A joint academic gathering under the title of Aadi Vyakhyan 06 ː National Seminar on Preserving Tribal Languages Utilising Technology & Indian Multilingualism: Policy & Practices was organised by NTRI & CFEL, Visva-Bharati University at Bhasha Bhavana, Santiniketan in hybrid mode on 12 and 13 September 2024.

More than 40 paper presenters including linguists, domain experts, field practitioners, scholars, & tribal community representatives from across the country presented their work on diverse sub-themes under the theme of the seminar.

The program was formally inaugurated by the Hon’ble Vice Chancellor (Officiating)  Visva-Bharati, Prof. Binoy Kumar Saren. Prof Saren in his Inaugural address spoke on the vitality of preserving tribal languages.  He said “When a tribal language dies, valuable oral history, customs, and indigenous wisdom—often about the environment and sustainable living—are lost. Language preservation also empowers tribal communities and encourages identity, pride, and continuity across generations focusing on retaining multilingualism in the country”.

 

Prof.  Nupur Tiwary, Special Director, NTRI in her address in the program elaborated on the examples of Innovative Initiatives for the Preservation of Tribal Languages and mentioned that NTRI through this program aims to stimulate the academic discourse on preservation, protection and promotion of tribal language as language has vital significance in context of culture, traditions and heritage of tribal communities.

 

 

Prof. Tiwary also shared about the concerted efforts being undertaken by the National Tribal Research Institute under the guidance of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Govt of India through the Series of Aadi Vyakhyan program addressing the subject areas concerning Tribal Development through multi stakeholder involvement  in each program gathered together for deliberating and discussing on various themes providing with  multi-sectoral perspective based output for identification of issues and challenges,  ideas on formulation of strategies and way forward.

Prof. Manoranjan Pradhan, Chairperson of the Centre for Endangered Languages, Visva-Bharati welcomed officially to the delegates and introduced activities of the Visva-Bharati with especially reference to endangered languages and research and development tasks conducted at Visva-Bharati. I am confident that the discussions from this seminar will provide valuable insights and inspire new ideas on promoting and supporting multilingualism in our communities, especially in the context of policies focused on NEP-2020 in the education system and society.

Dr. Arimardan Kumar Tripathi, Faculty r CEFL, Visva Bharati shared the objectives of the event focusing on maintaining multilingualism in the country by using digital mediums, especially in the view of the digital India program. He also introduced and briefed about the web portal and Android application developed by CFEL, Visva-Bharati, where the language resources are available to the users based on the bibliographic data including various multilingual dictionaries and language descriptions of endangered languages.

During the seminar two books  on endangered tribal languages published by the CFEL, Visva-Bharati were released by the dignitaries. The inaugural session also witnessed the Udbodhini Sangit played by Students of Sangit Bhavana Visva Bharati.  In an extension to the paper presentations in the Seminar, a theater play titled “The Blind Opera”  directed by Shri Mrityunjay Prabhakar was performed in multilingual mode by Students of Sangit Bhavana . The play signified and symbolized the multilingual diversity of India.

In the valedictory session of the seminar, the tribal resource persons  were felicitated by the dignitaries  for their contribution in building a dictionary translating tribal languages into english - hindi - bangla. The tribal resource persons were Pravat Koraz for Kurukh and Santosh Tudu for Mahali language.

The seminar ended with Vote of thanks to all the stakeholders for their contribution and certificate distribution to the paper presenters..

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Saurabh Singh

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