Languages of Tribal and Indigenous Peoples of India: The Ethnic Space.

Korom, Frank J.

Edited by ANVITA ABBI. MLBD Series in Linguistics, vol. 10. Delhi: MOTILAL BANARSIDASS, 1997. Pp. xiv + 494, introduction, appendix, index. Rs 595.

Given the fact that the 1981 Census of India calculates the population of Scheduled Tribes at 51.63 million, comprising nearly eight percent of the total population of the country, it is a pity that not more attention is being focused on this neglected sector of Indian society. Part of the reason, of course, is political. Gaining access to the communities in question is often difficult, if not impossible. Thus, at a time when the study of adivasi languages is in decline in Europe and North America, this volume is a welcome addition to the sociological and linguistic literature on the tribal peoples of India. Moreover, it demonstrates the strength of sociolinguistic research in India, for many of the contributions in the volume are written by scholars working in Indian institutions. Not only does the volume cover a broad range of topics, but it also includes a number of useful charts, maps, and tables to assist the non-initiated reader in visualizing the demography and areal spread of India's indigenous languages.

In addition to the introduction written by the editor, the volume consists of twenty-six essays arranged in seven sections, beginning with two thematic sets - quest for identity (Abbi, Annamalai, Emeneau, K. S. Singh, Kubchandani, Hasnain) and contact/convergence (Mohanty, Israel, Abbi) - then followed by the linguistic designations Indo-Aryan (Zoller), Dravidian (Andronov, Pilot-Raichoor, Mahapatra), Austro-Asiatic (Bhat, A. Zide, Starosta, N. Zide, Ishtiaq, Nagaraja, Philip), Tibeto-Burman (Sharma, Yashwanta Singh, Subbarao and Lalitha, Abbi and Victor, Aggarawal), and Andamanese (Manoharan).

Although the introduction by Abbi begins in a romantic tone, noting that the "peace-loving, self-contented" tribal groups "fell back on Nature [sic], the forest for shelter and sustenance" (p. 5) in the face of modernization and industrialization, it soon moves on to important issues relating to ethnolinguistic identity. Abbi reaffirms that allegiance to a specific tongue is a basic marker of tribal identity, and she also underscores the need to move away from the false notion that tribal languages should somehow be equated with the "primitive" or the "underdeveloped." Without a doubt, India's indigenous languages are as complex, if not more so, than the modern IA vernaculars. The issues of identity and complexity, then, are two of the major themes of the volume.

The strongest part of the book, and the most interesting for a general readership, is the first set of essays on issues of identity. Collectively, they interrogate the notion of "tribal," asking questions about whether or not there are distinct characteristics that could enable one to designate a language as tribal or nontribal. As Emeneau, the American doyen of Indian tribal linguistics, observes: "What is the meaning of 'tribal' in a linguistic context? For India, this is difficult to answer" (p. 25). Indeed it is! Emeneau, along with K. S. Singh and E. Annamalai, draw attention to the complexity of defining the tribe in India. All three persuasively suggest that it is not possible to define "tribal" simply as a community outside of the caste system. Such a dichotomy helps little in understanding the dynamics of interaction between caste Hindus and those excluded from the hierarchy, since even those outside of the system are classified in some manner. In addition, such a simplistic view does not allow us to understand and analyze the development of patterns of Sanskritization, political uses of the term, etc. In short, virtually all of the contributions to this section advocate the idea that to be a good field linguist requires a solid grounding in ethnography, in order to know, as Emeneau states, "what our tribals are talking about and what they mean" (p. 34). The dynamics of social and linguistic contact are then taken up by the contributions in the second section, and issues of meaning are addressed in the more technical papers included in the following sections on specific language groupings.

In the course of reading this book, one encounters a fascinating array of topics ranging from oral aesthetics, linguistic change, and the development of tribal scripts to highly specialized articles on morphology, typology, and grammatical features. This volume will contain something of interest to anyone interested in the diversity of languages in India, and I recommend it highly. Unfortunately, like many volumes based on the proceedings of conferences, this one has an uneven style, with some of the contributions being weaker and more cursory than others. The editing could have been tightened and typographical errors removed. Nonetheless, the volume offers us a deeper understanding of India's indigenous languages. It also makes a persuasive plea for the revival of the study of India's neglected minority groups.

FRANK J. KOROM

BOSTON UNIVERSITY