City Kolis express fears about their vanishing dialect

Mumbai: The Mumbai Marathi Granth Sangrahalaya in Dadar is currently featuring an exhibition of the literature of over 50 dialects of Maharashtra

Mumbai: The Mumbai Marathi Granth Sangrahalaya in Dadar is currently featuring an exhibition of the literature of over 50 dialects of Maharashtra. Included in this is the literature of the Son Kolis, Mumbai’s indigenous fishing community.

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While the language continues to be spoken, the community fears that its usage could disappear, especially in the younger generation which speaks Marathi, English and Hindi. “Only 50 to 55 % of people in the koliwadas (fishing villages) of Mumbai speak the original Koli language,” said Mohit Ramale, president of the Akhil Koli Samaj Sanskruti Samvardhan Sangh.

Ramale said that the language was now a hotchpotch with even Hindi words included in it. “Ever since urbanisation reached the koliwadas of Mumbai, many of us have an inferiority complex about speaking our own language,” he said. “As a result, the Koli language has slowly but steadily begun to fade out.”

In a 2015 research paper written by Professor Sandeep Hegde, titled ‘Son Kolis: The Aboriginal Inhabitants Of Bombay (Now Mumbai) In Transition’, Hegde emphasises the changing pattern of the Koli community and its language. According to the paper, ‘Son Kolis are either Christian or Hindu but both speak the same dialect. However, nowadays, the majority of Son Kolis speak Marathi or a dialect of Marathi.’

Bhagwan Dandekar, a scholar of Koli songs and Koli culture, said that the Koli community had produced a fairly large amount of literature. “But while certain Koli songs are popular, the literature is not known in its entirety,” he said. “Because of this, the dialect has never been given literary status.”

Forty-year-old President of the Akhil Maharashtra Macchimar Kruti Samiti, Devendra Tandel, remarked that his mother’s generation could be called the last generation that spoke the original Koli language. “Education has gone up but the number of dialects has begun to decline,” he said. “The government has done nothing to help. If it wants dialects to survive, it must take the initiative in this regard.”

Language scholar Prakash Parab said that the life of the Koli community in other coastal areas of the country had been the subject of studies but there was insufficient data on Mumbai’s Koli community. “There needs to be a comprehensive study of the Koli language in Mumbai,” he emphasised. Reiterating Parab’s point, Ramale said, “Research on the Koli language and conservation of its literature should be done at the University of Mumbai. We will soon correspond with the government on this.”