LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 17:8 August 2017
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Rabha Speech Community - In Colonial and Post-Colonial Eras

Amrita Das, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. Candidate

Abstract

Rabha, one of the endangered Mongolian Linguistic communities migrated to India long before the establishment of British colonial empire. This Sino-Tibetan group of people migrated to North-Eastern part of India and occupied especially in North Bengal, the history of which is associated with the Kirata civilization.

The present study will look back to the gradual shifting status of this speech community in different socio-economic and political era in this land of multilingual hub.

Keywords: Mongolian tribes, Sino-Tibetan Language, Forest regulation, Church Christianity, Multilingualism, Language identity, Rabha and Koch

Introduction

Long before the pre-colonial era the Rabhas had come to North Bengal. They are here even before the ‘Koch’ empire was established. They arrived at the Bhamhaputra Valley of Assam from Tibet along with other Mongolian groups. From here one group migrated towards the far eastern part of India via moving towards south and another group moved towards Dooars and Cochbihar, the opposite side of the river Brahmaputra (Saha, Reboti Mohan, 1983).

Rabha adopted the socio-cultural life in Indian Multilingual, cultural, ethnological environment under the precolonial, colonial and even in the postcolonial era. Initially they were associated with agriculture and an adventurous forest life. But when the Britishers introduced new local laws and restrictions regarding forest and wild life the Rabha communities of North Bengal visited a unique problem. They used to live their forest life and had to move towards the new professions by the rules of Britishers. The British noticed the Rabhas indulgence towards forests and wild life and that had made them to recruit these Rabhas as plantation labors and forest guard’s assistance. They started to compromise their identity and livelihood in order to survive and settle in this era under the British Empire. They took beneficiary efforts from then masters in form of education, living lessons, and even religious lessons which interns influenced their own language.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Amrita Das, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. Candidate
Jadavpur University
Jadavpur 700032
West Bengal
India
d09amrita@gmail.com

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