Standing in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, BJD MP Dr. Sasmit Patra lent his voice to millions who have long been unheard: India’s tribal communities whose languages form the oldest threads of the country’s linguistic fabric.
Dr. Patra renewed a long-standing demand, the inclusion of five major tribal languages Ho, Mundari, Bhumij, Kui and Saora in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution. These languages, spoken across Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and parts of Telangana, are not just modes of communication. They are reservoirs of identity, knowledge, and cultural memory, preserved for centuries through oral traditions, folklore, and community life.
For generations, tribal communities have carried forward rich legacies without scripts or formal recognition. Their festivals, their forest songs, the rhythm their language brings to everyday living, all of it forms a living museum of India’s indigenous soul. But without constitutional acknowledgment, these languages remain vulnerable, often overshadowed by dominant tongues and shrinking under the pressure of migration, modern education systems and cultural homogenization.
Dr. Patra reminded the House that this appeal is not new. The Odisha Government has repeatedly written to the Centre urging linguistic protection for these communities. The demand, deeply rooted in emotion and identity, reflects the aspirations of millions who wish to see their mother tongues placed alongside other nationally recognized languages.
The inclusion of tribal languages in the 8th Schedule is more than a symbolic gesture. It ensures better representation in education, administration, literature and media. It legitimizes their presence and acknowledges their contribution to India’s multicultural tapestry. Most importantly, it tells tribal children across the country that their language, the first music they ever heard, matters.
In a time when globalization threatens smaller cultures with erasure, recognizing these languages becomes an act of cultural preservation and justice. India’s tribal communities have guarded forests, protected biodiversity, and nurtured age-old traditions; the least the nation can offer in return is the assurance that their voices will not fade into silence.
As Dr. Patra’s words echoed within the walls of Parliament, they carried the weight of generations, urging the nation to listen, finally and fully, to the languages that have shaped its earliest stories.