Sumedha Raikar-Mhatre: The one before Marathi

Ahirani enthusiasts do the traditional phugadi at a literary meet in NashikVishram Birari a 75yearold Dhulebased singercomposer has set himself two summer deadlines recording the relatively unheard of folklore in praise of Goddess Kanbai and composing new numbers for the Saptashrungi idol Both audio tracks sung in the local Ahirani dialect will be superimposed on the video footage that pays tribute to the two deities of northwestern Maharashtra Birari along with a repertoire of singers and musicians from Dhule has booked a Lower Parel studio for the recording They will seek refuge in Girgaums Madhavashram lodge just as they have been doing for the last three decadesAhirani has a rich oral unrecorded reserve of songs for every occasion mdash weddings religious festivals harvests and death No one knows who gave birth to this treasure but whenever our troupe renders them I can sense the earthy Khandesh connection they evoke says the retired arts school teacher and freelance composer who cherishes his holdall of Ahirani songs jokes social history of a region over the years His family particularly singerdaughter Richa and videographerson Bhavik accompany him on most tours In the 90s Birari was instrumental in putting over 1000 Ahirani devotionalcultural songs on video CDs But as cheap pirated CDs wounded the Ahirani musicmaking industry he had to deal with upturned economics The number of recordings decreased but not his own compositionsDr Ramesh SuryawanshiIf I find a Khandeshi entrepreneur who has some spare cash around R2 lakh and wants his name on the CD I help him scout local actors and singers He feels YouTube may give a longer and safer life to the original melodies Small players like Birari accept an extraordinary sense of personal responsibility towards the promotion of Ahirania dialect spoken by around 15 crore people across Gujarat Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra specifically the Khandesh districts of Jalgaon Dhule Nandurbar and a slice of Nashik It is the unsung pursuits of enthusiasts that sustain a language over the years despite the lack of a native script just as Ahirani takes recourse to Devnagari in its bid to survive and a notsoencouraging national climate which doesnt allow the boli bhashas to stand on their own legsIn the spirit of honouring the rich dialects of India which have managed an indigenous life of their own the third edition of the Gateway Litfest to be held in Mumbai on February 25 and 26 at the NCPA is going to have a session on scriptfree languages with the torchlight on Ahirani along with Konkani Santhali Bhojpuri and Khasi Much along the lines of last years panel on Languages Facing Extinction this year we want to create a buzz around regional rather subregional spoken idiom whose future rests on its speakers Had it not been for the emotional investment of people and committed literati these tongues wouldnt have evolved says Mohan Kakanadan Gateway festival director Politicianpoet Kanimozhi filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan Jnanpith awardee Kedarnath Singh and Bengali writer Subodh Sarkar are expected to speak on trends in regional writingAhirani will be represented in the festival by its fiercest advocate Dr Ramesh Suryawanshi 62 The writer of 10 books on Ahirani grammar and phraseology he is the first to bring out its official lexicon and a pictorial Ahirani dictionary of farmers toolsimplements in Khandesh He asserts Ahirani is not an inferior variant of standard Marathi it predates Marathi Marathis pending demand for a classical status can be fulfilled only when it draws from the 42 robust lifelines like Ahirani Varhadi Agri Dhangari and Jhadi Boli His faith in Ahiranis prowess has come out strongly in the fiveodd Ahirani meets held in colourful milieus of Khandesh The Kannadbased writer has researched extensively on the niche bolis of the Adiwasi Thakars Aurangabad district and the Bhils he is currently undertaking a comparative study of Ahirani and the Gavali dialects MelghatDr Suryawanshi feels the Gateway Litfest is a great start for building pressure on the central government to include the spoken dialect classification in the upcoming national census Unlike the British era census which factored in the native tongues postIndependent Indian census scrapped the column In Maharashtra the accurate number of Ahirani speakers cant be gauged from the census because they are broadly categorised under Marathi speakers The problem is deeprooted in a system that does not grant legitimacy to us at the level of a census Can we then expect the government to introduce Ahirani in the curricula or to fund its original literature or encourage its translations For many years finding a publisher was a difficultyThe Ahirani dialect is spoken by 15 crore people across Gujarat Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra the Khandesh districts of Jalgaon Dhule Nandurbar and bit of NashikBhojpuri writer Parichay Dass who will be with Dr Suryawanshi at the Fest feels writers who have taken a conscious decision to write in a dialect have to be remarkably driven We are its lone ambassadors and cannot afford to move to the standard mainstream choices mdash Hindi in my case mdash even if we lose out on a larger audience Bhojpuri has in fact suffered a lot because of this tendency Just imagine if great Bhojpuri gems like Premchand and Lal Bahadur Shastri has expressed their thoughts in Bhojpuri the language would have risen in statureThe Union Ministry of Home Affairs currently registers demands for inclusion of 38 extra languages in the Eighth Schedule to the Indian Constitution The inclusion compels the central government to take measures for the development of the language and conduct public service exams in the officiallyrecognised language Ahirani is nowhere close to being recommended But that doesnt stop the dialect from availing the Gateways of growthSumedha RaikarMhatre is a culture columnist in search of the subtext You can reach her at sumedharaikargmailcom