It all began about forty years ago. Shri Parimal Chandra Mitra, then a 'Kanungo' and Assistant Settlement Officer was engaged in surveying land in the district of Midnapur. West Bengal. He recalls that there was a dispute regarding a small piece of land which sustained an entire family of Santhals A group of dishonest people argued that the land really belonged to them. Shri Mitra, not being able to follow the arguments of the Santals, gave his verdict in favour of the former. Some local bhadraloks next day attracted his attention to the glaring injustice and accused him of ruining a poor Santhal family Shri Mitra, as a conscientious government servant, experienced the shock of his life, and decided to learn the language of the Santhals with whom he was in daily contact.
He began to learn the Santhali spoken language with a tenacity which has characterised all his efforts. As he progressed, he wanted to have some systems and rules of grammar underlying the structure of the spoken Santhali language. There were, of course, already available some efforts in this direction by European missionaries in the 19th and early 20th Century. But they did not satisfy him. On the pages of a small exercise book, bought in a village shop, began the painstaking jottings of a young government surveyor eager to learn the mystery of the language of these so-called uncivilised people who had no scripts, but had distinct language to express their world of experiences. After a few years, some- time in the early sixties, this unknown man mastered all his courage to see and seek the advice of the greatest living linguist of India. Dr Suniti Kumar Chatterji gave him more than three hours of his precious time, questioned, probed and scolded and at least blessed this obscure young man to follow his lonely path. With tears in his eyes, this scholar of seventy years told me that was the finest reward for his labour of love and indeed, it was a labour of love, an extremely uphill task which found little encouragement either from the establishment or from the government.
Shri Mitra has about forty research papers devoted to his study of the Santhali language. He has already published two books: Santhal Bhasa: Bhitti O Sambhabana (Santhali Language: its foundation and potential), 1985, written in Bengali language, and the other written in English, 'Santhali: The Base of World Languages, 1988. The very title of the present work. Santhali: A Universal Haritage, indicates clearly his direction of thought he attempts to study the Santhali language as a constituent part of culture of the Santhals.
The short discussion about the evolution of languages of the world mentioned in this book, is an integral part of the work in continuation of my previously published books 'Santhali: the Base of World Languages' and 'Santhal Bhasa: Bhitti O Sombhabona.'
Discussions have been made here on languages, like- Ancient Greek, German, French, Latin, Zend-Avesta, Old- Persian, Vedic and Post-Vedic Literatures, showing their birth from Kol (Santhali) language in origin.
Readers will find that the Gaul tribes or Gothic people of Greece, the 'Celt' of England, the 'Goll' of France, the ancient people of Persia, the Kol people of India, and all the people of the world, primarily originated from the same place (as mentioned in the previous books) and all were from the same speech group of people.
Discussions have been made, as to how and why, this language of primitive people had been distinctly and disunitedly separated, creating many out of one.
It is a fact, that scholars at large are not intimately conversant with the Kol (Santhali) language. But scholars with adamantine aptitude may acquire the ability to learn quickly and easily the language. An in-depth study and research will sufficiently convince any scholar that the Kol language was not only the base of world languages but also it had made its great impact on the advancement of civilization for all the people, as already discussed by the author in his earlier books published. I am also free from any doubt that with the progression of research in this direction, many an untold fact of history will be revealed; setting aside the present knowledge of the people of 20th century.
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