President Droupadi Murmu on Monday turned the centenary celebrations of the Ol Chiki script into a moment of rare cultural intimacy, beginning her address by singing a prayer in the Santali language and urging people across the country to preserve and cherish their respective mother tongues.
Addressing the 22nd Santali Parsi Maha and the centenary year celebrations of the Ol Chiki script at the Dishom Jaherthan courtyard in Karandih on the outskirts of Jamshedpur, the President said linguistic pride and social progress must go hand in hand. She opened her speech with a Santali invocation to Jaher Aayo, the tribal mother deity, leaving the large gathering visibly moved.
“Learning many languages is important in today’s world, but it is equally important to protect and sustain one’s own language,” the President said, stressing that languages carry the memory, culture and values of a community. She appealed to the younger generation to take responsibility for keeping their language and traditions alive.
The President underlined that Santali, now included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, must also become a medium through which people understand laws, rights and governance. Referring to the Ol Chiki translation of the Constitution published during the centenary year of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, she described it as a significant step towards empowering the Santali-speaking population.
“Many innocent people suffer simply because they do not understand laws written in unfamiliar languages,” she said, adding that access to legal knowledge in one’s mother tongue was essential for justice and dignity.
Earlier, President Murmu, along with Jharkhand Governor Santosh Kumar Gangwar and Chief Minister Hemant Soren, offered prayers at the Karandih Jaherthan following traditional rituals. The President paid floral tributes at the statue of Pandit Raghunath Murmu, widely revered as Guru Gomke, the architect of the Ol Chiki script.
The President described Ol Chiki as a strong symbol of Santali identity that has helped unite the community across states and even countries where Santals live. “From villages to large cities in India and abroad, Ol Chiki has given Santals a shared cultural anchor,” she said, adding that writers and cultural activists had played an unparalleled role in protecting tribal self-respect and existence.
Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who addressed the gathering in Santali, said the centenary was not merely a celebration but a reaffirmation of Jharkhand’s cultural soul. He recalled the life and work of Pandit Raghunath Murmu as that of a visionary writer, teacher and thinker who devoted his life to giving Santali a written form rooted in indigenous thought.
Governor Gangwar, welcoming dignitaries including Jhargram MP Kalipada Soren, All India Santali Writers Association president Laxman Kisku and Jaherthan Committee chairman C.R. Manjhi, said the event represented a living celebration of tribal language, culture and collective memory rather than a formal function. He described President Murmu’s life journey as a source of inspiration for young girls across the country.
The Governor also recalled that the Santali language was included in the Eighth Schedule through the 92nd Constitutional Amendment in 2003, during the Vajpayee government, and said the present focus on inclusive development under Prime Minister Narendra Modi must also include cultural and linguistic inclusion.
The programme also saw the President honour several individuals for their contributions to the promotion and preservation of Ol Chiki and Santali literature. Those felicitated included Shobhanath Besra, Damayanti Besra, Muchiram Hembrom, Bhim Murmu, Ramdas Murmu, Chhotray Baskey, Niranjan Hansda, B.B. Sundaramani, Saurabh Rai, Shivshankar Kandayan and CR Manjhi.
As the centenary celebrations unfolded, the presence of the President singing in Santali and speaking of language as both identity and protection marked a moment that went beyond symbolism, placing a tribal language firmly at the heart of India’s constitutional and cultural narrative.