Lucknow, 25 Oct 2007
The Lucknow University (LU) has bagged a project from the University Grants Commission (UGC) to revive one of the tribal languages, Raji, of Uttarakhand.
The project was offered to LU following significant work on the language by Dr Kavita Rastogi Reader of Linguistics department, LU, for the past nine years.
Since then she has been working with the Banrawat community—residing in nine small hamlets —Attodi, Jamtadi, Kimkhola, Bhktirva, Ganagaon, Kutachaurani, Kantoli and Chipaltara—of Pitthoragarh district, to revive the language.
Kavita is now in the process of documenting and preparing grammar for the Raji language.
A sum of around Rs 5 lakh has been allocated by the UGC for the same.
Kavita said: “The approval had come about 4 months ago. We will appoint a research scholar to assist us in the work. With the assistance from UGC, we plan to complete documentation and preparation of grammar, curriculum development and creation of community-learning centres at the earliest.”
Talking about her work, Kavita said: “In my visits, I saw that majority of the Banrawat community members were aware of the Hindi language. Taking this into account, I reproduced some Raji words in Devnagri script. The idea worked, the tribals, who had left the native language, evinced interest in learning Raji. This was because they got the feel of their local dialect from the script they were familiar with.”
“Following this, for making Raji popular amongst the tribe, I opted to conduct essay competitions at regular intervals in the villages inhabited by the tribal community,” added Kavita.
She adds, “The community has opted for Hindi and other languages to earn their livelihood.
As a result, with few takers for Raji, the language faced the threat of being wiped out.
The dwindling population of Banrawat made the situation worse for the survival of the language.
A study in 1998 had put the Banrawat’s strength at 667.
News Source: http://www.expressindia.com
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