Santali cultural heritage has been largely transmitted orally through generations. However, they were put in print when a series of periodicals were initiated by Christian missionaries in eastern India during the early 19th century. The project aims to digitalize periodicals published between 1890 and 1975 (5,000 pages approximately, consisting of 150 volumes representing a vast body of first-hand knowledge and information about Santali cultural heritage. The project also aims to locate endangered manuscripts of Sadhu Ramchand Murmu (1897-1954) and Pandit Raghunath Murmu (1905-1982), who have had widespread contributions in invention of the Santali OlChiki script.
The periodicals are written in the Santali language, using Bengali and Roman script with diacritics. Many songs contain early translations of Hymns from English to Santali having non standard spellings and dialects. The vocabulary and grammar of the periodicals are multi-layered, using technical terms from Christianity, Hindi and Bengali and incorporating them in Santali texts and literature.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit dolor
The materials are located with collectors at Banduan, Purulia District and Berhampore, Murshidabad District. Most of the material is acutely vulnerable। Many pages are torn with wrinkled edges and have been found to be brittle. The cause of decay stems from the fact that these materials were repeatedly dislocated as the private collectors had to flee Naxalite-Maoist insurgency during 2008-2010. As a result, the materials have suffered prolonged exposure to the elements resulting in wear and tear.
The project intends to survey and locate endangered manuscripts of Sadhu Ramchand Murmu (1897-1954) and Pandit Raghunath Murmu (1905-1982), who have made a widespread contribution to the invention of the Santali OlChiki script. 10 hand-written note-books are expected to be present in possession of descendants of Sadhu Ramchand Murmu living in Ranchi, Jharkhand State (400 km) and 25 note-books at Mayurbhanj, Odisha State (250 km.) and Purulia, West Bengal State (300 km.) from descendants of Pandit Raghunath Murmu.
The materials are a significant resource for the study of oral literature, the transformation from oral to written cultures, and the interconnection between indigenous religion and Christianity. The periodicals have immense potential to provide primary research material for Santali scholars researching linguistics, folklore, folk songs, and specific cultural forms such as riddles which are threatened in this era of globalization. Digitizing the materials will help to generate a subaltern narrative of the contemporary political scenario which resulted to forced migration of the indigenous community residing in four states of India, namely Jharkhand, Odisha, Assam and West Bengal. The effects of the historic SantalHul of 1855 (the great Santal rebellion of 1855) on literature and oral history of the community are also embedded in the literary material proposed for digitisation.
The outcomes will consist of both digitisation and survey. Digitisation of 5,000 pages, consisting of 150 volumes, available in cloth-bound volumes as well as stand-alone publication will be done. Field survey will be conducted to locate more material (periodicals and endangered manuscripts) of Sadhu Ramchand Murmu (1897-1954) and Pandit Raghunath Murmu (1905-1982) for future preservation project.
The Project Team:
Amritesh Biswas
Onsite digitisation
Shrutakirti Dutta
Listing, data management
Sitaram Baskey
Survey of Santali manuscript
Given the rising COVID situation, online training program was arranged, namely ‘Training Building Digital Archives: An Online Training Programme’ between October 25, 2021 to October 29, 2021 (21 hours). The inaugural address was given by Professor Samantak Das, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Director, School of Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur University followed by Preliminary Remarks on the Training Program by the principal investigator, Dr. Rahi Soren. Speakers of national and international reputes were invited, namely Sukanta Chaudhuri (Professor Emeritus,JU), Spandana Bhowmik (Wipro Archives), Abhijit Gupta (Professor and Director, Jadavpur University Press and Joint Director, SCTR), Mahadev Hansda (Editor, Tetre), Sarada Kisku (Santali Author), Nishaant Choksi (IIT, Gandhinagar), Tone Bleie (Professor (University of Tromsø), Debapriya Basu (IIT, Guwahati) and Dablu Soren (Teacher, Murshidabad).