1.1.2 Historical background
The term Bhumij means ‘children of the soil’ Dalton 1872:173, which likely was given to the community by Hindu immigrants who found them occupying the land in what is today West Bengal
Risley 1891, reprinted in 1981:118. Roy 1929:96 writes that Bhumijes in Mayurbhanj district of Orissa maintain are not the original settlers of that area, but instead came from Tamar Pargana in Ranchi
district of Bihar, and are thus known as Tamarias, Tamaria Mundas or Tamaria Bhumijes.
A verbal account given by a person in West Bengal, which seems plausible, though not confirmed by any written sources available to the researchers, explains the history of the Bhumij during the period of
the British occupation. While the British held power in east India, they imposed a system of collecting taxes from settlers of the land. At first, Brahmins were appointed to collect these taxes, but this did not
prove to be effective. The British then appointed people who could secure taxes by force. At that time, the Bhumij were the most assertive out of all other groups, and were therefore commissioned by the
British to this role.
To obtain respect and compliance from other tribal and caste groups, the Bhumij began to adopt the culture and language of the higher caste Brahmin Bengalis as well as the British. As they related with
these classes of people, it had an impact on their society, culture and language with the result that the Bhumij in several areas gave up their traditional mother tongue for Bengali.
1.1.3 Society and culture
The Bhumij are mostly agricultural workers and cultivators. If they possess their own land, they grow rice as well as oil seeds, pulses and vegetables. After harvest in November and December, when there is
no other work, the males labour in the mining quarries of southern Bihar and northern Orissa, as well as in the tea gardens of Assam. Hunting used to be a profitable profession, but due to deforestation and
government restrictions this is no longer followed.
Bhumij families are patrilineal, and most of them are nuclear, though extended families also exist. Polygyny occurs occasionally, particularly among the wealthier families, with the main reason being the
barrenness of the first wife. Divorce is permitted only in cases of adultery by the woman Das Patnaik 1990:57–58.
The Bhumij are essentially animistic in their religious outlook, and the sun is their primary object of worship. They also serve a number of minor gods and spirits to which they sacrifice animals. In addition,
the Bhumij believe in the power of white and black magic, consulting witch doctors found in the village. In addition, the community in various places has adopted Hindu beliefs and practices into their religion.
People offer coconuts, plantains and sweetmeats to the gods, and visit Kali and Shiva temples during Hindu festivals Das Patnaik 1990:59–60.
The total literacy rate among the Bhumij population is about 15, ranging from 12 in Orissa, to 15 in West Bengal, and 16 in Bihar. For males, the literacy rate is about one-quarter and for females
only 4 Singh 1994:169–171.
1.2 Language
The Munda languages have received a great deal of attention by linguists over the past two centuries, particularly with regard to their status in the Austro-Asiatic language family, as well as to the historical
relationships within the various Munda language groups. Mundari and Santali in particular have been analysed by historical linguists, lexicographers and grammarians. Bhumij speech as a distinct subject,
however, has received little attention.
1.2.1 Classification
Bhumij is a member of the Munda language family, and is classified under the Khewari sub-branch of Northern Munda. Zide 1991:412 in figure 1 illustrates the relationship between several of the Munda
languages. Capital letters at the nodes indicate the proposed proto-languages: Proto-Munda M, Proto- South Munda SM, Proto-Koraput Munda KM, Proto-Sora-Gorum SG, Proto-Gutob-Remo-Gta’ GRG,
Proto-Gutob-Remo GR, Proto-Central Munda CM, Proto-North Munda NM, and Proto-Mundari-Ho MH.
Figure 1. Zide’s taxonomy of Munda languages. Nigam and Dasgupta 1964:182 assess the position of Bhumij by writing, “It should be considered
reasonable to suggest that the name Bhumij language as such should have no place in the inventory of speeches of the Munda group of languages, while the Mundari form of speech as preserved by a section
of the Bhumij community should be known as ‘Bhumij Thar.’”
1.2.2 Nomenclature
As is often the case in minority languages that have not undergone standardisation, the Bhumij have no clear term for their indigenous speech variety. At times it is referred to by the occupational title of the
speaker i.e., “Sardar” or “Singh”. Other times it is referred to as “Thar”, an Indo-Aryan word which is sometimes used to refer to the speech of non-Indo-Aryan groups. “Thar” appears to be derived from the
Bengali verb ‘to hint’, giving the idea that people use these non-Indo-Aryan languages to communicate things that others will not understand Nigam and Dasgupta 1964:181. This term has been used for
many groups including Kharia, Biraratis and Kurmalis. Varenkamp 1989:3 notes that the Bhumij refer to themselves as “Munda, Bhumij Munda, Sadar Bhumij, or just Bhumij.” This lack of specificity was also
encountered during the course of this investigation. However, in this report, the term Bhumij will be used to refer to the speech of the Bhumij people.
1.2.3 Key sources
Though there is a general lack of linguistic information on the speech of the Bhumij community, two helpful sources were utilised for this study – Nigam and Dasgupta 1964 and Bhattacharya 1975.
Beyond these works, the researchers could find no other sources pertaining to linguistic characteristics of Bhumij, either in various libraries or through interviews with local Munda scholars.
The Nigam and Dasgupta study 1964 is probably the only work of its kind done among the Bhumij. In their investigation they examined both linguistic and sociolinguistic issues in order to
ascertain the vitality of Bhumij speech and the degree of bilingualism with neighbouring languages. The research was undertaken by the Anthropological Survey of India, the purpose of which was to give
“additional proof” that the language and culture of the Bhumij have been “progressively altered” Nigam
and Dasgupta 1964:10. During their two-month study in 1959, Nigam and Dasgupta made recordings from which speech samples were taken, which they later analysed linguistically, and then carried out
field interviews. At that time they did not feel the problem of Hindi influence on BhumijMundari speech was as pertinent as the issue of their assimilation to Bengali forms.
Bhattacharya endeavoured to make a descriptive account of the various Mundari languages, giving data from sixteen speeches ten of which he calls “languages”, six “dialects”. However, his work was cut
short before completion due to his unfortunate demise. The posthumously compiled work Bhattacharya 1975 focuses mainly on the commonalties between the speeches, noting characteristic features of the
various members, but it is not an attempt to delineate hard and fast distinguishing features that would be necessarily unique to one variety and not another.
1.2.4 Sociolinguistic aspects of Bhumij speech
Kategori