CONSERVING SAURA LANGUAGE THROUGH SCRIPT DIGITISATION BY IITan Ms. S.S PRIYADARSHINI
ODISHABARTA
Rayagada: Rayagada, which comes under Schedule-V of Indian Constitution and is inhibited by Saura, Kandha & Primarily Vulnerable Tribal Groups(PVTG) like Lanjia Saura & Dangaria Kandha. Saura language, which is endangered as per UNESCO, has two scripts in Roman and Sora Sompeng. During 1936, Saura Pundit Mangei Gomanga discovered Sora Sompeng and took the cudgel for spreading it in the community. After several years, a printing press was established at Dambasara village of Gunupur block with the initiation of a few other Saura language experts. But as usual, during a digital age, the printing press has become redundant and printing teaching & learning materials became a daunted task. Fortunately enough Dr.Giridhar Gomango, ex-CM of Odisha belong to Saura Community and is leading a campaign to include this language in Schedule-VII of Indian constitution.
In spite of good efforts by the Saura language experts, the Sora Sompeng script was not making a dent during the present digital era. At this juncture Ms Sony Salma Priyadarshini, a techie by profession, who was pursuing her Masters in Industrial Design in IIT, Mumbai, chipped in to digitise the script so that large posters, calenders, primers could be printed with desk top computers. She still works with IIT professors namely Sri Girish Dalvi & others and experts from WikiPedia & Google to refine the fonts. According to her learning gets strengthened when it is integrated with mother tongue based multilingual education. She has left a hefty salaried corporate job to give back to the community where she grew up. She is now onto designing a primer for saura learners and initiated digitising of Kui script of Kondhs, the largest in number among all sixty two tribes inhabiting in Odisha. Our correspondent Sri Badal Tah recently had a face to face interaction with Ms Priyadarshini. Excerpts of the interview:
HOW DID YOU GET THE INSPIRATION TO DIGITIZE SAURA SCRIPT(?).
In 2012, I got a call from my father inquiring if it were possible to digitize a script and if I could find someone who could do it. At that time, I had just begun working as a software engineer in Bangalore at TCS and Typography/Font design was something I was completely ignorant about. Since, I could not find any person/institution to do this, I started doing my own online research on Typography. I read whatever materials I could find on the Google/Youtube. Being an Adivasi myself, I have a great affinity to our Adivasi culture and people. I believe that each of our children should get the best quality education that is available in the world. Since digitization of a tribal script would help immensely in this area, I took up the task of digitizing the font. My initial work was done with some financial support from PREM (People’s Rural Education Movement – an NGO based out of Brahamapur). I was also working with Mr. Krushna Sabar- a person from Saura tribe, a saura language expert with whom I used to co-ordinate remotely from Bangalore.
I joined IIT in 2014 as a post-graduate student (Mdes, Industrial Design). At IIT I took up a course in ‘Advanced Typography’. Through this I met one of the eminent font designers of world – Prof. Girish Dalvi. Under his guidance I did further research and understood the nuances and complexity of font making. I went on to write a paper on it and presented it as a student speaker in Typoday 2016 (Typoday is an international conference and devoted to address type designers, type users and type educators). My research paper can be found in this link: http://www.typoday.in/2016/spk_papers/SonySalma_TypographyDay-2016.pdf.
APART FROM SAURA, WHAT OTHER TRIBAL SCRIPTS HAVE BEEN DIGITIZED (?).
There is a work happening across the world to preserve Tribal languages and culture. Since language plays an important role in this, the respective script must be digitized. Digitizing a font is an extremely time consuming and difficult task. There are dedicated professionals called type designers and Font making organizations called ‘Font Foundry’ who do this task. According to the Census of India of 2001, India has 122 major languages and 1599 other languages. We need to research on how many of these languages have scripts. Of this huge set of languages there are many which have died and many on the verge of dying. Over the last two decades, scientists have come up with mathematical models for predicting the life of languages. These predictions have indicated that a large part of linguistic heritage is moving rapidly close to extinction. Some of the predictions maintain that out of an approximately 6,000.existing languages, only a small portion of language diversity will continue to exist in the 22nd century Unless there is support (be it financial, operational, support by language experts) given to the font designers and font foundries(like Ek Type, a studio based out of Mumbai), this work cannot be done. Some tribal fonts like – Ol Chiki, Dogri, Masaram Gondi, Gunjaram Gondi have already been digitized. These fonts are digitized to a much further extent that they can be used in typing in Whatsapp, making websites etc. Unless such efforts are taking for the many scripts that exist in India, the script along with the language would be extinct in time. Along with the death of the language, an immense knowledge of an entire culture will be lost to the world.
WHEN, WHERE, HOW & WHO INVENTED THE SAURA SCRIPT(?).
Mangei Gomango popularly known as Pandita Sabara Mangei Gamango is said to have devised the script for Saura tribal language of Rayagada district. He called the script – Sora Sompeng. It is believed that the letters of the Sorang Sompeng alphabet came to him in a vision on 18 June 1936. He broke down the language into 24 letters and 10 digits. Before this Sauras have used other non-native dominant scripts. For instance in Odisha, the Odia script was used by Saura tribe for writing. Later on an organization named Matarvanam Vignyan Prachar Ashram(MVPA) established a block printing press in Dombasara, Gunupur, Odisha. It printed a limited number of books and other documents in past. But since then, reduced exposure and minimal involvement of the state in promoting the script has resulted in demand for the press dying down and its eventual closure. Recently there has been a great community effort and will by the Saura people to preserve their language. Since the conception of the first version of the Sora Sompeng digitised script, numerous materials such as books, calendars, posters etc has been made and promoted within the tribe.
HOW MANY TRIBAL SCRIPTS HAVE BEEN DIGITIZED BY ODISHA GOVERNMENT SO FAR (?).
Odisha has 62 Tribal dialects of which 5 tribal dialects have scripts. The scripts and their respective tribes are – Ol Chiki (Santhali Tribe), Ho (Ho Tribe), Kui (Kondh Tribe), Sora Sompeng (Saura Tribe), Bhumij (Munda Tribe). According to my knowledge Ol Chiki has been digitized to a great extent. Now there are efforts on Sora Sompeng. I do not know if there are digitization efforts for the other Odia tribal scripts.
HAVE YOU RECEIVED ANY HELP FROM THE STATE OR CENTRAL GOVERNMENT TO DIGITIZE SAURA SCRIPT(?).
No, I have not received any help from the state or central government. Since this work requires the effort of not only Type Designers but also Computer Engineers, language experts, policy makers, educators and community will-power to take it forward, a lot of government help is required in this area.
HOW DO YOU EXPECT THE GOVERNMENT TO REACH YOUR DESTINATION(?).
I expect the government at all levels (Central, State, District and till Panchayat) to support this initiative. I also expect Indian and international Organisations (like UNESCO) to work with us. The help should be in form of providing – funding, human resource and support to take this forward. This will be used in digitizing the font, collect data from community, design and publish books based on the data collected, train and promote educators at different levels (Anganwadi teachers, Primary and Secondary Language teachers), work and recognise language experts of the community and other similar activities.
This work goes hand-in-hand with the National Education policy which encourages the mother tongue or local or regional language as the medium of instruction in all schools up to Class 5 (preferably till Class 8 and beyond).
WHAT IS YOUR GOAL(?).
There should not be a death of another language. Our ancestors live with us through language. Our knowledge on various things from understanding nature, our medicines, our food, songs, stories etc. will be carried forward through our language. Once all this knowledge is lost, no amount of money can get this back. We would devoid our children from such rich knowledge. I do not wish to see the ocean of knowledge dying because of the lack of efforts to digitize a script.
HOW USEFUL IT IS TO INSPIRE OTHER INNOVATORS IN DIFFERENT FIELDS TO MAKE EACH OTHER’S EFFORT SUCCESSFUL(?).
There is a need for people from various backgrounds – Technology, Design, government, NGOs, Educators, Anthropologists, Data collectors, Researchers and immense will power of the community to take this forward. To understand this- imagine today you lose the ability to both read, write or speak in your mother-tongue –
HOW WILL YOU SPEAK WITH YOUR PARENTS, SIBLINGS, FRIENDS(?).
Imagine today you lose the ability to read, write or speak in English – How would you read books, newspapers? Could you travel across the country or outside of the country? How would you have been educated? How would you have used internet? As mentioned, the task of preserving a culture is humongous. Digitizing a font is only a cog in the huge effort that will go into this. The death of a language is an immeasurable loss. Belonging is an incredibly powerful human emotion- our mother-tongue is our first language that connects us to our family and community. As humans our entire existence is language. If we do not take efforts now, it will be too late. When that happens no amount of money can get us back what is lost.
