Scripting the border: script practices and territorial imagination among Santali speakers in eastern India

Abstract

This article examines the role of "borders" in the writing practices of Santali speakers, who are spread across the states of Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal and Assam in eastern India. A tension between a "trans-border" linguistic homogeneity and a "bordered" linguistic heterogeneity occurs in discussions around script. Santali is written in the various "official" scripts. Together with regional scripts, there is a recently invented script, called Ol Chiki ('writing symbol') in circulation as well as a Roman script invented by Christian missionaries. This article examines the alternating use of Ol Chiki, Roman and regional scripts in Santali language media. I argue that these media simultaneously posit a linguistically homogenous future while at the same time affirming a present that is deeply influenced by differing linguistic environments.

Surface Politics: Scaling Multiscriptality in anIndian Village Market

“…Hence, Ol‐Chiki activists’ discourse is one of transcending state boundaries, and the use of Devanagari, Eastern Brahmi, or Utkal scripts, tied to separate “regions” is seen as divisive. Thus, discourse around Ol‐Chiki produces a metric which clearly subordinates the Brahmi scripts, which index regional administrative borders dividing a Santali language community, to scripts such as Ol‐Chiki, which iconically unifies this community beyond these borders (Choksi ). For Ol‐Chiki proponents, the Santali Roman script, a script created by missionaries in the late nineteenth century, and used primarily in northern West Bengal and northern Jharkhand, and also by Christian communities, is understood as both “foreign” (coming from the West and therefore not indigenous) as well as “Christian” (and again therefore not indigenous).…”

“…For a more detailed analysis of the variety of script‐code combinations in Santali language media and their associated ideologies, see Choksi ().…”

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“…In most writing systems, script selection is somewhat analogous to dialect, as distinct communities utilize distinct methods of producing the same language (Unseth ). For instance, many languages spoken in India are written in multiple scripts, but an author generally uses a single script exclusively when writing a text (Choksi ). The contemporary Japanese writing system departs from this script/dialect analogy, as it instead necessitates the combined use of multiple scripts within a sentence.…”

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“…3. Script in India has been the subject of a number of publications (Ahmad 2008(Ahmad , 2011Choksi 2014Choksi , 2015Choksi , 2017and King 2001). offers a position in the larger world of advertising as well as a position with respect to other institutions.…”