I wonder what would have happened if I had no mother…………..what if I had been ‘created’ instead of having born………..it’s really weird to imagine in our wildest thoughts…….what if I were to be ‘created’ in a jungle among other wild animals……..Yes, of course I would have survived to grow up as a man. But just imagine how I would look like and behave like………. obviously an animal.
Me having born to a human mother; grew up as a man. I have a space in this society. I live a civilized life. I am human. All this was possible because I was bred by a caring human being called mother. She has introduced me to the world and taught to live in a civilized human society. Obviously, I was educated by her. Communication is the pivotal tool for education. So, my maiden communication is what I learnt from my mother, right from day one of my life. We call this MOTHER TONGUE. One may be the king of the world or the most intellectual man on earth, but without your first education through your mother tongue, you would not have been what you are. Therefore, the essence of a man’s social knowledge and the community’s sustenance is Language.
In the course of your life’s journey, you may have learned and adopted any other foreign language to get educated (or may I say – qualified) to earn a living. In this ever-evolving world, we are constantly in the hunt for more knowledge and exponential prosperity. To achieve this, we inadvertently use other foreign languages. Our mother tongue takes a back seat. More often we communicate with our own kith and kin in languages that is not our mother tongue.
Englishmen have their mother tongue as English. Similarly, Malayalees have Malayalam, Tamilians have Tamil and so forth. So, who are BADAGARs? BADAGARs are those who speak BADAGA, which is their mother tongue. It’s a misconception that BADAGA does not have a script and hence does not qualify as a mother tongue. This theory is an ill-conceived result of earlier practice. We cannot blame our earlier community members for it. Being farmers and cattle rearers by profession, when they were exposed to the modern world of systemic education, this mistake might have happened. This practice would have been due to the prompting of the officials while filling up official forms.
‘I am a BADAGA’. How can I say so? It’s because my family is a BADAGA speaking family. Our mother tongue is BADAGA. We practice BADAGARs life style and hence I am a BADAGA. I had the only option of education through English, Tamil, Hindi or any other language that has a script. Our state’s official language is Tamil and our habitat (Nilgiris District) is geographically situated in Tamilnadu. Therefore, we learn through Tamil or English. BADAGA does not have a script and therefore, we fall prey to the thought that our mother tongue is Tamil. I was taught to write ‘Tamil’ as my mother tongue in all official forums, whereas I should have written BADAGA as my mother tongue. Now I feel bad for my ignorance.
I was fed with another ill-conceived theory that a standard language must have Grammar, which BADAGA does not have. This is totally false. We cannot communicate successfully in any medium (language) without grammar. BADAGA is a language that has been in use for many centuries. It is a robust language and has sustained all these years because it is grammatically structured.
I also fell prey to another mischievous theory that BADAGA is a dialect of Kannada and we are migrants from Mysore. Through extensive research, it has been proved that BADAGARs are the aboriginal tribes of the Nilgiris and BADAGA language is an original language that emerged out of the ancient Dravidian language, as is the case of other Dravidian languages of south India (Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi and so on). On record, BADAGA is listed as a language and a mother tongue in the Indian Government’s Gazette.
Pilot Raichur a renowned western writer had originally claimed in her book that BADAGARs are migrants from Mysore and their language is a dialect of Kannada. Dr RK Haldorai and his Nelikolu team had done extensive field work and researched that BADAGARs are not migrants and they are aboriginal inhabitants of the Nilgiri hills. Further it has been established by them that BADAGA language is an original Dravidian language that was in use for many centuries. After the publication of these research papers, Pilot Raichur has acknowledged this fact. Further this fact has been well established by the Dravidian University, located at Kuppam in Andhar.
This current generation of BADAGARs need to firmly acknowledge the fact that BADAGA is our mother tongue and we shall endorse it in all official forums. Further we need to shun the theory that we are migrants and reaffirm the fact that we are the aboriginal tribes of the Nilgiris hills. We need to take pride in acclaiming that we are BADAGARs and our mother tongue is BADAGA.
Let’s all come together and work for this cause. Let’s take pride to be a BADAGA. Let’s celebrate our mother tongue.
nangava nanga arivo