Dr. Patnaik writes in his article: “Odisha is the meeting place of Ashtrik (Austroloid ?),Dravidian and Aryan languages.” I presume he means Adivashi languages as Ashtrik or Austroloid languages. True, but it can be said the same for all central Indian languages, which may differ significantly from Odia. Since Ramayana period Aryan language and culture has been spreading from northern India to the tip of southern India including Sri Lanka. Legend has it that it was Agastya rishi who was the first significant Aryan to cross the Vindhyas to establish his hermitage in the south. Nevertheless, all languages evolve in specific context of geography with its idiosyncratic features, unique experiences, historical dynamics, adjacent languages, religious nomenclature, and even climate among other things. I will try to provide a contrast between evolution of Odia and Koshali, though they are contiguous in geography.

As a lay man with passing interest in history let me try to give a brief snapshot of major influences on the evolution of Odia as a language. Coastal Odisha, primarily parts of old Kalinga, parts of old Utkala, Udra and Kangoda is in the temperate zone facing the sea to the east and Koshal to the west. It has been subjected to floods and usual turbulences associated with being near the sea. Original inhabitants were different tribes, with their own languages. According to Sarat Behera, chronicler of Kongoda (Rise and Fall of Sailodbhabas), significant Aryanisation of central coastal area, especially Kongoda area happened during Sailodbhaba period. Nevertheless, Brahmins always acted as intellectual mercenaries serving different kings; therefore they must have entered the territories at various times even before that. Most of the coastal area was entered by various armies primarily through the north to south route along the coast line, such as, Nandas, Mauryas, Bhaumas, Gangas, Afgans, Moguls and British etc. except perhaps, Meghvahana and Somavanshis from Koshal in the west. Marathas entered by Mahanadi. In the wake of these invasions, languages, religions, fashions, customs and what not were brought in and these had significant transformative influence on the language. One of the most significant impacts on Odia language is Arrival of 10,000 Brahmins by Jajati Keshari, the Somavanshi king. These Brahmins were responsible in Sanskrising Odia language like never before. During Somavanshi’s regime, Odia’s Script which was called Bartula Devanagari evolved. For a long time, it was considered a sacrilege to write anything in non-Sanskrit; but once this taboo was broken by Sarala Das, Odia literature flourished. Today Odia is great language with a rich vocabulary mostly of Sanskrit origin but it also has footprints of many non-Sanskrit influences. Khan in his Muslim Administration of Orissa says that nearly 2000 Arab/Persian/Urdu words embellish Odia language. Even the short presence of Portuguese had a little mark, for instance, the word ChAbi came from them (Source, B.C.Ray: Orissa Under The Moguls). The influence of English is too obvious to merit discussion. Odia language speakers are justifiably proud of their language. It has truly evolved into beautiful one. It also has developed great and unique musical styles rivaling other great musical traditions of India. Although I am a Koshali, I am in love with Odia language and literature, though with a distinct accent.

I am no historian, nor I can claim to be linguist, but from my personal experience, I find no little semblance between the Odia which might have been in vogue centuries ago and the one in present use. During my travel in Bali in Indonesia, where I met descendants of Kalingans who settled there more than a thousand years ago, I found very little similarity between their language and Odia as spoken now. They use the same legends (Ramayana,for instance), the same deities, like Jagannath,Vishnu,Garuda, etc. but with rituals very different from that of Odisha now. In conclusion,Odia is not a static language; it continues to evolve; and hopefully will continue to be richer. However beyond Odisha’s border, be it Sadeikela/Kharsuan or Medinipur, Odia is slowly getting atrophied because of its lack of relevance in day to day life. Some fifty years ago, I have met descendants of Odias (originally of Puri) who had settled in a few villages near Darbhanga(Mathili speaking part of North Bihar) because one of the kings of Mithila brought them to settle there centuries ago. They claim to speak Odia but it was hard for me to understand them. Thus, modern Odia has morphed into a very different and elegant form since the days of meeting of Dravidian, Aryan and Ashtric languages.

Child Protection chief of Unicef-India visited Child Friendly Constituency-Khandapada to learn the idea of ‘child friendly constituency’, the process, results achieved and the possibilities for its replication various parts of Odisha. Mr. Aguilar Javier, Chief, Child Protection Program, UNICEF India along with Child Protection Specialist Mr. Laxmi Narayan Nanda visited Dhanchangada gram panchayat and interacted with child leaders, change makers GPRPs (gram panchayat resource person) and various other stakeholders like parents, youth groups, service providers and local elected representatives of Khandapada.

They tried to understand how this initiative has been different from other development programme where elected officials take leadership to protect the rights of the children and children able to interact with them with their plan of action and agenda at gram panchayat level.

Team Youth for Social Development who implemented the initiative with the support from Unicef has narrated how tools such as fact sheet, planning, score card, constituency profile analysis have helped to identify ad prioritise children’s issues and present those before the officials and elected representatives at the highest decision making body i.e. in Gram Sabha of the lowest tire of government in India. On the other hand they learned how the convergence and coordination mechanism created at GP, block and district level to improve services in the five flagship programmes focused on children’s development and protection. They impressed with the programmes design, information gathered through participatory tools and the formal mechanism for children’s participation in gram sabha, bloc k and district level meetings. He also happy with the active participation of children and their parents in this initiative.

This will help them to understand the current situation of child protection and participation in Odisha to design a robust programme for the protection of children. Team YSD consists of Ratneswar Sahu, Subhasis, Bibhuti, Bikash, Chandan and Abhiram along with secretary, Bibhu Prasad Sahu and team members from AASHA, local supporting NGO were present in this occasion and facilitate the process.

As a preamble to what I going to comment, please read Dr.Debi Patnaik’s article in Sambad which appeared in Sambad around December 9, 2011, which can be translated:*Multi-lingual education in Odisha :Plenty of opportunities taking leadership in bi-lingual/multi-lingual education in Odisha”. Earlier Dr.Patnaik vehemently argued about unilateral linguistic character of Odisha, and was opposed to recognising relevance and identity of Koshali language as a separate language. This was in response to our posting (Purohit and Karmee) in this forum about the advisability and possibility of inclusion of Koshali in the 8th schedule. I wrote a four part series as rebuttal to Dr.Patnaik’s assertion. So here is my response to Dr.Patnaik’s posting under question.

First of all, I heartily appreciate Dr.Patnaik’s main themes in this article (1)Odisha is multi-lingual state, with two major languages, Odia and Koshali, and (2) Odisha should provide education through the languages prevalent in the state. I also applaud Odisha government’s recent announcement re provision of instruction through some of the Adivashi languages. This is good. I hope Dr.Patnaik will join me and fellow Koshalis in our quest for inclusion of Koshali in 8th schedule as soon as possible. I understand that recently Odisha government has recommended Ho to be included in the 8th schedule. As to why Odisha government is reticent in recognition of Koshali as a language in its own right is beyond me. This as you can imagine has caused severe bitterness in Koshal or Western Odisha region.As you know when in 1993 High level Commission was established, Indian government specifically asked the commission to exclude Bodo from deliberation because it had already promised Bodo people that Bodo would be included in the 8th schedule to quell the agitation of the students of the area.In the words of the Parliamentary committee,”3.2 However, in the light of the Bodo Accord signed between the Government of India on the one hand and All Bodo Students Union and Bodo People’s Action Committee on the other on 20 February, 1993, the Government decided to delink the matter of inclusion of Bodo language in the Eighth Schedule from the issue of setting up of High Powered Body for evolving criteria for inclusion of more languages in the Eighth Schedule”. Eventually Bodo along with Maithili,Dogri and Santhali were included in the 8 th schedule.So what one expects the Koshalis to do ? Become militant? violent? Rasta Roko,Rail Roko? Learn a few pointers from Naxalites ? Is that the only way? In what way,claims of these languages are any better than Koshali ? Is not the government indirectly encouraging Koshalis to go the way Bodo people took? So far Koshalis are going through all the civil channels,such as, writing memorandums, providing documents of authenticity of our claim,producing literature, making movies,conducting seminars, engaging in debates, launching newspapers and periodicals and everything imaginable but to no effect. Odisha government should listen to Dr.Patnaik and act on his advice to have a dialogue with Koshalis re use of Koshali in primary and secondary education. or democracy to survive in India, population needs to be literate and all the impediments must be eliminated. The primary goal of education must be to prepare the population for the 21st century. As it stands now, aggressive Odianisation with a missionary zeal has resulted in putting huge part of population in a disadvantage in education and consequent huge drop-out rate in schools.Many provinces have more than one recognised language, and such measures enhances the cultural mix because of mutual respect between the language groups. Behind the opposition to recognition of Koshali, there is an oft repeated assertion that Koshali is nothing but a dialect of Odia. This is patently not true, and worse, it is paternalistic. Most coastal Odishans can’t speak Koshali, nor are they familiar with any Koshali literature. They are much more familiar with Bengali in northern coastal area and with Telegu in southern area. So why this pretence ? Why not celebrate the linguistic diversity in Odisha instead ?