PRESERVATION OF THE PRIMEVAL LANGUAGE AND CULTURE OF MALANA
Malana, an ancient village in Himachal Pradesh, hidden from the outside civilization for thousands of years, has been
fostering a primitive existence in harmony with nature and a unique model of democracy of consensus. Mystery shrouds
their ancestral roots. A popular myth suggests them to be the descendants of exiled Greek soldiers of Alexander.
Reminiscent of a lost world four to five thousand years old, the people of Malana still speak in a primeval language
presumably that of mythical Rakshashas. It is only in last five decades that this mysterious isolated community has come
in contact with the outside world. The fact remains that in the eighties the international drug mafia pulled them into the
hashish trade. Malana crémè became world famous but the village remianed isolated and underprevilaged. The village
even today is grossly uneducated and no systematic effort had ever been made to bring to them the light of modern
civilization in a positive humane way. In 2008 this ancient civilization received a sudden shock of our modern age when
half the village including four ancient temples got destroyed by a tragic fire arising out of an electrical short circuit.
Today’s Malana represents an obscured victim of human progress, an ancient civilization on verge of extinction, an
anthropological asset that we need to preserve.
We cannot walk back in time, we cannot deny progress, we cannot stop modernization… then how can we ethically
integrate this ancient community into modernity in a more inclusive way… how do we preserve their traditional culture…
how do we restore their unique treasure - their trust!
A living ethnic community cannot be protected by simply constructing a real wall so we propose a virtual sheild
Bom-Wall - where the traditional wisdom modernity and go hand in hand.
an ancient chant in a primeval language
Wall 1: PRESERVATION OF PRIMEVAL LANGUAGE OF MALANA (KANASHI)
The language group of Malana supposedly belongs to that of the mythical ethnic group Rakshahshas. This primeval
language Kanashi does not have a script and follows an oral tradition. It is a living language whose purity is getting fast
contaminated with influence of foreign words. In order to keep alive a near extinct language spoken by a population of
merely 2500 people one has to look at delivery of primary and appropriate education in their own language. This also
means that the people themselves must be able to understand, read and write their language in a script format. It is
imperative to do a detailed study of the language, prepare lexicon and grammar and create an audio-visual interactive
program for language training, followed by appropriate education in Kanashi language through e-education.
It is to be noted that ‘Ethnologue: Languages of the World’ mentions and gives basic notes on the language Kanashi but
has no resources as there does not exist any. Study and development of lexicon of this language will set a remarkable
milestone in the linguistic world especially in the field of Sino-Tibetan languages.
Project Duration:
5 years in 3 phases
Phase 1: Preparation of Lexicon
Phase Duration: Deliverable:
2 years 1) 20 hrs of word segmented speech corpus
2) Lexicon containing root words with available morphological inflexions
3) Dictionary (basic meaning only )
Phase 2: Identification of Phonemes and Phonology of the language
Phase Duration: Deliverable:
1 year List of phonemes used in the language and their characteristics including IPA symbols
Phase 3: Grammar & Language Learning Program
Phase Duration: Deliverable:
2 years 6 months 1) Interactive language learning programs
2) Operating computer booth in the village
Project Guides:
Prof Asoke Kr Datta, President, Bom-Bom Charitable Trust
Former HOD, ECSU, Indian Statistical Inst. (ISI), Kolkata.
Dr Krishna Bhattacharya
Former HOD & Professor, Dept of Linguistics, University of Calcutta
Probable Consultants:
Prof John Ohala
Emeritus Professor of Linguistics, University of California, Berkley.
Prof James A. Matisoff
Emeritus Professor of Linguistics, University of California, Berkley.
Prof Aditi Lahiri
Professor of Linguistics, Faculty of Linguistics, Philology, and Phonetics, Oxford
Prof Peri Bhaskar Rao
Institute of Asian and African Languages and Cultures, Tokyo
some traditional practices hemp shoe
Wall 2: CONCEPT MUSEUM - 360 DEGREE ETHNO-CULTURAL ARCHIVING OF MALANA
An ancient culture cannot be preserved by simply erecting a protective shield where the pressure of mainstream popular
culture is truly overpowering. But we can somehow try restoring it with a systematic cultural and knowledge exchange
process with the modern world where the villagers also recognize values of their own culture and wisdom. It is not just
that we need to teach them something; instead we have so much to learn from them too. Bom-Bom Charitable Trust has
taken a comprehensive plan of 5 years towards 360 degree cultural archiving of Malana through a Concept Museum
comprising of real exhibits and an interactive virtual archive.
Though the community still speaks in the language of rakshashas suggesting a lost world may be five thousands year old
yet there are no real ancient relics available in the village. Whatever was there, the most was destroyed by a tragic fire in
2008. What still exist are their ancient chants, their myths, their songs – a living oral culture.The proposed virtual museum
will be a cross platform project with interactive audio-visual archive of Malana.
As an indigenous community they had many traditional nature friendly practices, many of which are fast disappearing in
their transition to modernity. By showcasing benefits of such time tested practices one can create the much-needed
awareness about an environment friendly living. One main objective of the museum would be to showcase their unique
model of democracy, one of the oldest forms of democracy in the world.
This model of a Concept Museum with both real and virtual components may set a benchmark for preservation of
endangered tribes and cultures in India.
Project Duration:
3 phases in 5 years
Phase 1:
Audio visual archive showcasing their democracy, their history, their language, their myths,
their way of life, their traditional tools and tackles, their rituals and practices etc
Phase 2:
Building an interactive virtual museum
Phase 3:
Constructing a real museum with interactive virtual screens and viewer’s gallery
