Santhalcommunity

First Light
"A Non-Profit Organization"

The Santal people love music and dance. Like other Indian people groups,
their culture has been influenced by mainstream Indian culture and by
Western culture, but traditional music and dance still remain. Santal music
differs from Hindustani classical music in significant ways. The Santal
traditionally accompany many of their dances with two drums: the Tamak' and
the Tumdak'. The flute was considered the most important Santal traditional
instrument and still evokes feelings of nostalgia for many Santal. Santal dance
and music traditionally revolved around Santal religious celebrations. This is
still true to a degree although traditional religious beliefs have been
significantly altered by Hindu belief and Christian mission work. However,
Santal music and dance both retain connections to traditional celebrations.
The names of many Santal tunes are derived from the traditional ritual with
which they were once associated. Sohrae tunes, for example, were those sung
at the Sohrae festival.

The Santal community is devoid of any caste system and there is no
distinction made on the basis of birth. They believe in supernatural beings and
ancestral spirits. Santali rituals are mainly comprised of sacrificial offerings and
invocations to the spirits, or bongas. The Santal system of governance,
known as Manjhi–Paragana, may be compared to what is often called Local Self
Governance. This body is responsible for making decisions to ameliorate the
village's socioeconomic condition.

Santali Language and Anthropology

The Santali language is part of the Austro-Asiatic family, distantly related to
Vietnamese and Khmer.The long history of the Satals may be traced from the
age of human migration that started from Africa.Lot of recent findings bring
the theory that human from Africa had started to migrate eastward that is in
Asia. A few of the Indian anthropologist also believe the fact that human first
came in India about 65000-55000 years ago. The earliest of them were Proto
Australoids followed by the Proto Dravidians. The Proto Australoids can be
identified with some facial characteristics such as low forehead, thick lips, wide
jaw and wavy hair .Historians believe that they were the ancestors of the tribal
community residing in the eastern part of India (excluding hilly portions).So
the Santals,Oraons ,Khols and Mundas may be the descendants of them.

But in those times they were mainly in the Neanderthal stage that is their
primary way of subsistence were hunting and food gathering. As many of
contemporaries in Africa and other parts of Asia . The agrarian way of living
was brought by the Aryans who came about in the 1500 B.C.The inhabitants
of the Mohenjo –Daro civilization that existed in the Pakistan and parts of
India were also may be originally Proto-Australoids as may be inferred from
their sculptures and statues of the dancing girl and others. How the Mohenjo-
Daro civilization annihilated is a big question whether there was an Aryan
invasion or a major environmental change that wiped them out is still under
research and every day new theories are coming out.

Coming back to the history of tribals, the Proto Australoids their earliest
ancestors started living in the forest in the eastern part of India .
The Santali script, or Ol Chiki, is alphabetic, and does not share any of the
syllabic properties of the other Indic scripts such as Devanagari. It uses 30
letters and five basic diacritics. It has 6 basic vowels and three additional
vowels, generated using the Gahla Tudag .
The Santal script is a relatively recent innovation. Santali did not have a
written language until the twentieth century. A distinct script was required to
accommodate the Santali language, combining features of both the Indic and
Roman scripts. The modern Ol Chiki script was devised by Pandit Raghunath
Murmu in 1925. He wrote over 150 books covering a wide spectrum of
subjects such as grammar, novels, drama, poetry, and short stories in Santali
using Ol Chiki as part of his extensive programme for uplifting the Santal
community. Darege Dhan, Sidhu-Kanhu, Bidu Chandan and Kherwal Bir are
among the most acclaimed of his works. Pandit Raghunath Murmu is popularly
known as Guru Gomke among the Santals, a title conferred on him by the
Mayurbhanj Adibasi Mahasabh.

Economic context

The Adivasis(Tribal) have been depended upon land, forest and water
resources for their livelihood. They are agricultural based with a strong
cultural-spiritual as well as economic relation to the forest they live in. Over
the years more than 60% of the land have either legally or illegally changed
hands and are now in non-Adivasi ownership (land alienation). Money
economy entered the villages. The Adivasi culture, as subsistence economy
bases society, did not develop the habit of savings or taking up business
entrepreneurship. Money-lenders from outside could play upon the
community's lack of experience and information. They provided credit for high
interest rates leading to further land alienation. (lack of credit management).

The Santhal Community

The Santali culture has attracted many scholars and
anthropologists for decades. The first attempt to study the
Santali culture was done by the Christian missionaries. The
most famous of them was the Norwegian-born Reverend Paul
Olaf Bodding. Unlike many other tribal groups of the Indian
Subcontinent, the Santals are known for preserving their
native language despite waves of migrations and invasions
from Dravidians, Indo-Aryans, Mughals, Europeans, and
others.

Santali culture is depicted in the paintings and artworks in the
walls of their houses. Local mythology includes the stories of
the Santal ancestors Pilchu Haram and Pilchu Bhudi.