NOMENCLETURE OF THE TRIBE
The Bru tribe has been identified by the outsiders since many years back, and then was recognized by the Government of India as “Riang” and one of the scheduled tribe of Tripura. In fact the nomenclature of the tribe is the “BRU,” but, how the nomecleture as “Riang” has been in use till date is a mystery to us, and a subject of extensive research work. Even then, a strong possible opinion may be given here fo r the light of interested ones who will be doing research work in future.
In the far distance past, most probably around 1661 A.D, Tripura dethroned king Maharaja Govinda Manikya happened to live among the Riangs. *(Rajmala/Tripura Royal Chronicle.) The then community chief of the tribe might have been of the Riang clan. Consequently, the nomenclature of the tribe as “Riang” must have been known to others. Nevertheless, the native speakers never call themselves as “Riang,” but “Bru.”
Actually, to the best of my knowledge, “Riang” is one of the clans or sub-tribe of the BRU. There are twelve clans in the Bru tribe excluding the RIANG clan, such as:
(1) Molsoi (2) Meska(3) Raikchak(4) Chorkhi(5) Msha(6) Chongpreing(7) Toimui yaphaoh(8) Tauma yakchwo(9) Nouhkham(10) Wairem(11) Apeto (12) Yakstam
However, there is a controversial opinion expressed by a few about the Riang which, they believed, was previously a name of a person, not a clan. Inspite of such opinion expressed, I would like to opine negatively that “Riang” is a clan whether “Riang” was previously a name of a person or not. Because, the idea as a separate clan/panji has been cherished by the native people till today and this is in use even in this present generation too. And in Mizoram, the Uchoi community is also considered to be a clan under the Bru ethnic group, but in Tripura this group of people has been recognized by the Govt. of India as a separate community or tribe.
In case, there was such a clan existing contemporarily, the number would be added. Now, including thisRiang clan and Uchoi, we have then 14 clans/panjis(in native term) in all. Thi s Riang clan is having the least population in these days. Besides this, the nomenclature cherished by the native speakers since the time immemorial is the “BRU.”
So, in accordance to my faith and belief, and considering on the above stated facts, I am one of native people who strongly defend in favour of the nomenclature as “BRU” which has the above given clans still in use among the tribe. When a person is asked which clan he belongs to, then the common answer is, “I belong to such and such clan” mentioning any name of the above mentioned clans. So, it must be legal that the tribe is to be recognized as “BRU” rather than “Riang”. However, the Yakstam clan is no longer traced out to have been surviving. This could happen about a half of a century back as I believe on hearing from many of our native leaders. The clan must have been merged in some other clans or totally extinct. All Bru people, except a few, have the same faith and belief about it and claim to be recognized as “Bru”. The community as whole can mutually understand without any problem while they communicate among themselves in their native tongue. There is no regional dialectical problem in understanding even though there are slight tonic differences.
SOCIO-LINGUISTIC SITUATION
All Bru people can mutually understand without any problem while they communicate among themselves in their native tongue. Most of the Bru people are bilingual. In Tripura and Assam, Bru people are under the dominion of Bengali language which has been in use for many years, because Bengali has been the state language since many centuries back, and they aquire education in Bengali; hence most of them speak Bengali fluently along with their native tongue. Like manner, in Mizoram, they speak Mizo and the native tongue fluently. However, a good number of educated ones are now multilingual who can speak English, Hindi, Mizo, Bengali and some other tribal languages. Bru people are easily accessible and every group of people can freely mix with them. Now, for purpose of doing business and teaching religious faith, the people who are mingling with them, have started speaking in Kau-Bru/ Bru language.
SOCIO-CULTURAL BACKGROUND
Socio-Economic Condition
The social life of the Bru people had been moulded in the setting of dense forest for centuries as it had been their main cultivation. The cultivation had been of slash & burn or shifting cultivation which is locally known as “Jhum cultivation.” This jhum cultiuvation does not allow the people to have settled life permanently in one place, but cause them to shift from place to place due to the need of searching dense forest and fertile land. Even today, majority of the tribe is living on this kind of cultivation.
Now, living amidst dense forest, the Bru people had been cradled to enjoy natural blessings in abundance, such as different kinds of wild fruits and vegetables of various tastes, wild fish, birds, and animals for food. As favoured by such natural abundences, the Bru people could have not ever imagined of cultivating vegetables, and pisciculture, and also rearing many domestic animals, except pigs and chickens which were needful for sacrifices in times of suffering from sickness, and dogs for guarding house and hunting purposes. Besides these, in jhum cultivation which is done once in a year, many kinds of agricultural crops are grown along with paddy, the main crop, such as sesame, cotton, chili and dozens of variety of other vegetables.
Then after the harvest season and storing of paddy, i.e. in August & September, men folk are somewhat free from work. The busiest months for the men and women are March/April to August/September. In these months, sowing of all kinds of seeds including paddy, cleaning jhum for three rounds and harvesting are done. Now, collection of cotton, sesame and chili are done later in October and November. Then people are mostly free from jhum work. So, men use to go into the forest for hunting, fishing, collecting honey, cane and so on. And women mostly do weaving clothes in their traditional way, and also do fishing with the help of a kind of fishing tool called in native language “slam”.(Slam is a cane-made perporated sheet of squre or rectangular size, and at one end it is tied making tapering shape, and the other end is kept open.) The jhum cultivation in the less distance past was so productive that little cultivation with less labour could feed the family for the whole year, even some times for two/three years in one cycle of year’s cultivation.
Now, as favoured by the blessings of abundance in crops and natural gifts, the people have the habit of living in easy-going lives associated with many merry-making festivities, such as harvest festival, sacrifices to gods and evil spirits, performing obsequial rites, marriage ceremonies where the total villagers took part, and some even took part going to other villages also. And in all festivals or events, from the time of conception of a child in a mother’s womb to the obsequial rite after the child’s death, alcoholic drink is associated and socially recognized. With the absence of this item, any function would be incomplete, for it is considered to be the main item required. Consequently, the whole people in the community are more or less led to be addicted to alcoholic drink which is the greatest curse of the community as a whole, and gripping the society even today. Thus the majority of the tribe has suffered from economic paralysis, and some of them who are heavily addicted, live in moral laxity, even destroying their God’s given sound health and money which they have earned with hard labour.
Faith And Belief
The tribe mostly, even today, worship traditional gods and goddesses, and sacrifice to appease the spirits who are believed to have caused child, man or woman suffering from sickness. Even many of the educated Bru people of today also more or less shelter such belief in the core of their minds. Such beliefs are like totemism, taboos, fearing evil spirits, black magic, and so on. Sacrifices are made killing young pigs, chicken, goats (he-goats) as per the prescriptions and demands of the native priests.
Of course, there are many Bru people who have embraced Christian Faith, and now the number of new believers is increasing every year, could have somehow discarded such superstitious belief, even though they are not yet completely free from such faith. Now, the Christian population of the tribe is around 20% inclusive of all sects (Denominations).
Attempt for Script Adoption
Now, with the pain of disparity, many Bru intellectual people have been venturing for finding out suitable and appropriate script of their own. Some had tried the literature adopting Bengali script while some had tried inventing absolutely new script to be their own, but without any success in the finalization of its decision. Now, we shall see how people had tried some way or other for establishing Bru literature since the beginning of the second half of the last century till date. Attempts had been made, yet with less success. Even then, there was a beginning whereon we are to base for the present days’ attempt and the future activities in the history of the Bru literature.
New Zealand Baptist Missionary Couple had given birth to Bru Literature
According to the writer’s immediate senior Christian brothers viz. Surjo Kumar Toimui of Kathalia, South Tripura, Drao Kumar Toimui and Kripa Mohan Msha of Dasda, North Tripura, with whom he had been associating as a younger brother, he has found out that the Baptist Missionary couple from New Zealand had first started Bru literature for purpose of their work in evangelism. During the fifties of the last century, the coupleRev. H. A. Jones and his wife Helen Jones had started Bru literature using Bengali script with a view to teach newly converted Bru Christians through native language. They had written some doctrinal treatises about the Christian Faith and translated some hymns for singing in the worship service, and published in the form of a booklet called “Rangma ni Kau rao,” in 1951-52 by the New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society, and then revised in 1957. Simultaneously, Mark’s Gospel and first Letter of John from the New Testament Bible, were translated associating some of the native High School students mentioned above, and published in 1958 by the then Bible Society of India & Ceylon, but the Society is now bifurcated as “The Bible Society of India”(BSI) and “The Bible Society of Sri Lanka” . Both of the books were published in Bengali character.
Successive Step taken by the Mizos of Jampui Hills
In the mean time, the Mizos of the then Jampui Presbytery (now known as Jampui-Sakhan Babtist Associatio, JSBA) had started working among the Bru. For the convenience of their ministry, they translated hymns from Mizo Hymn book in Roman script and published in 1958 by the same Presbytery. (*The writer personally had been using all those books when he was a student under the Missionary sponsored teacher-evangelists till 1963.) Later, the hymn book had been revised and enlarged from 80 hymns to 150, and then to 300 successively and published by the same Association. The Association had tried in producing Primer for Bru literature with a view to facilitate them with the basic knowledge of reading and writing in the native language. The Association had tried with further step even taking up New Testament Bible translation project deputing Late Rev. Chawna of Jampui Hill, North Tripura; but his work had got interrupted due to sudden demise of the translator’s wife, and the translator himself also had suffered hopelessly health down.
Now, even though the Association had the love for the Bru people, and zeal for uplifting the literature, unfortunately the workers of the Association could not do much with remarkable success. It was because of the fact that there was no qualified worker or missionary among them who had offered service in theBru field in particular. But the letters they were using are of Mizo alphabet which is the Roman script. In this way the Bru literature had been under the care and authority of the then Jampui-Sakhan Baptist Association limiting within the Christian populace, and remaining in fluid condition. Because it did not follow any rule of grammatical set pattern of the native language. Even though the Association could have not done with considerable improvement, still the inspiration it had provided to the native speakers has become an eye opener to the following lovers of the literature. So, the association deserves credit for it and a lot of thanks from the native speakers and the writer himself.
Bru Literature in the hands of Native people
When a New Testament Bible Translation Project was taken up by the Bible Society of India (BSI) as a full fledget project on the 10th August, in 1981, a grammatical set pattern had been felt necessary; because, the NT Bible would be read generation after generation by thousands. Seeing the urgency of the need, a native speaker had started pondering over the matter doing some research work on the language. Of course, he had started his research work on the language since 1973 while he was undergoing studies in the college.Thereafter he haddiscovered the set pattern of the Bru grammar. And he put into writing the set pattern of the language commencing from the year of 1975 but published in the form of a book with the title “An Introduction to Kau-Bru Grammar” in 1996. Even though his writing has a limitation in his literary work, even then the NT Bible translation had been based on his grammatical foundation.(NT Bible translation 1st. March,1983-26th. March,1986) Following the same grammatical pattern, the Old Testament Bible had also been translated. (11th, June, 1093-31st. August, 2004). And with a view to give reading knowledge to the public in general, he wrote a Primer Book-I and circulated having cyclostyled in 1980, and then in 1990 it was published with the title,“Kaumung ni Kalam”, by H.D. Buanga of Hmunpui village, Jampui Hills, who was interested to identify himself asH.D. Meska(*Meska is a clan/title of the Bru sub-tribe) because, he loved the Bru people very much.
Looking to the Future:
Now, the writer of this book has a burning desire to organize and arrange a seminar or a work-shop for the betterment and further development of the grammar and the literature. Because, cooperative work will give better result, and the pace of progress will be faster.The leaders of any Social organization or Church organization of any denomination may consider for arranging such program so that the community in general will be benefitted.
There are many talented writers and remarkable poets among our native speakers who have tried displaying their inborn talents through some magazines published by some social organizations of our native speakers, like- Bru Socio-Cultural Organization (BSCO), Bru Snungnai Mthoh (BSM), Bru Student Association(BSA), Assam, Bru Christian Church Organizations of different denominations, etc. Even though most of the contents of their writings have tremendous values, they are not widely read with interest. The main reason behind the fact is because of the defective in uniformity of the literature they use. For, every individual writer has his own way of word formation, which is not again maintained consistency in the order of morphological pattern. There is a lack of commonly acceptable pattern of the literature adopted and generalized for use that each writer should follow the set pattern of it. So, each one’s writing differs from the other. This situation has created the readers in general clumsy and abhorring in reading the articles, which contents are indeed worth considering being the most valuable.
Now, considering of all these defectives and need for establishing a norm which is to be commonly acceptable pattern for Bru Literature and to be made generalized, the writer of this book has tried his best to bring about a Bru grammar with analytical studies as a challenge to all the intellectual people of his community. Even though the writer is not academically well qualified and not of a high caliber to handle and work in this particular field, yet the love for his native people and a zeal for contributing something to his beloved community, have compelled him to render his humble service with such a humble writing as this grammar so that this writing would be an eye opener and an inspiring elixir. Thus he may move the inert of centuries slumbering minds of many of his fellow native speakers who are highly qualified with excellence in this field, and thereby start writing many more literature in different fields. Now, by doing as this, it may become a channel of blessings to the native speakers and other non-native speakers now and the generations ahead.
Previous Research work on the language
As for the Bru language is concerned, no scholar has ever done research work. The writer of this book has already mentioned that a couple of New Zealand Missionaries viz. Rev. H.A. Jones and Mrs. Helen Joneshad started translating some Christian doctrinal treatises and a few hymns for the new converts in Bengali character. It was done just for an instant teaching to the new Christian converts during the fifties of the last century. Neither a missionary nor a general scholar or any Governement agency has ever considered being necessary for doing research work on the Bru language.
The Role of the Brethren:
Now, with the initiation of a man from Brethren Church, this humble project as to write an “Analytical Study on Bru Grammar” had been initiated by sponsoring a few months to the writer. The Brethren Church missionary has been working among the Bru Displaced People from Mizoram who started sheltering in Tripura since 2006. They felt the urging need of developing the language for reaching the Bru in their own mother tongue. They have been doing their best in eradicating illiteracy and developing the Bru language by enriching the Bru literature with quality Christian literature which will win the future generations of the animistic Bru to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, the Lord. “Let the nations be glad”. But unfortunately, the Brothren could no longer sponsor the writer after 8 months time, and the writing was then remaining half undone. So, the writer himself tried his level best consulting some other experts in this field doing by himself as and when he can spare time along with earning his livelihood, thereby completed the task as this one.
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Bru History