31 The seven certainly do not appear to be typical in terms of education. They are rather an
elite group. If the average, even with an elite group, is only 68, then it might be that further testing would yield averages that are much lower. The preliminary indications from this pilot
study of bilingualism are that the Dungari Garasia of Lusadia AA are not very bilingual in Gujarati. While the amount of bilingualism the community has is hard to determine from such a
small amount of data, it appears that the ability is far below what is needed to effectively use Gujarati.
5.2.3.2 Among Rajput Garasia communities.
A pilot bilingualism study for Hindi was conducted in the Rajput Garasia community of Siyawa in Abu Road tehsil of southern Sirohi district of Rajasthan. Both the bilingualism
proficiency questionnaire and the Hindi recorded text test were used to test ten people. The results are as follows: Note that the following abbreviations are used: LEV= level of perceived
bilingual proficiency, TPR= total number of positive responses, RTT= recorded text test scores on Hindi text, IDN= identification number as found in the demographic data for Siyawa in
Appendix D, SEX= gender of respondent.
LEV: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 4 TPR: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 25
RTT: 10 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 0 80 IDN: 1 3 4 5 6 8 9 10 2 7
SEX: M M M M F F F F M M
Table 19 Results of the Pilot Bilingualism Study in Siyawa.
Here also, the results of the questionnaire and the RTT scores tend to correlate. Which is to say, those at lower levels also scored low on the recorded text test in Hindi. The one who
scored the highest on the RTT was also assigned the highest level. The one anomaly in the sample is IDN 2 who was assigned a level 2 but did not understand the Hindi story. Such
inconsistencies underscore the fact that questionnaires for evaluating bilingualism proficiency should not be used by themselves in any attempt to arrive at an accurate assessment of a
communitys bilingualism. The results of the Hindi recorded text test are extremely low. The average for the
sample was a mere 10 on the test. Only one person managed to get 80 on the test. The Rajput Garasia story from Dhabaavalivav was used to screen the testees. The testees understood
the Rajput Garasia perfectly, but the Hindi story was a different matter. Mr. Johnson Abraham reports that one man listened intently to the Rajput Garasia story, answered the questions,
enjoyed hearing it; but when the Hindi story began, he immediately took the headphones off his head and held them out. He said, No, no, no. Take it. Take it. This is Hindi
32 Two people did manage to get 10 on the story, but the point was actually a give away.
The Hindi story starts out talking about a persons crops failing due to a lack of rain. The first question on the recorded text test asks, Why did the crops fail? Considering that Rajasthan and
Gujarat were experiencing one of the worst droughts of the century, it didnt take a whole lot of imagination to answer the question. Even so, seven others could not answer the question.
The conclusion is obvious. The Rajput Garasia of southern Sirohi do not know Hindi. They appear to have no illusions about their bilingual ability. The particular village in which this
pilot study was done is not far from Abu Road town. The village is not as isolated as some. We suspect that the Rajput Garasia of the rest of Rajasthan do not know Hindi either.
5.3 Conclusions.
On the basis of these bilingualism investigations, we make the following conclusions for the Garasia groups surveyed:
1. The Rajput Garasia are not adequately bilingual. The Rajput Garasia of Gujurat do not understand Gujarati, and the Rajput Garasia of Rajasthan do not understand Hindi. While
certain individuals are more bilingual than others, the vast majority cannot even understand simple narrative texts in the state language. Literature in Hindi or Gujarati cannot possibly meet
the spiritual needs of the Rajput Garasia people. 2. The Adiwasi Garasia of Banaskantha understand some Gujarati, but it is not certain
to what extent. The Adiwasi men understand simple narrative in Gujarati, but it is not known if they can understand more complicated types of material. The Adiwasi women appear to be less
bilingual than the men. The vast majority of men and women do not consider their bilingual ability to be at a level that is needed for using higher levelGujarati effectively.
3. The Adiwasi Dungari Garasia of southern Sabarkantha are probably not bilingual enough to use Gujarati. More research is needed, but present indications are that they are less
bilingual than the Adiwasi of Banaskantha.
