Picture used for representational purpose only

JAIPUR: Three languages from Rajasthan—Dhatti, Thali and Dharvadi—are on the verge of extinction , leading to an identity crisis among the native speakers , according to a recent study.

The apathy of the state, urbanization and migration has left these languages ‘unpopular’ among the next generation of native speakers, causing irreversible damage to their culture, customs and rituals.

A study by Bhasha Centre of Excellence, Baroda, under the Union ministry of tribal affairs, has listed 11 languages under the endangered ones, including the three from the desert state.

Dhatti language is traditionally spoken by Maheswaris, Meghwals and Sodha Rajput communities in the undivided Thar desert, comprising Sindh in Pakistan and Barmer in Jaisalmer. The influx of Hindu population in 1947 and 1971 had made the language very popular in bordering areas. But it started losing relevance as the laws made it difficult for immigrants from Pakistan to be granted citizenship.

The numbers have reduced drastically from lakhs to barely a few hundred families in Gadra, Chautan and Shiv Tehsil in Barmer, said the report.

Dr Nirmala Maheshwari, a Dhatti language speaker who had crossed over from Hyderabad in Sindh in 2008 with her family during a series of attacks on Hindu minorities by religious zealots, expressed her disappointment in losing their native language forever.

“Dhatti is the official language of the Maheshwari community in Thar. When we came to our ‘grandmother’ (India), I didn’t find anyone even in my community who could converse in Dhatti. Everybody spoke Hindi. I try to converse with my children in the language of our ancestors hoping that they will pass on the legacy,” Maheshwari, who after spending 11 years is still struggling to get a citizenship, said.

Madan Meena, a trustee of the Bhasha Centre of Excellence, said that the number of speakers of the language, belonging to the Meghwal community, has been decreasing slowly with the rapid transformation in demography.

“Dhatti mainly spoken in the households of migrant families differs very much from the dominant Marwari language of the region. One of the important reasons that these languages are dying is because they lack a script. So, it is not being taught in schools. Their speakers are people who are over 50 years old. Even in those households, the younger generation is not able to understand the language easily. Children attending Hindi and English medium schools prefer to speak in those dominant languages even at home,” Madan said.

“Even in the Census, people have mentioned their language as Hindi because officials are not aware of Dhatti,” Madan said.

Similarly, the other languages endangered in Rajasthan—Thali and Dhavadi—are spoken in village Dhabla in Jaisalmer and villages in Udaipur , respectively.

A hybrid of the Mewari and Vagadi languages, spoken in the Udaipur district, is known as Dhavadi. Thali language, spoken in Jaisalmer, is part of Marwari language and has the influence of Dhatti and Marwari.

In a documentary made by Bhasha Centre of Excellence, Gorakhram, a resident of the Dhabla village, says that there is a huge difference in the Thali language spoken today as words from other languages have become a part of it. “Younger generations do not speak the language at all. Children learn Hindi in school. No one is bothered to save the language. There is no employment opportunity or any initiative to preserve it. If all work together, this language can be preserved. But I don’t see anything happening in the near future,” said Gorakhram.

Suraj Rao, assistant registrar of MDS University, Ajmer , and co-ordinator of this project, claims that with the loss of language a civilization would be lost. “With the loss of language, customs, phrases, folksongs, rituals that are associated with it will be lost. We will not able to revive it after a while. It will disappear from day-to-day life as the usage of it in various forms—to denote weights and measures, lullabies, folksongs and passed through generations to depict history and mythology—disappears. This makes it even more important to preserve this language when we still have time,” Suraj said.

Suggesting a unique initiative taken by the Chhattisgarh government to preserve tribal languages in the state, Madan Meena said, “In Chhattisgarh, the government has started giving primary education to students of linguistic minority groups in their native language. If any such initiative is taken in our state, then the languages will receive some attention.”

