Topic: CULTURAL IDENTITY AMONG SANTALS

Contents
Acknowledgement
Abstract
Review of Literature
Methodology
-Objectives
-Research Question
-Tools for data collection
-Type of Sampling
Analysis and Interpretation/ Findings
Conclusion

Acknowledgement
It has provided me with immense honour and a lot of pleasure
to present my first research and fortunately my dream research.
My humble gratitude to Christ University, Bangalore for
organising and inviting our college for the annual National
Young Sociologist Competition-2016; which certainly has
paved way for my future ahead perhaps the pioneer for all the
achievements aligned in the future. I am greatly thankful to my
teachers Dr. Kalindi Jena (HOD-Sociology; RD Womens
University) for constantly encouraging and critically judging
my
works
all
the
time.
I am personally thankful to al the 100+ respondents who took
their time out of their daily schedule to help me finish my
survey.
My heartiest thanks to my parents for inculcating the
importance of culture in me and enlightening me towards this
precious treasure which needs regular polishing.
Last but not the least I would be always obliged to my two
anonymous critics because of whom my skills get sharpened
whenever
I
roll
my
pen.

Abstract

Santals are one of the most primitive tribes of India who

have been growing in number and rising in progress even
before the British era. They have been considered the most
advanced tribes inhibiting the major parts of West Bengal,
Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar and some but larger parts of the
North-Eastern
States
of
India.
They are mostly characterized by their rich culture,
conventional ghettos, deep rooted virtues and the most
treasured possession-their language. Language and culture
goes together hand-in-hand which certainly speaks for its
respective importance in grooming up a community.
Language holds the identity for ones culture; it reflects
the dedication of its people of ones community; that how
much they cherish their language and shows how they have
been able to bring it so far. However, like other
communities, Santals were also subjected to cultural
changes, paradigm shifts, migration, industrialisation, and
urbanisation and so on and so forth, but because of highly
gullible nature of human beings, they tend to leave certain
things behind. People change and so do their lifestyles.
Similarly, the whole of the authenticity held by a certain
community is forsaken by the moment it reaches a certain
point of time. Most of the communities today face this
challenge.
The Santal culture and language is diminishing in this
fast world which speaks only the language of science and
technology. Multilingualism and bilingualism have been
trending so far and also because it helps in socialising; but
however these group of languages do not contain their
mother
tongue(here:Santali).Modernisation
and
Westernisation are all good in its place; no one takes up the
responsibility- its just a matter of volunteering and selfrealisation.
Since Santali, being a tribal language, it is very much
predictable that it must be even subjected to the highly rigid
caste system of India which is somehow making the people
of the tribe conscious of their presence so as to avoid any
kind of discrimination in the society. This certainly is a sign
of camouflaging to merge with the mainstream society but
then merging is not as feasible as it seems to be- it includes
lot of hurdles and potholes because blindly following
someone has its own set of negative consequences.
Nowadays, being oneself is promoted everywhere and
certainly it should be brought to practice that no matter how
many changes come and go, one should not change for bad
because
then
you
are
no
longer
you.
How long are the people going to live under the shadow;
below the thin cloth of showbiz lies an ugly trail of
ignorance and unreasonable adamant gesture of those Santal
folks who find it unnecessary on their part to impart

knowledge regarding their tribe(here: Santals) to the

youngsters. In an era where extinct articles and artifacts are
being renewed, traced and brought back to the present,
Santals are however not ready to gulp in their identity as
Santals. The current epoch speaks of old school thoughts
being abandoned, where stereotypic mindsets are considered
sham; then why is there so much of haste and shame in
speaking
your
very
own
mother
tongue.
Little efforts of the people can bring immense change. If one
can show great pride in speaking someone elses tongue then
there shouldnt be any harm if one speaks his own. It all lies
in the personality and peoples perception towards their
identification. The society has been creating an illusion
regarding the tribe to be lowly which builds low selfconfidence among the people. Speaking ones own mother
tongue will no longer remain a shame when the people will
realise the worth and the essence of their culture and
language. This paper intends to proclaim the lost identity of
Santals and to bring the devotion concerning the beauty of
the tribe as a self-realisation among the people of the tribe
who
seem
to
have
forsaken
it.

Review of Literature
HISTORY:Santals being the most prominent and significant tribes till date
had come into limelight during the invasions of the British.
However, even before that they have shared history with the
most talked groups- the Aryans.
According to an article by Dr. Dhuni Soren, physician, England
The Santals are one of the largest group of indigenous people
(tribe) in the Indian sub-continent. They are found in the
Central and Eastern states of India in Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha,
Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Assam and beyond in
Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. During the long history of
ancient and modern India, they have been called by various
names. The Aryans who followed and occupied their lands and
civilisation called them Ashurs and Naushads in Ramayana and
Mahabharata although they were Kherwars. In response to the
Aryans, the Kherwars called themselves HOR, the human being
and their religion HOR DHOROM. The name Santal, according
to Skrefsrud (1868) was a corruption of Saontar which was
adopted by Santals when they lived in the area around Saont

now identified with Silda Pargana in Midnapore district of West

Bengal.
W.B Oldham was of the opinion that Santal is an abbreviation
of Samantawala. Samanta was another name given to the
country around Saont.
Around 1942 to 1946, the Santals were the largest, most
integrated and possibly the most resilient tribe in Eastern India
constituting Santal Parganas district of Bihar at that time. IndoMelanese by race and speaking a non-Aryan language, Santali,
they had antedated in India both Aryans and Dravidians were
still, to a great extent, unaffected by either Hindu or Muslim
practices. Their love of dancing and singing, their splendid
physiques, the airy freedom with which both men and women
went about and their belief in bongas or nature-spirits reminded
the observer of ancient India; and their love for poetry-simple,
sensuous and passionate-shared with that of Kalidasa, Amaru
and Jayadeva the early Indian attitude to sex.
This early history of Santals explains vividly about their rich
culture, literature and entertainment they enjoyed in their
confined ghettos.

EVOLUTION:When the British were looking for an organised group of

agriculturists in the late 1780s, they turned to the Paharias of
the Bengal but in vain as they refused to cut the forests, resisted
touching the plough, and continued to be turbulent. The Santals
by contrast, appeared to be ideal settlers, clearing forests and
ploughing the land with vigour which certainly depicted how
advanced and progressive was they. The Santals were given
land and persuaded to settle in the foothills of Rajmahal. By
1832, a large area of land was demarcated as Damin-i-Koh.
This was declared to be the land of the Santals which was
created in 1833. They were to live within it, practise plough
agriculture, and become settled peasants.
The land grant to the Santals stipulated that at least one-tenth of
the area was to be cleared and cultivated within the first ten
years. The territory was surveyed and mapped. Enclosed with
boundary pillars, it was separated from both the world of the
settled agriculturists of the plains and Paharias of the hills.
After the demarcation of Damin-i-Koh, Santal settlements
expanded rapidly. From 40 Santal villages in the area in 1838,
as many as 1473 villages had come up by 1851. Over the same

period, the Santal population increased from a mere 3000 to

over 82000.
Thereafter they started migrating and settled in various areas of
Eastern, North Eastern and few parts of Central India.

TRANSFORMATION and MIGRATION:Cultural diversities are sometime also caused due to

geographical differences and that is the case in here. In Odisha,
the Similipal Forest which covers 2750 sq kilometres, which is
also a famous tourist attraction explains all the differences
caused. It divides the Santal territories in two areasBamanghati Subdivision and Sadar Subdivision.
The Similipal Forest Reserve consists of hills and high elevated
landmarks and thus acts as a barrier to certain geographical
phenomenons. The Bamnghati Subdivision falls on the leeward
side of the reserve whereas the latter falls on the windward side
and accordingly the former is devoid of proper rainfall and
vegetation. Unlike the Bamanghati Subdivision, the Sadar
Subdivision is well benefitted with regular rains, soothing
climate, proper vegetation and fertile land. Surprisingly, the
Santals in the Bamanghati area are densely populated. They
show of vivid and rich architectural virtues and a well-defined
unity among them. Unfortunately, due to the unlikely weather
conditions, their crops fail and they are unable to get proper
profit from their harvest. This hampers their daily lifestyle and
also creates financial problems.
This is the point when they migrate to other areas in search of
stable employment opportunities, better educational facilities,
and strong financial conditions. They have been practicing this
migration since ages as of the uneven weather. Some migrate to
towns, cities, nearby villages. While on migration, they come
over people with diverse cultures, as are the phenomena of
migration, similarly they get indulged into their lifestyle and
almost adopt it. However even after migrating, they keep their
roots alive and frequently visit their hometowns or native
places. On the way back, they practice the traditions learnt from
other cultures and bring it to practice in their native lands and
eventually diluted cultures are seen coming up without any
significance of their own conventions which now seems to get
extinct because of the dilution. The culture they now hold is
flourishing rampantly oblivious of the fact they this may lead to
extinction.

This problem has surfaced even causing identity problems

among the Santals as the diverse cultural influence is so much
that they refuse to be identified as their prescribed tribe.
This may be due to the status they enjoy in not identifying
themselves in order to avoid discrimination of any sort in the
public.
My objective of research involves here where the tribe refuses
to identify themselves and forsake their conventional ideologies
of being a Santal.

EDUCATION:The literacy level among the Santals has been showing a steep
change as the tribe is quite inquisitive of trying out new things,
people of the tribe have tried their hand at almost all the fields.
Starting from Engineering, Medical, Research Scholars,
lawyers, bureaucrats like administrators and high level officers
have paved way for high end educational opportunities. Santals
have always been characterised as hard working individuals
and therefore they have had their places in the most prestigious
institutions of India and abroad like IITs, NITs, AIIMS, ISER,
NISER, NIFT, IIM, and University
of Pennsylvania and
University of Georgia, etc.
Not much concern is given by this educated class towards the
decline of the community but organisations of community
gatherings have been popping up and issues to some extent are
being discussed under these organisations. Apart from these
there are owners of NGOs and business houses like fashion,
poultry, spices and cereals which are favourably gaining market
as the products produced are also of investable quality which is
buzzing in the national and global market.
Santals are gaining recognition quite strongly as they are
having a medical college opined in the name of their script
inventor Pandit Raghunath Murmu Medical College in
Baripada, Mayurbhanj in the state of Odisha.
The quota or the reservation owing to the admissions of the
students are a matter of an unending debate but discussions
held in community and social gatherings have conclusions likepeople or students who run away from being identified as
Tribal are also claiming to have a reserved seat. Such ironical
behaviour of the youth is causing great distress among the
veterans of the society causing doubts of extinction in the
future.

Methodology
OBJECTIVES:The Santals are a very gullible tribe featuring people with very
nave and simple gestures and attitude. They are however very
easily mouldable in any sort and this is the issue being
discussed as they arent aware of the extinction they are
bringing into the community. The following are the main
objectives of having this issue as a topic of grave concern:

Santals are rich in their language with which they are

fortunate to get their script too which was invented by
Late Guru Pandit Raghunath Murmu in 1925 and named
it Ol-chiki. However due to the mass migration
(explained above), they are losing touch of their
language; eventually leading it to oblivion. The future
generation will not know any traces about their
language. This survey is to find out the root cause and
diminish the language issue.
Where there is language, culture and conventional
ideologies come in handy. Not only Santals but every
culture is very significant and prominent in its own
place and an individual without any cultural definition
backing him/her lacks social identity and confidence.
Call it the fear of discrimination or a matter of status in
the society; Santals nowadays are refusing to identify
themselves in the open. This might cause hamper to
their personality leading to low confidence as accepting
the reality may not be everyones cup of tea. However,
there is no harm themselves because truth may be harsh
but not evil.
Discrimination along the society for the tribal is
something that has attached itself along the timeline and
it is now evitable part as compared to earlier times. No
one has the right to speak filth against anyones art and
culture and this Santals must learn to retort and not
surrender to it. This is leading to high-end disrespect of
their own language and conventional ideologies for they
blame their background and their tribal identity for their
discrimination; which needs a serious attention.

Dilution of culture from all around is nice if seen

positively as cross cultural beliefs are very rich and
diminishes differences but alas; the case is weird in here
with Santals for they are catching up with the social
evils of other societies like dowry system, male
chauvinism and the string of issues attached to it.

RESEARCH QUESTION:The Research Paper consists of the aims and ambitions which
are to be held in order to reduce and eradicate the problem of
Santals not identifying them culturally. This paper is quite
promising for the fact that while doing a questionnaire for this
topic and distributing it over 100+ people, it has been found out
that this paper has served most of its value.
There are areas which have been well targeted such as
knowledge of language, script, general knowledge about the
community. This kind of study hasnt yet been done before,
studies conducted previously were empirically executed which
could give only observatory results and not the direct views and
opinions of the people of the tribe. The questionnaire solved a
great deal of problem and reflected a clearer picture of the
problem and as expected by the study, problems were
accordingly accurate and showed astonishing responses.
There are room for improvement for this study is made only on
a handful of Santal people and more elements of research are
also to be added in order to make it a complete research
package.
The timing for this kind of research knows no bound as this
research can be taken place at any time of the year and this
topic has previously arrived a social issue among the Santals
but did not surface effectively to become a hot topic but
eventually with the circulation of the questionnaire, this topic
has attracted a lot of discussions and speculations about the
topic and results respectively. This topic is now a grave concern
among the elderly of the communities who happen to be vexed
regarding the long term validity of the community.
The most interesting fact is that the community since it is very
much gullible is also very adventurous for good as they are
much interested to be the subjects of the study and very much
volunteering, jovial and energetic in carrying out studies like
this.
This paper of mine has shown a significant response owing to
which I would draw my results and the response is really
overwhelming since most of the results seem encouraging and

showing a ray of hope that significant change is possible in this

field.

TOOLS FOR DATA COLLECTION:The data collection method chosen for this study is primary in
nature as a survey questionnaire was prepared and circulated
openly in the social media and was eventually closed after
getting a response of 105 people which was 5 more than the
targeted. The questionnaire consisted of 25 questions; most of
which were related with religion, language, identity,
discrimination, general knowledge about the community and
what purpose do they serve or contribution they show or have
shown towards the community.
The questionnaire had multiple choice questions(MCQs) along
with some open ended questions which allowed the subjects to
express their views regarding stuffs related to the community
like what are the surnames they know of the community, what
is the name of the script, their views regarding the decline of
the culture, whether they want to save it or not. The target was
on the youth group aged 18-35 years.
The questionnaire was a time bound questionnaire and the
validity was of 3 days which was successfully fulfilled as the
response was quite active and subjects were interested as
surveys like this on the community havent yet been carried out
as speculation about the questionnaire was raised and which
made this a popular buzz among the community people. The
Santal community is a close knit community, so words spread
like wildfire.
The analysing of the results were made easy due to the
questions were made by Google Forms as they generated
automatic graphs and the questions were simple owing to the
various literacy level of the subjects.
The target being the youth made it a successful study to carry
out and they found it curious and anxious about the questions.
For a better description, some secondary data has also been
included from books like Traditions and Institutions of the
Santals by P.O. Bodding and few excerpts from The Hill of
Flutes by W.G Archer.

TYPE OF SAMPLING:Since the number required for this was limited along with the
time allotted to this survey. Therefore, Snowball Sampling was
conducted to increase the buzz among the targeted audience in
the social media. A group of people were approached and the
they were asked to refer to a few more of them which helped

complete the survey. This was a quantitative research which

was successfully completed on time.

Analysis and
Interpretation
The survey conducted on the 105 people clearly depicted the
picture about the crisis the community is going through. The
following are the results of the Survey.
The initial questions contained basic details like name,
age and sex and out of which 43.1% were female and
56.9% were male. Then came the religion question
which was expected to be Sarna by 72.5% of them but
surprisingly 18.3% considered they were Hindus and
4% comprised of Christians also. Christianity is being
taken up by converted people of the community in areas
like Dumka of Jharkhand and few parts of West Bengal.
About 59.6% spoke in Santali and the remaining spoke
never or often with never" ranging to 7.3%- still a
reason to worry. As toddlers, only 61.5% were taught to
speak in Santal by their folks as the rest thought they
might have speculated their kids to be reared better if
they knew local language like Hindi, Odia, Bengali,
English and others.
Charity begins at home as most of the learnings takes
place at home and that is adhered by the parents whose
efforts seem wonderful with a 78% on the record which
shows folks do get inclined towards their community
but somehow are unable to persuade the youth for this
noble cause.
Since the community is growing, along with it grows
the gatherings and social meetings because of which
96% subjects know the basic Santal festivals. When
asked about any kind of force faced by them to show
inclination towards the community, at least 49.5%
denied and 50.5% agreed to that fact. Until and unless,
the youth are not guided towards the culture, they might
give a thought about it even.
About 90% of the targeted mass agrees to show some
inclination towards the problems now and hopefully in
the future too. The tribals have conventional ghettos and
are rooted to their native lands which proved it as

97.2% are aware of it and 66% people visit it at regular

intervals.
Out of 105, 12 people were not aware of the other
corresponding Santal surnames and 46% knew the
origin of their surname which is not astonishing as most
of the stories arent revealed to the young audience as
yet.
About 89% subjects have expressed and identified
themselves as tribal in front of their friends in the
public; the rest arent so open about their identities
owing to any kind of discrimination. and about 74%
denied facing any sort of discrimination as yet. The
subjects which constitute of 45% of them accepted that
they never were bothered by any sort of discrimination
as it didnt matter much to them when they were
discriminated.
Only 88% happen to be aware that Santals have a script
which was unexpected as for the rest it was believed to
be common to be aware of it since there was so many
occasions being celebrated on the Language and script.
Out of which only 54.1% have learnt the script.
The end questions had open ended views reflecting the
subjects personal comments on whether the culture to
flourish or not. The answers were analysed to be
diplomatic as the answers arent matching with the
current situation of the community. The results are
contradictory in nature as there seems no sign of
improvement so far. Lets hope for the best of their
promising words.

Conclusion
This Survey was conducted with lot of hurdles as this was a
first of its kind along with an amateur researcher added to the
chaos. But eventually, the survey served for a good purpose and
certainly would lift up the conditions of the Community. The
results found were very much speculated as being a social
animal; I have personally observed the negligence Santal youth
show towards their declining culture.
The most interesting part of the study was that the youth were
less diplomatic and answered accordingly. They showed some
sort of belligerence with their emotions when they denied that
they were discriminated but when it came to how did they
avoid discrimination, it was found out that almost all the time
tribals are being bullied and that the respondents were
previously not open about it; may be to deny any sort of harm
to self-esteem.
This survey on Santals is just a pioneer, there would be more
core surveys executed in the future as this research has become
a part of my existence as a member of the tribe.
Identification of the people will no longer haunt them when
they would gather the confidence to avoid the discrimination
and fight against inequality.
The Community has come a long way and will be viewing lot
of cross cultural changes and trends of westernisation in the
long run but what is more important that authenticity is the
beauty of everything.
***The End***