Fiction’, in the School of Indian Languages, JNU organized by Adikabi Saraladas Chair for Odia Studies, JNU, New Delhi, March 17

15, 2018. d. Delivered a talk on Eco Criticism in 4 (four) classes and on Proppian Structural Criticism in 4 (four) classes in the refresher Course organized by the Department of Odia, Sambalpur University, Sambalpur, Odisha durig 7-8 August,2017. e. Presided over inaugural session of Training programme of Centre of Excellance, Department of Odia, Visva-Bharati, during 24-30, September, 2018. f. Presented paper on Birth Centenary National Seminar on Sayed Abdul Malik, jointly organized by Sahitya Akademi and Department of Assamese, Dibrugarh University during 29-30 October,2018 at Dibrugarh University, . g. Presented paper on ‘Folk Performances of Odisha: Tradition and Modernity’, organized by Sangit Natak Akademi,New Delhi, at Amritsar, Punjab, during 19-23 November, 2018 . h. Delivered Key note address in the national seminar on ‘Folk Life as Reflected in Manuscript’, organised by Karnataka Folklore University, Karnataka during 10-12, January, 2019. i. Delivered a talk on ‘Contemporary Odia Fiction’, in Subernarekha College, Baliapal, Balasore, Odisha on 5th.October, 2018. j. Delivered a talk in the Annual Function of Odia monthly journal’Jugashree Juganari’, Bhubaneswar, Odisha on 6th. February, 2019.

6.5.2 Faculty 6.5.2.1 Rajib Chakroborty a. Attended the 1st All India Cluster Meeting of CFEL Clusters on 6th October at Visva- Bharati, Santiniketan, West Bengal. b. Attended 1st All India Meet of The Neo-Brahmi Group Meeting of ICANN at Pune in July, 2016. c. Attended Southern Cluster Meeting of CFEL Cluster on 22nd February, 2016 at Gulbarga (Kalaburgi), Karnataka Central University.

6.5.2.2 Bidisha Bhattacharjee a. Presented Paper titled ‘Non negative na in jei…na construction in Bangla’ at ICOLSI-37, JNU in October, 2015. 18 b. Presented Paper titled “Loss of a ‘tongue’: Identity in crisis” at a National Seminar on Oral Tradition and Community Identity organized by Department of M.I.L & L.S., University of Delhi in March, 2016. c. Attended the 9th Linguistics Summer Schools in the Indian Mountains (LISSIM) organized by ‘Formal Studies in Indian Syntax and Semantics of Indian Languages (FOSSSIL) at Solang Valley in June, 2015. d. Attended the 1st All India Cluster Meeting of CFEL Clusters on 6th October, 2015 at Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, West Bengal. e. Attended Southern Cluster Meeting of CFEL Cluster on 22nd February, 2016 at Gulbarga (Kalaburgi), Karnataka Central University. f. Presented a paper titled ‘Language Revitalization through Oral Tradition’ in the National Conference on The Approaches and Methodologies for the study of Indigenous and Endangered Languages, organised by National Law University, Delhi in February, 2018. g. Presented a lecture on Language Documentation, Language Revitalization and Community Awakening: A Case study of Birbhum District’ in a two-days Seminar cum Workshop on ‘Endangered Languages and Language Documentation in India’, organised by University of Calcutta in February, 2018. h. Presented a paper titled ‘Global and/or Local: Who Am I’ in a two-days National Seminar cum Workshop on Broadening the horizon of the current research on Endangered and Indigenous Languages of India, organised by Jadavpur University, Kolkata in March, 2018. i. Presented a paper titled ‘Role of Language Attitude in Language Endangerment: A Case Study of West Bengal’ in the National Conference on Study and Research Towards Preservation and Promotion of Indigenous and Endangered Languages, organised by National Law University, Delhi on 8th May, 2018. j. Presented a paper titled ‘na as an Evaluative Marker in Bangla’ in 46th All India Conference on Dravidian Linguists and International Symposium on Linguistic Ecology and Language Technology, organised by School of Languages and Linguistics, Jadavpur University and Dravidian Linguistic Association in collaboration with Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysuru at Jadavpur University, Kolkata on 21st-23rd June, 2018. k. Presented paper titled ‘Language Revitalization and Community Initiatives: An Indian 19

Perspective’ in a three-days International conference DLAP-3, organised by RILCA, Mahidol University, Salaya, SOAS, London and Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan at Mahidol University, Thailand on 23rd-25th July, 2018. l. Presented paper titled ‘Preserve Endangered Languages: Need of the Hour: Activities and Objectives of CFEL, Visva-Bharati’ in a two-days national-level training workshop organized by Centre For Endangered Languages, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan on 28th- 29th July, 2018. m. Presented paper titled ‘Textbooks for Second Language Learners: A Comparative Study of Bengali Textbooks’ in a one-day International Symposium on ‘Pedagogy of Teaching Bengali as Second Language’, organised by International Society of Bengal Studies, School of Languages and Linguistics, Jadavpur University and Bhashacharjya Sunitikumar Chatterji Centre for Language and Linguistic Studies, Jadavpur University at Jadavpur University, Kolkata on 19th September, 2018. n. Presented a paper titled ‘Globalization and Tribal Identity: Towards ‘Glocalization’’ in a two-day National Seminar on “Globalization of Indian Tribes: Past, Present and Future Dynamics’, organised by department of , University of Delhi on 26th-27th October, 2018.

6.5.2.3 Arimardan Kumar Tripathi a. Orientation Program on Bhojpuri and Janpadiya Study organized by Bhojpuri Study Centre, BHU, Varanasi during 7th - 21st August, 2015. b. Attended the 1st All India Cluster Meeting of CFEL Clusters on 6th October, 2015 at Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, West Bengal. c. National Seminar on All India Conference on Regional Languages organized by Punjabi Bhasha Academy, Jalandhar during 10th -12th Oct, 2015. d. International Conference on Syntactic Typology: Language Contact and Convergence organized by Department of Linguistics, NEHU, Shillong during 23rd -28th Nov, 2015. e. Attended Southern Cluster Meeting of CFEL Cluster on 22nd February, 2016 at Gulbarga (Kalaburgi), Karnataka Central University. f. Delivered lecture on “Rajbhasha Hindi ki dasha evm disha” in national seminar on “rajbhasha hindi : dasha evm disha” during 14-15th September, 2016 at Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. 20 g. Presented paper on “Teaching through Mother tongue and role of Machine Translation: Indian Perspective” in national seminar on “Use of ICT in Teaching-Learning of Languages in School Education-The Indian Scenario” during 16-17th March, 2017 at NCERT, Delhi. h. Delivered lecture in National workshop on ‘Languages of North East: Conservation and Promotion’ organized at Dera Natung Govt. College, Itanagar during 11-13 August, 2017. i. Presented paper on “mAnav-mashIn antrAprushth” (Man-Machine Interface) in a national seminar on “Language Technology and Language Teaching’ during 20-21 April, 2017. j. Presented paper on “RAjbhAshA evm takniik” in national seminar on “rajbhasha hindi: vividh aayam” during 14-15th September, 2017 at Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. k. Presented paper on “Bharat, India and Indianess” in national seminar on “Revisiting Indology and Sanskrit in India” during 21-22 September, 2017 at NEHU, Shillong. l. Presented paper on ‘Adhunik vijnan evam taknik men bhArat kI bhUmika’ in national seminar on ‘sAhity, samskruti evam vijnan’ organized by BARC, Mumbai during 17-18 November, 2017 at Visva-Bharati. m. Presented paper on “bhartiiy bhashayen evam taknik ka antraprushth” in national seminar on “bharatiy bhashaon ki ekatmkata evam vaijnanikta” during 14-15th March, 2018 at Hari Singh Gour University, Sagar. n. Delivered lecture on ‘Documenting Marginality: Role of Technique’ in Training Program-cum-Workshop for Enumerators organized at CFEL, VB on 19th March, 2018. o. Presented paper on “bhashayen evam loktantr” in national seminar on “bhasha, samaj evam samskruti” during 21-22 March, 2018 at NCERT, New Delhi. p. Delivered lecture on “Linguistic Field Work with Reference to Endangered Languages” in Training Program-cum-Workshop for Enumerators organized at CFEL, VB during 28- 29th July, 2018. q. Delivered lecture on “Role of IT in Language Documentation & Revitalization in Training” Program-cum-Workshop for Enumerators organized at CFEL, VB during 28- 29th July, 2018. r. Participated a workshop on ‘Language Documentation and Revitalization’ organized at Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysuru during 26th Feb to 02nd March, 2018. 21

s. Delivered lecture on “Hegemony of Language & Technology” in Sangman (a literary forum) organized at Guwahati during 1st & 2nd Oct, 2018. t. Presented paper on “Anaphora Resolution: A Knowledge Based Approach’ in SCONLI- 13 organized at IIT-ISM during 24 & 25 Jan, 2019.

6.6 Publication 6.6.1 CFEL a. A comprehensive guideline for field survey paged 440 and entitled “Languages & Cultures on the Margin: Guideline for Field Work on Endangered Languages” Timepass Publication, Bhubaneswar. ISBN- 978-93-87563-32-2. b. Translated & edited version of Guideline paged 272 and entitled ‘अपसंयक भाषा एव ं

संकृित: भारतीय सकं टत भाषाई सवण हते ु िनदिशका ’, The Marginalized Publication, Delhi. ISBN: 978-93-87441-29-3 c. A collection of English research papers from DIAL-2018 (A National Seminar) paged 664 entitled “Indian Languages and Cultures: A Debate” The Marginalized Publication, Delhi ISBN: 978-93-87441-31-6 d. A collection of Hindi research papers from DIAL-2018 (A National Seminar) paged 290

entitled “आकांी भारतीय भाषा एव ं संकृित: एक िवमश” The Marginalized Publication, Delhi

ISBN: 978-93-87441-30-9.

Figure 23 : English Manual Figure 24: Hindi Manual Figure 25: English Book Figure 26 Hindi Book

6.6.2 Chairperson 6.6.2.1 Prof. Udaya Narayana Singh (Tenure: from May, 2014 to October, 2016) 6.6.2.1.1 Book a. 2015. The Other Gitanjali. Andorra: AnimaViva multilingüe SL, Escaldes –

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Engordany, Principat d’Andorra. Printed (Indian) Edition; ISBN 978-99920-68-13-7 b. 2015. Thai version of 2011-edited vol. Rabindranath Tagore 1861-1941: A Commemorative Volume, from India Perspectives 24.2., eds Tanishtha Danslip & Makut Onrudee; Bangkok: Bharat Book House/Butterfly Publishing Ltd. [Thai] c. 2016a. Kibhabe porbo Sanskritike: Bishay Rabindranath. Calcutta: Prativas. [Bengali] d. 2016b. Vachana: Translation of 2500 Medieval Kannada Vachana poems into Maithili. Bangalore: Basava Samithi & Govt of Karnataka. [Maithili] e. Vachana: Translation of 2500 Medieval Kannada Vachana poems into Maithili. Bangalore: Basava Samithi & Govt of Karnataka. [Maithili] f. Jahalak Diary. [A book of poems in Maithili]. Santiniketan/New Delhi: E-Lekhan. g. Perspectives in Language Planning. Kolkata: Alphabet Books.

6.6.2.1.2 Paper a. 2014a. ‘Translating Reality.’ Samik Bandyopadhyay, ed. American Ashramik Sangha volume. [Papers presented at the Dhaka Seminar held in April-May, 2011]. b. 2014b. Dwadash shatabdir naribadi kabita. Sharadiya Alap Parba, Puja Special Number, 1421 bangabda; 145-48. c. 2014c. ‘America in the Psyche of Bangla Authors: Opening of the Space by Tagore.’ In Comparative American Studies, 12.1–2: 33-49, June 2014. Leeds, UK: Maney Publishing. d. ‘Education and What It Does to Us’, Visva-Bharati Quarterly, New Series Volume 23, Number 1, April 2014 - June 2014, pp. 31-38. e. 2014d. In Ekaler Dhumketu (Kolkata), Puja number, 1421 bangabda. f. 2014e. ‘Sankat sabhyatar, sanskritir’. Anushtup, Sheet number. g. 2015a. Mysteries and Miseries and the Language of Silence. In Smaranika, ed by Jinnat Imtiaz Ali. Dhaka: Antarjatik Matribhasha Institute. h. 2015b. ‘Matribhasha o Rabindranath’. In Matribhasha. Dhaka: Antarjatik Matribhasha Institute. i. 2015c. "Crisis of Civilization as the Poet Saw", in Dasgupta, Sanjukta, Ramkumar Mukhopadhyay & Swati Ganguly(eds.) Towards Tagore, pp. 591-599, Kolkata: Visva-Bharati. j. 2015d. Foreword, in Debidas Roy, translated/compiled Tagore and Me. New Delhi: 23

Patridge India, a Penguin-Random House Publication. k. 2015e. ‘Erosion of Linguistic and Cultural Bases in South Asia’. In Supriya Pattanayak, ed. D.P.Pattanayak Felicitation Volume, New Delhi: l. 2015a. The linguistic landscape of Bangla as Swamiji was engaged in constructing. In Swami Vivekananda’s Ideas and Our Times: A Retrospect on His 150th Birth Anniversar , edited by Sandipan Sen, Swarup Roy, Brahmachari Subrata, Jatishankar Chattopadhyay & Swami Shastrajnananda. Belur Math: Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira. 289-308. m. 2015b. ‘Naya shatak, Nayi disha’; नया शतक नयी दशा – भारतीय भाषाओ ँ के िशण क

समयाए ं और संभावनाए ं In Bhasha Prakaryon ke adhunatan sandarbh aur Hindi, edited by Sreesh Jaiswal. New Delhi: Hindi Book Centre. [Based on Keynote Address; Lope de Rueda Auditorium, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Valladolid & MEA, Govt of India, Spain; 14-16 March 2012]. n. 2015c. ‘Sharane, shramane, bachane’; শরণে, শ্রমণে, বচনে ‘Sharane, sramane, Bachane’. Forward in Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Shatek Bachan, Kolkata: Karigar. 7-15. o. 2015d. ‘Bel pakle’; বেল পাকলে Bel pakle. Tagbag, Utsab Issue, 1422 bangabda, 13-15. p. 2015e. ‘Bidyaranya o pother sandhan’; বিদ্যারণ্য ও পথের সন্ধান Bidyaranya o pather sandhan. Kathak, Vol 8.2; Bishesh Utsab sankhya, pp 8-9. q. 2015f. ‘byasta-samasta rattirer jora pyancha’; ব্যস্ত-সমস্ত রাতত্ িরের জোড়া প্যাঁচা ‘Byasta-samasta rattirer jora pyancha’ in Comedy-r Sera Juti: Laurel ar Hardy, ed. By Ladly Mukhopadhyay, [Published on the margins of the 5th International Children’s Film Festival, 2014 at Kolkata] Kolkata: Shishu-Kishor Academy, Government of West Bengal, Pp 19-24. r. 2015g. ‘Foreword’ in Tagore and Me: English Translation of Selected Poems of Rabindranath Tagore, by Debidas Ray. Gurgaon: Partridge Books, a Penguin- Random House Co. Pp xv-xvii. s. 2015h. Mysteries and Miseries of the Indian Poetic Tradition. Artland, Vol. XXIV, No. 7-9 [July-September] t. 2015i ‘Bangla Pramita Uccharan: Dui Banglar Sahajog’; Alap-parba, 4.1: 100-107. Also published in IMLI Smaranika, Dhaka, 61-75. u. 2015j ‘Education and What It Does To Us.’ Visva-Bharati Quarterly.23.1

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v. 2016a. ‘Richard Hoggart-er ‘saksharatar sadupayog’; রিচার্ড হগার্টের ‘সাক্ষরতার

সদুপযোগ’ (১৯৫৭) ও সংস্কৃতি-শাস্ত্রের গোড়ার কথা. (‘Richard Hoggart-er ‘saksharatar sadupayog’ or ‘Uses of Literacy’ (197) o Sanskriti-shastrer gorar kotha’) ) In Parikatha, May ‘Boi-Pora’ Issue. w. 2016b. Indian Litterateurs at Crossroads. In India Now and Transitions, edited by Atul Thakur. New Delhi: Niyogi Books. x. 2016c. ‘Antar o Bahirer Bishwakhani’; ‘অন্তর ও বাহিরের বিশ্বখানি’. সুপ্রভাত Suprabhat Daily (Chittagong, ). y. 2016d. ‘Matribhasha.’ Ebang Mushayera, 22.3-4: 11-20. z. 2016e. (With Oindrilla Maity Surai). ‘Defining the Unpopular.’ Visva-Bharati Quarterly. aa. 2016e. ‘Tagore’s Views on Dharma-Artha-Kaarya: The Concept of activating Socio- Economic Reforms for a Just Living,’ In an anthology, edited by Sebak Jana. New Delhi. bb. 2016f. ‘Translating and Writing as Othering.’ In Neeta Gupta, ed. Translating Bharat, Yatra Books, New Delhi. cc. 2016g. In Reba Som ed. Tagore Vision of the Contemporary World: Tagore and Russia.’ New Delhi; ICCR. dd. Originally delivered as an ICCR lecture, Moscow, Russian State University, Moscow in 2011; Published in Reba Som ed. Tagore Vision of the Contemporary World: Tagore and Russia.’ New Delhi; ICCR. ee. Manifesto of the Unwritten World: The Curse of Dialects.’ In Anvita Abbi, ed. Unwritten Languages of India. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi. 106-116. ff. Published the entries in the Hindi Sahitya Gyan Kosh Project of Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad, Kolkata.

6.6.2.1.3 Other activities a. Invited to act as Member, Governing Board, International Mother-language Institute, Government of Bangladesh, Dhaka; attended GB Meeting on Sept 7, 2014. b. Invited to act as the Chair-person of ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a Science & Technology Research Institute) – Neo-

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Brahmi Group for South Asia. c. Chair-person of the PRSG for Shallow Parsers (SPPTIL), Ministry of Communication & Information Technology, Govt of India with its base in the University of Hyderabad. d. Acted as Visitor’s Nominee for the School of Languages, literature and Culture in JNU, New Delhi. e. Appointed Adjunct Professor, Mangalore University, Karnataka. f. Awarded Jyotirishwar Sanman, 2015 by Mailorang, New Delhi at NSD for Lifetime Contribution to Maithili Theatre. g. Awarded Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyay Lectureship 2015 by the Asiatic Society, Kolkata. h. Appointed Chair-person of Neo-Brahmi panel by the ICANN, California to execute implementation of Govt. of India IT Ministry initiative on bringing Indian languages and scripts on the International Domain Name/Internet. i. Attended as Advisory Board Member several meetings at the International Mother- Language Institute (IMLI), Dhaka, Bangladesh j. Appointed Editorial Board member of the Journal of Multicultural Discourses, published by the Taylor & Francis. (http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rmmd20/current) k. Editorial Board member of the Journal of Intercultural Communication, Sweden (http://www.immi.se/intercultural) l. Appointed Editorial Board member of the journal – The Mother Language, published by the IMLI, Dhaka. m. Appointed members of the JNU Academic Council & Court. n. Inaugurated Vishva Konkani Samaroha, Mangalore o. Acted as Chair-person, PRSG of the Major Project on Shallow Parsing Tools, MC&IT, Govt of India p. Delivered Extra-mural lecture at Amity University, Gurgaon on; 20th October, 2016. q. Awarded Sir Ganganath Jha Samman, 2016 by Akhil Bharatiya Mithila Sangh, Delhi at for Lifetime Contribution to Maithili. r. Invited as an Expert to the Consultative Meeting on the proposed School of Letters 26

(SOL) at Ambedkar University Delhi, Faculty Lounge, 29th July, 2016. s. Continued to attend Academic Council Meetings of JNU as External Member, October 2016. t. Visited Dhaka – International Mother-Language Institute (IMLI) as its Executive Board Member on 20-24 April 2016 before IMLI is elevated to a UNESCO Class II Institution. u. Appointed Editorial Board member of the Journal of Multicultural Discourses, published by the Taylor & Francis. http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rmmd20/current) v. Editorial Board member of the Journal of Intercultural Communication, Sweden (http://www.immi.se/intercultural) w. Appointed Editorial Board member of the journal – The Mother Language, published by the IMLI, Dhaka. x. Continued to act as Chair-person, PRSG of the Major Project on Shallow Parsing Tools, MC&IT, Govt. of India. y. Chaired the 2nd Advisory Meeting of CFEL was held on 28th May 2016. z. Carried out the Responsibility of Designing and Executing the Twin Museum Project, Rabindra Bhavana and Kala Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, from April 2016 to October 2016.

6.6.2.2 Prof. R.Shivkumar (Tenure : from October, 2016 to March, 2017) a. 'Peter Briggs: An Artist Who Belongs Differently to Our Times', in Peter Briggs, Texts by, Sarah Zürcher, Christian Bonnefoi, R. Siva Kumar, Erin Manning, Arnaud Maillet, Tristan Trémeau, and Isabelle Tessier, Naima, Paris, Dec. 2016. b. 'Ek Sthayi Uttaradhikar', Shiladitya, Feb. 2017, pp. 17-24.

6.6.2.3 Prof. Rameshwar Prasad Mishra (Tenure : from March, 2017 to May, 2017) 6.6.2.4 Registrar, V.B. as In-charge (Tenure : from May, 2017 to Feb, 2018) ------6.6.2.5 Prof. Kailash Pattanaik (Tenure : from February, 2018 to till date) 6.6.2.5.1 Book a. Indian Languages and Cultures: A Debate, (ED), Delhi, Marginalised Publications 27

and CFEL,Visva-Bharati , 2018. b. Akankshi Bharatiya Bhasha ebam Sanskriti Eka Bimarsha, (ED), Delhi, Marginalised Publications and CFEL,Visva-Bharati , 2018.

6.6.2.5.2 Paper a. Mana,Manisha O Mankada in Kadambinee (ISSN 2277-1131 ), February,2018 b. Andharibije: Dashu Dipak O Sathi Rupak, Bhubaneswar, Pakshighara, October, 2018. c. Odia Lokanatakare Janajatiya Chitra: Pratifalana O Tara Byabachheda, Cuttack, Satyabadi, (ISSN2581-3994), October,2018. d. Entry of 3(Three) items in ‘Sahitya Kosha’(Encyclopaedia of Odia Literature), Bhubaneswar, Ama Odisha, 2018. e. Maharaja versus Mahapuru, Souvenir, Dhanujatra Committee, Bargarh, Odisha, January, 2019.

6.6.2.5.3 Other activities a. Executive member, FOSSILS (Folklore Society of South Indian Languages, Thiruananthapuram), (2018-21) b. Member, Central Research Committee, Presidency University, Kolkata (2018-2020). c. Member, Expert Committee for Syllabus, Adikabi Saraladas Chair for Odia Studies, JNU, New Delhi, 2018. d. Presided over a session in the national seminar organized by FOSSILS in Central University, Karnataka during 22-24 february, 2018. e. Valedictory address delivered in the national seminar on Politics of Difference and (Re) Locating Marginality: Reflections in Indian Literature, organized by Bhasha Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, during 09-11 November,2017 . f. Presided over a session in the national seminar organized by Department of Hindi, Presidency University, Kolkata on March 7, 2018.

6.6.3 Faculty 6.6.3.1 Book 6.6.3.1.1 Arimardan Kumar Tripathi a. As Co-Author: bhAShA pAristhitikI: bhArtIy evm vaishwik pariprekshy (Linguistic 28

Ecology : Indian and World Scenario) Today and Tomorrow, Publication, New Delhi. ISBN: 81-70-194-91-1. b. As Co-Editor: Translation as Man Machine Enterprise; Eastern Book House, Guwahati, ISBN: 978-93-83-252-46-6 c. Co-edited “bhASha, samay evam samvAd” (Language, time and dialogue); Today and Tomorrow, Publication, New Delhi. ISBN: 81-7019-568-4. d. Co-edited “Ways with Language” Lakshi Publishers & Distributers, Delhi. ISBN: 978-93- 82120-99-5. e. Co-author: Languages & Cultures on the Margin: Guidelines for field work on Endangered Languages; Timepass Publication, Bhubaneswar. ISBN: 9789387563322 f. Translator: alpasaMkhyaka bhASA EvaM saMskxti : bhAratIya saMkaTagrasta bhASAI sarvEkSaNa hEtu nirdEshikA; The Marginalized Publication, Delhi. ISBN: 9789387441293 g. Co-editor: Indian Languages and Cultures: A Debate; The Marginalized Publication, Delhi ISBN: 9789387441316 h. Co-editor: AkAMkSI bhAratIya bhASA EvaM saMskxti : Eka vimarsha; The Marginalized Publication, Delhi ISBN : 9789387441309. i. As Sole Author: ‘bhAratIy bhAshAyen evam dijital loktantra’ is under publication.

6.6.3.2 Papers 6.6.3.2.1 Rajib Chakroborty a. ‘Jaleshwarir ghran’ in Jaleshwarir Jadukar, edited by Shamsuzzaman Khan, Zakir Talukdar and Pias Majid, Dhaka: Kathaprakash, 2015 (pp. 509-515). b. Two articles published in Bangla daily Ajkal in its Sunday Supplement on 17.4.2016 (p. IV).

6.6.3.2.2 Bidisha Bhattacharjee a. 2015. 'Ambiguity in Bangla V-V Construction' in Bangavidhya ISBN: 978-984-33-4444-1 b. 2015. ‘Ambiguity in Bangla V-V Construction: A First Phase Syntax Account’ in Indian Language Review (Vol- I, January-June) published by CIIL, Mysuru. c. 2015. ‘EkSikkhitaPotitarAtmocharit; A Linguistic Account’ in Baalark, . ISSN: 2394-6113 d. 2016. Article titled ‘NOT Desirable’ in BEEKKHA, India. ISSN 1745-5417 29 e. 2017. Co-authored “Bangla Negative Polarity Items: A Detailed Study” (along with Bhadra, Dutta and Roy) in Indian Linguistics, Vol. – 77, LSI, Pune.ISSN-0378-0759 f. 2018. Book: Co-authored Languages and Cultures On the Margin (Along with Singh, Chakraborty and Tripathi), Timepass Publisher, Bhubaneswar. ISBN: 978-938-7563-32-2 g. 2018. Book Chapter: Co-authored ‘Migration and Language Endangerment: Some inputs from West Bengal (eds.), The Marginalized Publication, Delhi ISBN: 978-938-7441-31-6. h. 2018. ‘deshantorgomon o bhaSar biponnota’ in Durdaiba, Kolkata. ISSN: 2394-9090

6.6.3.2.3 Arimardan Kumar Tripathi a. Book Chapter: Named Entity Recognition: A Knowledge Based Paradigm (one contributor) in Translation as Man Machine Enterprise (eds.), Eastern Book House, Guwahati. ISBN: 978-93-83-252-46-6. b. Book Chapter: prokti-vishleshan kA vartmAn sandarbh, (Present Context of Discourse Analysis) in bhAShA evm bhAShAvijnAn : ek drushti (ed.), Bhartiya Vidya Sansthan, Varanasi. ISBN 978-93-81-189-37-35. As c. Co-authored “bhAShA, samay evm samvAd kA sach (Language, Time and Truth of Dialogue) in bhAShA, samay evm samvAd (ed.), Today and Tomorrow, Publication, New Delhi. ISBN: 81-7019-568-4. d. Co-authored “bhArat kA bhAShAi bhU-paridrushy: sAmyik evm sApekshik sach” (Linguistic Landscape of India: Occasional and Relative Truth) in bhAShA, samay evm samvAd (eds.), Today and Tomorrow, Publication, New Delhi. ISBN: 81-7019-568-4. e. Co-authored ‘Hindi Lexicography: A Joint Venture of Man and Machine’ in Translation: Try Thy Metaphor (eds.), Lakshi Publishers & Distributers, Delhi. ISBN: 978-93-82120-94 f. Published entries in the Hindi Sahitya Gyan Kosh Project of Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad, Kolkata. g. Book Chapter: Co-authored ‘Hindi lexicography in the internet era’ in The Routledge Handbook of Lexicography (ed.), Taylor & Francis, U.K. ISBN: 978-1-138-94160-1 h. Book Chapter: Migration and Language Endangerment: Some inputs from West Bengal, one contributor (eds.), The Marginalized Publication, Delhi ISBN: 9789387441316.

6.6.3.3 Newspaper articles focused on language awareness 6.6.3.3.1 Arimardan Kumar Tripathi 30 a. bhAshAon se khelati sattAyen’ in Jansatta a daily Hindi news paper on 07 June, 2015. b. “dijital bhArat kI hakikat aur phasAne’ in Jansatta a daily Hindi news paper on 02 August, 2015. c. “Prof. Udaya Narayana Singh on ‘jarUrI hai bhArtIy bhAShAom ka nayA sarvekShan’ in DNA a daily Hindi news paper on 08 August, 2015. d. “hindI kA lok evm lok men hindI’ in Jansatta a daily Hindi news paper on 01 November, 2015. e. “soshal netwark aur sarokar kA mukhautA’ in Jansatta a daily Hindi news paper on 10 January, 2016 f. “bhArtiya rAShtravAd evm bhAshAyen’ in Jansatta a daily Hindi newspaper on 25 April, 2016. g. “samvAd men samkuchan’ in Jansatta a daily Hindi newspaper on 19 June, 2016. h. “anuvAd charchA vaya gItAnjali’ in Jansatta a daily Hindi newspaper on 14 August, 2016. i. “janmAdhyam aur jantantra kI chintAyem’ in Jansatta a daily Hindi newspaper on 02 Oct,, 2016. j. “vyakaran kI sAmyiktA’ in Jansatta a daily Hindi newspaper on 27 Nov, 2016. k. “alpsankhyak bhAShaom kI vedanA’ in Jansatta a daily Hindi newspaper on 23 April,, 2017. l. “dijital media ka sach’ in Jansatta a daily Hindi newspaper on 9 July, 2017. m. “bhAShA sanrakshan evm lipi’ in Jansatta a daily Hindi newspaper on 17 Sep, 2017. n. “takniki hinsa ka dayara’ in Jansatta a daily Hindi newspaper on 24 Dec, 2017. o. “roji ke sangharsh men bhAshA ka savAl’ in Jansatta a daily Hindi newspaper on 28 Jan, 2018. p. nAma mEM chaviyAm (Shades of nomenclature) in Jansatta a daily Hindi newspaper on 17th May, 2018. q. shikSA: gati EvaM gatirOdha (Education: speed and deadlock) in Jansatta a daily Hindi newspaper on 24th June, 2018. r. aphavAha kA taMtra (Network of rumors) in Jansatta a daily Hindi newspaper on 15th July, 2018. s. alpasaMkhyaka bhASAOM kA bhaviSya (Future of minor languages) in Jansatta a daily Hindi newspaper on 7th Oct, 2018. 31 t. gAMdhI kA bhArata EvaM bhASAEm' (India and languages in thoughts of Gandhi) in Jansatta a daily Hindi newspaper on 11th Nov, 2018. u. takanIka kA varcasva (Hegemony of technique) in Jansatta a daily Hindi newspaper on 6th January, 2019.

6.6.3.4 Other activities 6.6.3.4.1 Bidisha Bhattacharjee a. Awarded Doctoral Degree on 19thNovember, 2018 from Department of Modern Indian Languages and Literary Studies in University of Delhi. Title of the thesis is ‘Some Syntactic and Semantic Aspects of Negation in Bangla’. b. Teaching the course “Introduction to Linguistics” to the M.A. 1st semester student in Department of Modern European Languages, Visva-Bharati since August, 2017.

6.6.3.4.2 Arimardan Kumar Tripathi a. Acted as Member, School Board of School of Language at MGAHV, Wardha. b. Co-organizer of an academic event entitled ‘sabaal: Substantiating, Blending and Augmenting Linguistics’ at Hindi Bhavan, New Delhi 0n 23rd April, 2017. c. Acted as a Member of Permanent Translation Cell of Visva-Bharati. d. Member of Organizing Committee of a National Seminar organized by BARC, Mumbai at Visva-Bharati during 17-18 Nov, 2017. e. Continued working as an editor of HindiTech (www.hinditech.in || ISSN: 2231-4989) a web research journal. f. Acted as editorial board member of Kalarang an online magazine. g. Convener, Scrutiny Committee for Field Enumerators at CFEL, Visva-Bharati during 24th June, 2018. h. Coordinated, National Seminar on Debating Indian Aspirational Languages: DIAL-2018 at Visva-Bharati during 9-11th Sep, 2018. i. Delivered Plenary Talk in SCONLI-13 at IIT-ISM Dhanbad on 24 Jan, 2019.

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7. Future Plan 7.1 Human Resource Development a. Engagement and training of enumerators and local- language resources. b. Engagement of transcriber and language analyst. c. Recruitment of Research Associates and Assistant Professors in the vacant positions.

7.2 Structural Up-gradation a. Installation of server at CFEL and subscribing cloud server. b. Setting up of linguistic and video editing labs. c. Web hosting for archives resources.

7.3 Academic a. Conducting intensive field work for language and cultural documentation in West Bengal, Tripura, Orrisa, & . b. Productizing language descriptions, map, tools, reports, primer and other resources. c. Research and Development of NLP focused on marginal languages. d. Video documentation and documentary production. e. Linguistic data validation from language experts. f. Community based workshops and socio-cultural reporting. g. To develop a language endangerment alarm to sensitize the society and speech communities. h. Studies on socio-economic status of marginal linguistic communities. i. Workshops with representatives of communities. j. Uploading Apps on various platforms for free download. k. To celebrate Year of Indigenous Languages-2019 with organizing seminar workshop, tribal film & food festivals throughout the year.

8. Long term Plan a. To setup a full-fledged interdisciplinary centre for marginal languages and cultural study. b. To setup a National Folklore Museum and online archive for the same. 33

c. To develop academics and introduce various level of courses. d. To preserve linguistic and cultural diversity of country. e. To assist in policy making for country and states. f. To develop various NLP systems for marginal languages or pairs. g. To explore Digital India in regional languages. h. To setup an online Language Information Hub for regional languages. i. To develop language learning tools and language games for cross linguistic communities etc.

9. Conclusion CFEL, VB is a nodal Centre for various CFELs being run in nine central universities in different parts of country. Visva-Bharati is one of the oldest & prestigious central universities in the country, which is an ideal location to work towards documentation and revitalization of marginal linguistic and cultural essence of nation. CFEL, V.B. is working hard despite of several administrative transitions in university. Now it has acquired enough potential to move more rapidly towards its mandate. The issue of funds transfer from UGC to remained CFELs has also been resolved hopefully, therefore a better coordination and functioning is expected to preserve diversity of nation and go further to suggest academic ways for surviving ethnic marginals in entire parts of country.

10. Annexure-1 Report on Endangered Languages Report on Field-survey: CFEL conducted field-survey in various villages of Birbhum, Barddhaman, Purulia, Bankura, South 24-pargana, Nadia, Darjeeling, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri and Kalimpong districts. Based on the field-survey report and with the direct engagements of community-members, the staffs of CFEL are now engaged into preparing dictionaries of

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respective languages. A brief study report on some of the respective linguistic community is given bellow:

10.1 KODA/KORA: Koda/Kora is a language of the Austro-Asiatic language family and a non- scheduled language being majorly spoken in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Orissa. According to the CENSUS report (2001 and 2011) the Koda/Kora linguistic community has been identified as an endangered linguistic community. Koda community originally belongs from Mundari community. They consider their community as the descendants of Santhali ‘father’ and Munda ‘mother’. The Koda/Kora in West Bengal speaks a variety of . The Koda community in recent days is working on the development of their own script, named as NAGCHIKI. Dinesh Mudi from Medinipur district is the main person who is working on the script. West-Bengal Koda Welfare and Co-ordination society is also working on it. They arrange district or state wise programme under the presidentship of Mr. Biswanath Koda to enlighten and welfare of their community.

The present study is based on the survey in Noadangal village, Birbhum and Raipara and Simlur village in Bardhaman. In present days the Koda community of West-Bengal has started using Bangla as the second language. As their native language is not being taught in any school level education, Bangla, the dominating language of the area, has emerged as main language among them. The young generation prefers to use Bangla over Koda/Kora as their main communication language even within the community people. The community is staying here for three generations or more. Most of them have told that they are migrated from Jharkhand (than Bihar). As they are staying for several decades in West-Bengal they have started following the culture and rituals of the of neighbourhood areas. The Bengali community’s festival and cultural adaptation and the language adaptation have made their indigenous culture, rituals, festivals and language endangered. Some of the indigenous festivals which they follow till days are SasogiDi, HindiyagiDi.

Noadangal is a village in Birbhum districts where around 70 Koda families stay. Villagers are mostly engage with farming and agriculture. The young generation is pursuing higher study and some of them are working as school-teacher or engaged in other government sector jobs. They have performed their indigenous songs and dances before the surveyors. The other Koda villages the surveyors have visited are Raipara and Simlur village in Bardhaman district.

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Raipara village in Bardhaman district has a larger population of Koda/Kora community and the village is named after the community as Kodapara/Korapara. Around 50-55 Koda/Kora families stay in this village. Here the ratio of school dropout is large. The young generation also is not pursuing higher study. Another village in Bardhaman where the surveyors have gone is Simrul. Around 50 Koda/Kora families stay here.

10.2 Kurukh/Oraon: - Kurukh (Oraon) is a non-scheduled language of North Dravidian family and mainly spoken by the Oraon tribal people of Orissa, Jharkhand, Madhyapradesh, Chattisgarh and West Bengal. According to the CENSUS report (2001 and 2011) Kurukh community has been identified as an endangered linguistic community. Kurukh was written in Devnagari. In very recent time Dr. Narayan Oraon from Orissa has invented the TOLONGSIKI or TOLONGCHIKI script for Kurukh language. Some books and magazines already have been published using this script. Jharkhand and Chattisgarh government have introduced Kurukh language in school-level. But in West Bengal Kurukh is not being taught in school level. The present study is based on the collected data from the people of Oraon community in Kamardanga village, Birbhum district and Simruli in Bardhaman district. In Simruli there are around 50 Oraon families stay. Koda/Kora and Oraon families stay together in this village. Kamardanga is a small village in Birbhum district. Around 35 Oraon families stay in this village. According to them they are residing in this village for last 3 generations or more than that. They were original inhabitants of Jharkhand. Literacy rate is very poor in the village. Most villagers are engaged in farming or they work as contract labour. Two of them who can write TOLONGSIKI script run an evening-school in the village for the community people to make the young generation familiar with the script as well as language. Mr. Nimai Kumar Sardar, a person from Oraon community and a resident of Bolpur, Birbhum district has taken the initiative and publishes a magazine called ‘Kurukh-Barta’ (three volumes have been published already) and an annual magazine called ‘Kurukh-kattha’ for the cultural and linguistic revival of the community. During the field-survey the community people performed their indigenous and ethnic cultural performances before the surveyors.

10.3 Birhor:- The Birhor tribes are mainly concentrated in Central and Eastern India. Birhor community people are mainly inhabitant of Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Orissa and West Bengal. As forest is the source of their livelihood, they are mainly concentrated in the forest areas. The word ‘Birhor’ is derived from bir ‘jungle’ and hor ‘man’ which means the man of jungle (Behera 36

D.K.). Birhors are nomadic by nature. Also, as forest is the source of their livelihood, they need to move from one place to another in search of forest.

Birhor population is less than 10000 in India in present days (CENSUS 2001 and 2011). According to CENSUS (2001), distributions of Birhor speakers in different states of India are- Bihar-406, Chattisgarh-1744, Jharkhand-7514, -143, - 40, Orissa-702, West Bengal-1017.

In West Bengal Birhors are settled only in Purulia district. There are five villages in Purulia district where Birhor population is concentrated, Bhupatipally and Barriya in Baghmundi Block, Bersa in Balarampur Block and in Jhalda-I Block. They could not tell since when they are living in these places, but they have shifted to these villages from other nearby villages in search of availability of forest.

Birhors are not engaged with farming or agriculture. Their main source of livelihood is collecting woods from forest, hunting and making small crafts or household items using tree-leaves or bamboo basketry items. Some people also collect medicinal plants or herbs.

In Bhupatipally, there is a junior primary school (Upto class VII) where most of the Birhor children of nearby areas go for the primary education. However, the education rate is very poor among them due to following reasons:

i. Mother-tongue education is not possible. They need to learn Bangla to get access of primary education. ii. Teachers do not know Birhor language. Thus, children cannot ask for clarification in their mother-tongue, if needed. iii. Not having access of secondary education in the village or in nearby areas. iv. Birhors are economically very deprived. Thus, the children need to be engaged for earning their livelihood. However, this year, first time two Birhor girls, residents of Bhupatipally, have appeared for Secondary education.

Birhor language belongs to Austro-Asiatic language family. Their language is known as Birhori. The vocabularies and sentential construction shows the relatedness of the language to other

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Munda languages. However, the vocabulary list consisted of many loan words from Santhali. Similarly, sentence construction exhibits areal features due to the influence of other contact languages such as Santhali and Bangla.

Birhor speakers in Purulia districts use Bangla and Santhali as the communication language as these two languages are the dominant languages in this area. For the education purpose, in local market and while talking to neighbouring villagers or local Panchayat people, they use Bangla. With the neighbours whose mother-tongue is Santhali, they speak Santhali. However the Santhali speakers do not speak or know Birhor language as Birhor linguistic communities are much smaller than Santhali speakers and Birhor is a language with less social prestige than Santhali.

Birhor speakers are retaining their language fully at home. School-goers young children also speak Birhor at home and with friends and neighbours from same community. Birhor speakers do not think that their language would be lost in coming 20 years as the young generation can speak the language. However, use of the language is restricted to home and villages only. Speakers of the language feel they could be more educated if they could have the chance of get mother-tongue education. As the life of Birhors is restricted within villages and jungles and do not have the access or exposure of outside world much, they don’t feel any hindrance in daily-life because of their language or linguistic-identity. Speakers are not considering their linguistic identity as ‘social stigma’.

The neighbouring Santhali speakers speak to them in Santhali. Birhor speakers also speak to them in Santhali. Sometimes, they consider Birhor as a variation of their language only. The neighbouring Bangla speakers speak to them in Bangla and Birhor speakers speak to them in Bangla. Birhor children in junior primary school are not allowed to speak their mother-tongue among the fellow classmate of same linguistic community in the school-premises as told to the surveyor team by some students of Birhor community.

Birhors follow the Hindu religious activities. They do participate in Durga Puja, Kali Puja with local Bengali community. People of forest, the Birhors worship the jungle and Ayodhya hill as God before going for hunting praying for the success and safe return. After returning from hunting, if they get animal, first they offer it to Ayodhya hill as they consider their hunting mission is a success due to Ayodhya hill’s blessings. They do the kalipuja in the time of Pausha and Magha month. They worship the Sun or Sing Bonga considering the sun as source of 38

supreme power.

They follow a monogamous marriage system and marriage happens within the same community people. In any occasion, whether it’s a child’s birth or marriage or someone’s death, they offer Hadiya (a local alcohol made of soaked rice or mahuaya fruit) to the God and villagers also consume it as Prasadam.

Birhor language or Birhori is considered as a critically endangered language (UNESCO). As the population rate is very low, the number of speakers are also very less which makes the language endangered. However, speakers do not have any negative attitude towards their language and they retain the language fully at their home and community domain.

10.4 Kharia:- The Kharia or Khadiya language belongs to Austro-Asiatic language group which is mainly spoken by the Kharia tribe group, concentrated in Central-Eastern India. Kharia speakers are mainly located in Jharkhand, Orissa, Chattisgarh and West Bengal in India. Kharia’s are parted into three different groups, namely-Dudh Kharia, Hill Kharia and Delki Kharia. However, the Kharia speaker, surveyor team of CFEL met in various villages of Purulia District in West Bengal met, are the Shabar or Savar Kharia, who by occupation are hunter. According to the earlier study, Hill Kharia’s mention themselves as Shabar. As they mostly live in the forests in hill areas, they are known or mentioned as Hill or ‘Pahari’ Khariya. These groups of people are named as Kharia-Shabar followed by their nature of hunting.

In West Bengal, Kharia population is 52000 (CENSUS-2001). However, population of Kharia- Shabar cannot be determined individually as no such data could be found. This is also not possible from the recent survey-study to determine if all the Kharia speakers of West Bengal are Kharia-Shabar or belong from different Kharia groups.

The Kharias have partlineal, patrilocal and patriarchal family. Men are allowed to marry for more than one time. However, women generally are not allowed to do so. Marriage happens within the same tribe not within the same .

Shabars have a very poor literacy rate. Most people are either illiterate or have completed (or not) junior school. They are economically deprived and do not get chances to continue education due

39 to following reasons:

i. Not having access of mother-tongue education ii. Economically deprived situation made them to try to earn to feed themselves and their family. However, in recent days Shabar-welfare Association and Government Tribal Welfare Scheme have opened some junior and junior-high schools in Puncha, Maguria and other Shabar concentrated villages for spreading the education among Shabar children. Though the medium of instruction in these schools are Bangla.

Shabar people are traditionally engaged with hunting and thus they are named as Shabar or Hunter. Thus these people used to stay mostly near the forests and jungles. However, in present days they are mostly engaged as daily-wage labours. Shabars are not much engaged with agricultural work or farming. They do not have their own agricultural land also. Fishing and Animal Husbandry are also other source of livelihood for them.

The language of Shabar people are known as Kharia language, which is an endangered language according to UNESCO’s list of endangered languages. Shabar people speak their mother-tongue in family and village domain. Children can speak their mother-tongue fluently. However, Kharia-Shabars in Purulia district use Bangla as their main communication language in market and other places. In Shabar welfare schools also the children among themselves speak in Bangla over Kharia language as the survey team found during their survey. Santhali is another communication language for them as the neighbourhood areas show a large population of Santhali speakers.

Shabar people do not have a negative attitude towards their language. However, they do not think their language have any future as it does not have any ‘economic’ value. Thus, they feel the need to learn and shift towards two dominant language groups, namely Bangla and Santhali to survive with better opportunities.

As the ecology system or to be specific animal and forest is their source of livelihood, thus their festivals are mostly associated with hunting, offering their cattle and food-items to the God. They worship their cattle, the jungle and the hill. They celebrate Surhul Puja in spring. In the Bangla month Magha, they celebrate Akhiyan Jatra, which is a puja where they offer ducks to

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the God.

Like other Munda communities, Kharia-Shabar people also offer and Mohua to all God and this is considered as one of the most holy beverage in all celebration.

Shabar or Kharia-Shabar is definitely an endangered language. Though they are retaining their mother-tongue at home and village domain but they feel the need to shift towards the dominant languages as well to get more exposure in the outside world. People who are going outside of their village to earn their livelihood are losing their mother-tongue with time.

10.5 Mahali:-Mahali is a scheduled tribe in India and the language they speak is known as Mahali language. The word mahali derives from mad ‘bnash’ or ‘bamboo’. Mahali economy is based on basketry, thus, the tribe name is derived from mad or ‘bamboo’, the person, who makes basketry items. Mahalis are often been considered as a clan of Santhal. However, most of the Mahali people consider themselves different from Santhals. Due to various similarities in their language and culture and as they share same surname it is often claimed that Mahalis are same with Santhal. Earlier studies suggest that Mahalis were a part of Santhals in earlier times, but recently they have left the Santhal community and looking for their individual identity. A popular myth about the relation between Santhal and Mahali tribe is that Mahalis are garam or grandchild of Santhals. Mahalis can be found in Jharkhand, Bihar, Odissa and West Bengal in India. Mahalis are mainly concentrated in Birbhum and Barddhaman districts in West Bengal.

Population According to CENSUS-2011 report, total Mahali population in India is nearly 1.5 lakhs. However in West Bengal Mahali tribe is really small in number of population, as the population are nearly 2000 only. The present study is based on the collected data of Mahali language in Daulatpur and Nonsa village in Maldah district, West Bengal. In Daulatpur, 13 Mahali families stay and in Nonsa 27 Mahali families stay. CFEL field-surveyor team earlier visited the Mahali communities in Maulipara, Sian in Birbhum district and Radhamohanpur, Galsi, Abhirampur, Somaipur in Barddhaman district. The Mahali community is migrated from Jharkhand and staying in the village for last several decades. The Mahali community told to the surveyors that they are

41 often being confused with the Santhali community as they share the same surname mostly though their cultural practices and language is different from the Santhali community people.

Education Literacy rate is poor among Mahali tribes in Birbhum and Barddhaman district. Majority of the children do not attend schools. They do not get the chance to pursue education in their mother-tongue. Also, there is no school in their village. Children go to primary schools in nearby villages. However, educational programs and community welfare have benefitted some of them to some extent to pursue higher education and create their own space in the world of academia and other sectors.

Occupation Mahali people’s source of earning livelihood is by making articles of bamboo. They make several useful household items and art of crafts using bamboo trees, such as hata (to filter out the dust from paddy or wheat), fetyo (basket), khaloi (pot to store fish by fishermen), dhakon (lid to cover cooking utensils), bini (handfan), dawra (big basket), sop and chatai (mat), machi (small bench) etc. Other people are mostly engaged in farming or run small shops. Young generations are pursuing higher study and working as teacher in colleges and schools, working as Doctor and working at different other economic sectors.

Language Mahali people speak a language which is considered as a dialectical version of Santhali. Lexical and syntactical similarities between Mahali and Santhali have drawn this conclusion that Mahali is a sub-dialect of Santhali. However the speakers of Mahali have told the surveyor-team that their language is different from Santhali. As Santhali and Mahali both belong from same linguistic family, i.e- Austro-Asiatic language family and Santhali is the dominant Austro-Asiatic language of the area, thus it is obvious there would be lexical similarities. However, this is yet to be decided based on further studies if Mahali is a dialectical version of Santhali or it is a different language. The language of the younger generation is not only influenced by Bangla but also by Santhali as they are the two dominant languages in the area.

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Mahali people are concern about the future of their language. Some of the educated community people are taking initiatives to save their language. They are arranging various programs to save and revitalize their language, to encourage the younger generation to speak and write in their mother-tongue and to make Mahali the mode of primary education.

Script They do not have their own script.

Clan and Society Mahalis are divided into four , namely-hansda, murmur, hembram and maddi. Mahali society is patriarchal and family is the smallest form of the society where father or husband is the head of the family. The head of the village is called majhi or parganait. However, they celebrate birth of both sexes equally as they consider both male and female have their own significant values in the family and society. Mahali people follow the rule of tribal endogamy and clan exogamy. The marriage of a Mahali boy is allowed only with a Mahali girl but not in the same totemic clan.

Rituals and Festivals As one of the most ancient tribe in India, Mahali people used to stay in forest area and their culture and festivals are related to nature. Their religion is saran and they celebrate gohal puja, johora puja, modoi puja, pitor puja, karma puja etc. karma puja is an agricultural festival, celebrated in Bhadra month. A group of unmarried young women go to the nearby forest, collect woods, fruits and flowers and worship karma-dev who is the god of power and youthfulness. Mahali people also believe in the existence of evil power and worship them to maintain peace and good luck in life. Some of the evil power they believe in are masna, gudra budda etc. On 7th day after birth of a new-born baby, they celebrate it with a purification bath of the new- mother and the baby and on the day of chhatiarh, the name-giving ceremony or naRta takes place in presence of villagers and family members. Marriage is known as bapla in Mahali community and each marriage ritual take 11days to be completed. Mahali people do not cremate the deceased soul, rather bury the body in a grave. hadiya and paura (home-made wine) are served in every occasion. Earlier studies show two different perspectives on Mahali. One group claims Mahali as a 43

dialect of Santhali; another group claims Mahali as a different language belongs from Munda language family and akin to Santhali language. The centre is working on Mahali language and this is yet to be decided if Mahali is a language or a dialect of Santhali. Dr. Kalachand Mahali has formed ‘Mahali Society’ in 2015 and along with other people working on welfare of their community and fighting for their separate linguistic and . This community has already taken steps to improve, enhance and to enrich the Mahali tribal society in West Bengal. They have successfully arranged three annual convention of Mahali Adivasi Society in different places in West Bengal to enlighten and upliftment of the Mahali society.

10.6 Bhumij:- Bhumij is a language belongs from Austro-Asiatic language family, mainly spoken in West Bengal, Odisa, Assam and Jharkhand district of India. According to 2001 CENSUS, Bhumij population in West Bengal is around 3 lakhs. The word ‘bhumij’ means ‘the people who found themselves in the possession of the soil or one who born from soil’. Even today, Bhumij people earn their livelihood from agriculture and fishing. Bhumij people are known in the history for their active participation in various revolutions against the oppression of the ruler and existing societal discriminations. In West Bengal Bhumij people are mainly concentrated in , Bankura, Purulia and 24 Parganas. CFEL field surveyor team visit three villages, namely-Chatri, Birudi and Lohameria in Raipur Block, Bankura district. The people of these villages cannot tell anything about their root and when their ancestors have migrated. Bhumij society is patrilineal and exogamous and follows the hereditary headship in the village. The community is divided into three clan or ‘gotras’, gulgu, hembram and patti. gulgu people use the surname ‘sardar;. They are the worshipper of ‘Sol’ fish as according to their belief, their ancestor is this fish. Their marriage system is prohibited within the same village. Widows’ remarriage is allowed in the society. The remarriage of the widow is known as ‘sanga’. However they do not follow the same marriage rituals in ‘biya’ (first time marriage) and ‘sanga’. Like other Munda people, Bhumijs also worship the nature. The Sun or singbonga is their supreme deity. They worship jarhuburu during sarhul festival in late spring or summer. They also worship karakata, a female deity, who they believe is responsible for rain and crops. Other deities are baghut (in Kartick) who is responsible to ward off the animals and to protect the crops, gram-deota (in monsoon) to take care of sickness and irrigation during harvest, karampuja 44

and indrapuja. They offer to the deities’ different pulses and grams and branch of sal tree, maize and flowers. Some people offer domestic cattle as well to the deities. They are also scared of the evil power and hang a piece of red cloth infront of every house to keep the evil power away. A school teacher from Kirtandanga village (a neighbouring village) who belongs from Bhumij community has taken the initiative of spreading the use of the language in the community. As a very preliminary step, he has established a primary school, where people from Bhumij community in Jharkhand come and teach the language to the community children. However, literacy rate is very poor among the Bhumij people in these villages due to the following reasons: i. Mother-tongue education is not possible. They need to learn Bangla to get access of primary education. ii. Teachers do not know Bhumij language. Thus, children cannot ask for clarification in their mother-tongue, if needed. iii. Not having access of secondary education in the village or in nearby areas. iv. Bhumijs in these villages are economically very deprived. Thus, the children need to be engaged for earning their livelihood. Bhumij is the language belongs from Austro-Asiatic language family and an endangered language in India. According to UNESCO’s list of endangered languages in India, Bhumij is identified as vulnerable language. According to Rishley, Bhumij belongs from Great Mundari language group of India. However, the present days Bhumij speakers in various districts of West Bengal have borrowed many lexical items from Bangla and their language reflects a mixed of Mundari and Indo-Aryan linguistic features. The language shows SOV word order. Recently, the Bhumij community has developed their own script, Ol Onal script. Mahendra Nath Sardar is the inventor of Ol Onal script. Ol Onal is alphabetic and does not share any of the syllabic properties of the other Indic languages (cf. Bhumij.com). He has written several books using this script. Speakers of the language shifted towards the dominant language of the area. However, they are conscious about the endangerment of their language and are they are willing to save their language and cultural identity.

10.7 Turi:- Turi is an endangered linguistic community in India which belongs from Austro-Asiatic language family and very akin to Santhali language. Turi community people can be found in 45

West Bengal, Jharkhand, Madhyapradesh, Chattisgarh and Odisa.

Population Turi population in India is nearly 3.5 lakhs, where only 2000 of them speak in their mother- tongue and rest have shifted to either Sadri or the dominant language of there are. The present study is based on the Turi community live in Kalna and Paule village in Maldah district. The field-surveyor team visited the Turi community in Bandhpukurpara, Kolapukurpara and Karjana in Bardhaman district and Kamarpara and Nichupara in Birbhum district earlier. 17-18 Turi families live in Kalna village and 42 Turi families live in Paul village. Education Literacy rate is very poor among people. Young people go to school and continue their study either in Bangla medium or in Hindi medium. Occupation People are mostly engaged in farming and agriculture. However, they do not have their own land and do the farming as a daily-wage labor in others land.

Clan and Society Turis are divided into two clans, namely, surja and kush. The people belong from kush clan consider kush tree as their ancestor. Their society is patriarchal, where husband or the senior male person is the head of the family. Their marriage is allowed only with the same clan people. Their society do not allow polygamy or more than one marriage.

Language Turi is a severely endangered language. Even the older generations have restricted themselves using the language only at home domain. However even at home domain, they prefer to use Bangla instead of Turi. They have lost most of their vocabulary. Most of the children are not at all familiar with their mother-tongue. They have a negative attitude towards their language and feel that their ethnic linguistic identity is keeping them in isolation in the villages of West Bengal. Thus, young generation people initially denied their linguistic identity to the surveyor team and instead claimed Bangla as their mother-tongue.

Festivals and Rituals Turi community people have lost their ethnic culture, festivals and rituals. They have adopted

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the dominant Bengali group’s culture and observe durgapuja, kalipuja, diwali following the neighbourhood Bengali families. Except Jeeta Ashtami pujo and karma pujo they could not name their ethnic festivals even. They worship manasa devi and offer duck to the deity. However they follow some rituals specific to their community. After five days of the birth of a new-born, male and female members of the family shave themselves, which is known as jatan. The rice- ceremony is known as bhaat-chuyani in their community. Female babies’ bhaat-chuyani happens after 3months of birth, while male babies’ bhaa-tchuyani happens after 5months of birth.

Concluding Remarks Turi is an endangered tribe in West Bengal, who resides in several villages of West Bengal over many decades and lost their ethnic linguistic and cultural identity.

11. Annexure-2 11.1 Report of National Seminar (DIAL-2018) Centre for Endangered Languages, Visva-Bharati, organized a 3 day National Seminar on Debating Indian Aspirational Languages (DIAL-2018) during 9-11th September at Bhasa Bhavana Building, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. This seminar was an interdisciplinary academic gathering, where experts from not only several special branches of linguistics but also from social science, media, literature, economics, theater, computer science etc. have participated and expressed their views on challenges of marginal linguistic survival in the country. The audience witnessed many intensifying lectures, presentations, research works and participated in healthy debating environment on the various themes of the seminar. The scenario of many marginal languages including Kurukh, Khorta, Kora, Kheza, Santhali, Toto, Bodo, Kurmali, Ho and were discussed during the seminar. The context of debate and discussion was under themes of phonetics, lexicons, script, grammar including issues of ethnicity, technology, font, corpus and social & economical challenges of marginal languages. The territorial distribution of such languages was also mentioned. Some essential measures were 47

preached in order to preserve and document these languages from completely exhausting from the linguistic-socio-cultural scene of India. DIAL-2018 was focused on establishing academics of marginal languages and culture, hence more than 70 papers were presented and some theme and presiding lectures were also delivered by various experts of the domain. There were more than 140 academicians, journalists, social activists, creative writers, folk literature experts and young researchers from every corners of India, participated in main academic sessions of the seminar. Some of creative writers who write in these languages have shared their views and experiences. It was also included cultural narration of marginal linguistic community through one special panel discussion on folk literature & song. There was also a cultural event organized in the night to explore ethnic form of dance and song. Two books based on seminar papers were also released in inaugural session of the event. The main challenge for endangered languages is to sensitize the society and to popularize the real issues and aspirations of the communities, in this sense DIAL-2018 was a fruitful event, where these issues were discussed thoroughly. There was wide media coverage through news papers, magazines, electronic media and web journals etc. Thus DIAL-2018 has created a fresh awareness for marginal languages and cultures in the society and among intellectuals of the country.

12. Annexure-3 12.1 Centre’s activities published in Visva-Bharati’s Annual Report-2016-17

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12.2 Centre’s activities published in Visva-Bharati’s annual report-2017-18

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13. Annexure-4 13.1 Electronic media

13.2 Print media

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