BHUBANESWAR: President Droupadi Murmu on Monday inaugurated the centenary celebrations of the Ol Chiki script at a national event organised by the Ministry of Culture in New Delhi, underscoring the need to promote Santali language education in its original script.
Addressing the gathering, the President said the Santal community has a rich linguistic and cultural heritage but lacked a dedicated script for centuries.
As a result, Santali was written in Roman, Devanagari, Odia and Bengali scripts in different regions, while those living in Nepal, Bhutan and Mauritius adopted locally prevalent scripts. These, she noted, could not accurately capture the phonetics of Santali.
She said the script was formally developed in 1925 by Pandit Raghunath Murmu, a resident of Rairangpur in Mayurbhanj district, marking a turning point in the preservation of the language.
“Ol Chiki is today a powerful symbol of Santal identity across the world and a means of strengthening unity within the community,” the President said.
Murmu urged that the centenary year should be used to promote Ol Chiki more widely. While children may pursue education in Hindi, English, Odia, Bengali or other languages, they should also learn their mother tongue Santali in the Ol Chiki script, she said.
The President also called upon writers to use literature as a means of social awakening. Noting that India is “an orchard of many languages”, she emphasised translation as a bridge between communities and urged efforts to make Santali literature accessible to speakers of other languages and vice versa.
On the occasion, Murmu released a commemorative coin and postage stamp marking 100 years of Ol Chiki and felicitated 10 achievers from the Santal community for promoting the script.