ShodhPatra: International Journal of Science and Humanities

Language Identity and Cultural Resilience among Santal Community

Abstract Santali is a member of one of the largest Austroasiatic speaking Adivasi communities in South Asia which is an interesting case study for the study of sociolinguistic persistence. Minoritized indigenous communities in modern India are subjected to high pressure of economic displacements of neo-liberalism, migration and the structural domination of regional Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages. This is a research paper that explores the relationship between language identity and cultural resilience in Santali communities. The interpretation of the role of language in the preservation of the culture heritage and socio-political resistance is analysed through an interdisciplinary approach, merging the theories of subaltern studies, sociolinguistics and indigenous sociology. The analysis is based on the development, propagation and digitalization of the Olchiki invented by Pandit Raghunath Murmu. It also focuses on the implementation of Mother-Tongue Based Multilingual Education in the light of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in India. It reveals that there is an oral and written continuity—creation epics (Binti), festival songs (Sereng) and riddles (Kudum) that sustains Santali cultural resilience with a distinct eco-spiritual link to ancestral lands (Zameen). Structural problems including geographic fragmentation, pedagogical materials, and differences due to the script are also discussed. Finally, the paper suggests that it is important to institutionalize Santali education and critical to support digital indigenous spaces as part of decolonization. By protecting the language, we are also speaking for the protection of alternative, sustainable worldviews which are becoming more valuable to current global ecological discussions.