The Malvi-speaking people of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan: a sociolinguistic profile Bijumon Varghese Mathews John Nelson Samuel SIL International 2009 SIL Electronic Survey Report 2009-011, September 2009 Copyright © 2009 Bijumon Varghese, Mathews John, Nelson Samuel, and SIL International All rights reserved 2 Contents Abstract Preface Maps 1 Introduction 1.1 Geography 1.2 People 1.2.1 Castes and tribes 1.2.2 Population 1.2.3 Education and literacy 1.2.4 Culture 1.3 History 1.4 Language 1.4.1 Classification 1.4.2 Dialects 1.4.3 Language development 1.5 Purpose and goals 2 Dialect Areas 2.1 Lexical similarity 2.1.1 Procedures 2.1.2 Site selection 2.1.3 Results ad analysis 2.2 Dialect intelligibility 2.2.1 Procedures 2.2.2 Site selection 2.2.3 Results and analysis 3 Bilingualism 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Tested levels of bilingualism in Hindi 3.2.1 Sentence Repetition Test (SRT) procedures 3.2.2 Variables and sampling for SRT 3.2.3 Demographic details of the SRT sites 3.2.4 Results and analysis 3.3 Self-reported and observed bilingualism in Hindi 3.3.1 Questionnaire procedures 3.3.2 Questionnaire results and analysis 3.3.3 Observations 4 Language Use, Attitudes, and Vitality 4.1 Procedures 4.2 Language use 4.2.1 Language use among Malvi speakers 4.2.2 Language use among Sondwadi-Malvi speakers 4.2.3 Language use among Bhil-Malvi speakers 4.2.4 Language use with Hindi speakers 4.3 Language attitudes 4.4 Language vitality 5 Summary of Findings 5.1 Dialect areas 5.2 Bilingualism 3 5.3 Language use, attitudes, and vitality 6 Recommendations 6.1 For language development 6.2 For literacy work Appendix A – International Phonetic Alphabet Appendix B – Wordlists Lexical similarity counting procedures Wordlist information and respondent biodata Wordlist transcriptions Appendix C – Recorded Text Testing Recorded Text Testing procedures Recorded Text Testing stories Recorded Text Testing data Appendix D – Sentence Repetition Testing Hindi SRT sentences SRT scoring key SRT data Appendix E Sociolinguistic questionnaire Questionnaire data References 4 Abstract The purpose of this sociolinguistic research among the Malvi-speaking people was to assess the need for vernacular language development. Responses of Malvi speakers to sociolinguistic questionnaires indicated strong vitality of the language. Bilingualism testing in Hindi, confirmed by observations, showed that women, older people, and the uneducated could especially benefit from mother tongue materials and literacy work. Wordlist comparisons indicated potential intelligibility among several different dialects of Malvi. Dialect intelligibility testing showed adequate comprehension of the selected Ujjaini variety among speakers of other dialects. Preface This sociolinguistic survey of the Malvi-speaking people of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan was sponsored and carried out by the Indian Institute for Cross Cultural Communication (IICCC), which has an interest in developing mother tongue literature and promoting literacy among the language groups of India. The survey team hopes that this survey report will ultimately benefit the Malvi-speaking people. The project planning and fieldwork was carried out during February to June 2000. Many kilometres were travelled and many people were involved in these research efforts, which resulted in the elicitation of 30 wordlists, the playing of over 150 Hometown Tests and Recorded Text Tests, the administration of 108 Hindi Sentence Repetition Tests, and the collection of 125 Language Use, Attitudes, and Vitality questionnaires. We remember all the Malvi-speaking people in the villages who helped us and participated in the testing. There are many others in this survey who assisted in various ways and we are thankful to each one of them. Every effort has been made to collect accurate information and present it clearly. The authors take the responsibility for any errors. Corrections to this end would be welcome. 5 LEGEND Malvi Area GUJARAT Neighbouring States UTTAR RAJASTHAN PRADESH MADHYA PRADESH GUJARAT CHHATTIS- GARH INDIA MAHARASHTRA MAP 1. MALVI SURVEY AREA 6 LEGEND State Boundary RAJASTHAN District Boundary NIMUCH District Head quarters NIMUCH JHALAWAR GUNA (RAJ) MANDSAUR RAJASTHAN VIDISHA RAJGARH B H RATHLAM O UJJAIN SHAJAPUR P A L JHABUA SEHORE GUJARAT INDORE DHAR DEWAS MAP 2. DISTRICTS AND HEADQUARTERS 7 LEGEND RAJASTHAN • WL from this survey ⊗ WL from previous survey • 2 • 1 • 1-Jesigpura • • 24 26 27 • 2-Bhandia • 3-Bhunyakhedi • 25 • • 4-Kishorepura • 4 • 5-Bhimakhedi • 3 • • 28 • 29 • 6-Lojithara 23 • 7-Bhandikhali • 8-Rojdi • • 30 5 • 22 • 31 ⊗ 9-Thillorkhurd • 21 • 10-Kalwar •15 • 11-Kumardi ⊗33 • 20 17 • • 12-Moondikhedi • 24-Era • 16 • 6 13-Samapura • •18• • 14 • 25-Adakhedi •19 14-Mungavali • • 26-Narana 15-Rathwaratanpur • • 27-Deevdi • 12 16-Jokhar • • 13 • 28-Jhadmu • 8 • 17-Bhaisoda • 11 • 29-Semlikhakhad 18-Harsodan • • ⊗ 9 • 30-Paldiyabana 7 19-Chandukhedi • • 31-Sagpur ⊗ 32 • 20-Nain ⊗ 10 • 32-Kangariya 21-Koyal ⊗ • 33-Athwaniya 22-Jamly ⊗ ⊗ 34 • 34-Jajumkhedi 23-Harnauda ⊗ 35-Sonipura ⊗ 35 MAP 3. WORD LIST SITES 8 • 1-Jesigpura • 2-Bhunyakhedi • 3-Bhaisoda • 4-Harnauda • 5-Paldyabana • 1 • 6-Moondikhedi • 7-Bhandikhali • 8-Sonipura • 2 • 4 • 5 3 • • 6 • 7 8 • MAP 4. RTT SITES 9 LEGEND • Questionnaire site ♦ Questionnaire and SRT sites • 1 • 1-Jesigpura • 2-Bhunyakhedi • 3-Harnauda • 2 • 4-Bhandikhali • 3 • 5-Moondikhedi • 6- Paldyabana • 6 ♦ ♦7-Koyal 7 ♦ 8 Harsodan ♦8 • 5 • 4 MAP 5. QNRS & SRT SITES 10 1 Introduction 1.1 Geography The area of the Malvi-speaking people encompasses a large tract of land in central India (Map 1), specifically the western part of Madhya Pradesh (MP) and the lower south- eastern side of Rajasthan. The Malwa region comprises territory from 21 to 25 degrees north latitude and from 73 to 80 degrees east longitude, or from Chittore in Mewar in the north to the Tapti River in the south, and from Bundelkhand in the east to Gujarat in the west (Malcolm 1970:B-1). It consists largely of plateau, but it also has low ranges of hills and rivers running roughly west to southeast. Malwa is a traditional cultural area consisting today of the districts of Ujjain, Rathlam, Indore, Dewas, Shajapur, Mandsaur, Nimuch, Rajgarh, Sehore, Dhar, and Bhopal of MP and Jhalawar district of Rajasthan. The traditional boundaries of Malwa are attested to in a well-known poetic verse as ‘between Chambel, Betwa and Narmada in the south.’ In fact, the Narmada River in the south, the Betwa in the east and the Chambel in the northwest roughly marked its boundaries. The provinces of Kanthat and Bagat separated Malwa from Gujarat and Rajaputana, while the tract known as Hadothi formed the most extreme limit on the northwest. Bundelkhand and Gondwana surrounded Malwa on the eastern and south- eastern side. The region within the province was mainly plateau, with alluvial tracts scattered all over the land. The jungle was dense in many places (Singh 1936:3). Compared with other areas of MP, Malwa is the most agriculturally developed area. Malwa is rich in agriculture and the most fertile land in India after the Ganges region, producing large quantities of crops such as wheat, rice, millet, maize, groundnuts, chana, kappas, soybeans, cotton, oil seed, opium, sugarcane, musk, melon, and betel-leaf. Before the independence of India, Malwa had its own name in the cotton industry and today has the third position in India in cotton clothes and thread manufacturing, after Mumbai and Ahmadabad. Other main industries are production of sugar, rayon, cement, and synthetics. Beautiful forests rich in natural products, particularly teak, cover large tracts of Malwa, and these form a valuable article of commerce. Some of the cities and towns of Malwa have been much celebrated both in ancient and modern history. For many of these it is now difficult to trace the sites or discover the names, though there are remains of architecture, sculpture, and inscriptions to be found amid their ruins (Malcolm 1970:B9–11). On the sociolinguistic level, there may be differences between the linguistic and geographic boundaries, since the people who live in Malwa proper consider their language Malvi, while many who live inside of what historians consider the linguistic boundaries of Malwa do not consider themselves to be speakers of Malvi. For the purpose of this survey, many districts and tahsils1 were traversed (Figure 1; refer also to Map 2). 1 A tahsil is an administrative subdivision of a district. 11 State Districts Tahsils Ujjain Ujjain Mehidpur Nagda Rathlam Rathlam Jaora Mhow Indore Indore M Kannod A Dewas Sonkach D Dewas H Susner Y Shajapur Agar A Shajapur Mandsaur Mandsaur P Nimuch R Nimuch Manasa A D Rajgarh Rajgarh Zirapur E Narsinghgarh S H Sehore Sehore Ashta Ichhawar Manawar Sardarpur Dhar Dhar Badnawar Bhopal Berasia Jhalrapattan RAJASTHAN Jhalawar Gangdhar Pirawa Figure 1. Districts and tahsils covered during this survey. 12 1.2 People According to the older generations, the people of Malwa are traditionally peace- loving. Since their land is fertile and produces a vast amount of crops, they have had enough to satisfy their needs. The people say, ‘We ate, drank and lived a peaceful life.’ They were not warriors like the bordering Rajasthanis and Mahrattas. Because of this, invasions happened often; Mughal kings, Mahrattas, and finally Britishers invaded this area. 1.2.1 Castes and tribes People living in the Malwa region are from different caste groups and tribes and thus do not have a general people group name, though the one language binds them together. Among Malvi speakers, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes, and General Castes2 are common. Balai, Bagri, and Chamar are the groups reportedly speaking pure Malvi. Mainly the Balai and Rajputs are spread all over Malwa. Within Balai, there is a clan called Malvi.