Abstract
Raji is a little known tribal community that resides in twelve geographically scattered hamlets in the state of Uttarakhand, India. According to 2011 Census, their total population is 732. Their language belongs to Tibeto-Burman family. Since, last twenty years or so the author has been working with this group and trying to document, preserve and revitalize their language and culture. Language revitalization requires tackling problems on many fronts and its different approaches depend upon the unique local conditions of the speech community. The author is trying to develop a new revitalization model called 'South Asian Model of Language Revitalization'. This paper discusses the Response of the Raji Revitalization Program towards the present pandemic and sheds light upon the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Raji community and the status of their language.
Highlights
Raji /Banraji/ Banmanus / Rawat /Rajbaar is one of the last hunter-gatherers of a little - known primitive tribe of India which was brought into light for the first time in 1823
I noticed that they still prefer to sit in the dark, invisible corners of the dhabas & shops of nearby markets
Most of the academia think if the community is not interested in the revival of their language and culture for whatever reason may be, a linguist must leave them to their situation and should wait till the time the community is ready for a revitalization programme or come forward and ask the researcher to help them
Summary
Raji /Banraji/ Banmanus / Rawat /Rajbaar is one of the last hunter-gatherers of a little - known primitive tribe of India which was brought into light for the first time in 1823. The word ‘bhulla’ was used earlier by them for themselves By nature, they are shy, aloof, strong-headed, and do not want to interact with other communities. To earn their bread and butter they shifted to agriculture, fish rearing, beekeeping, and often work as daily wage laborers. At present, they are geographically scattered and live in eleven small hamlets which fall in two districts- Pithoragarh and Champawat in the state of Uttarakhand, India. To work as laborers, to fulfil their daily needs and for education, they have to travel a lot Their newly formed hamlets Khirdwari and Chakarpur are around 50 km away from Pithoragarh and are situated in the low lying (tarai) area. Gradually they are losing the native words in Raji and replacing them with K/ H
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
