How Do Languages Die?
31-year-old Tulsi Rajbar is probably one of the first Rajis to have written songs and poems in her native tongue Raji, spoken by a small community of tribals found in the remote hills of Uttarakhand. Her ancestors moved downward from hills in waves and finally settled in the foothills of Champawat. With the help of local NGOs and linguists like Kavita Rastogi, Rajbar learnt to read and write in Raji and in 2022, started teaching Raji to local children under the Wikitongues Language Revitalization Fellowship's 2022 program. As funds for the project ran out in a year, Rajbhar was forced to return to labour work. With nearly 600 languages in India facing extinction, India is facing imminent loss of indigenous culture and heritage that is expressed and preserved through this cornucopia of tongues and dialects. When looked at closely, the trajectory of languages reflects the socio-economic and political trajectory of the community itself.
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