This paper discusses two major challenges for the prospect of developing a native language education programme in Betta Kurumba, an endangered South Dravidian language spoken by a community of approximately 6000 people who live in a section of the Western Ghats and the Nilgiri mountains in southern India. The traditional Betta Kurumba home territory is currently divided across three states, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, each of which has a different official state language (Kannada, Malayalam, and Tamil, respectively).

One challenge I discuss arises from the division of the traditional Betta Kurumba homeland across three states. Most Betta Kurumbas are multilingual: they use their native language within the community, and the official state language as a lingua franca outside the community. Since each state has a different official state language, the community is effectively divided into three sociolinguistic sections, each making use of a different dominant language as the lingua franca. I argue that this division has important repercussions for the development of a native language education programmes for the community because these programmes are to take into consideration the practical benefits of combining education in the native language, as well as the local state language.

The second challenge is described more specifically in terms of the language situation of Betta Kurumbas living in the Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, a region in which I have carried out extensive field research on the language. Until the nineteenth century, the Nilgiris was relatively isolated from the lowland region of the Deccan plateau and coastal plains, and was inhabited by sixteen indigenous groups. Based on available information (see e.g. Emeneau (1944-6, 1984), Hockings (1989), Zvelebil (1973, 1979, 1981, 1982), Coelho (2003)), each of these groups has developed a distinct language. The region’s relative isolation ended in the nineteenth century, when the British set up plantations, towns, and schools in the area. In this period, English was introduced as a dominant language together with Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada -- the languages of migrants from the lowlands who moved here as a result of its socioeconomic development. After Indian independence, the Nilgiris became part of Tamil Nadu, with Tamil as the state official language. Since Tamil is now the state language, all these indigenous groups must learn this language if they want to advance socioeconomically. Since the various groups are relatively small in number, and since all of them currently receive their education in Tamil, adivasi schools cater not only to Betta Kurumba children, but also children from the other indigenous Nilgiri groups. An effective native language education programme for any of these communities must, therefore, be designed to work alongside native language programmes for the other communities.

Despite the two challenges discussed, I argue that the development of native language education is vitally important to ensure the long-term survival of Betta Kurumba and other indigenous languages in the Nilgiris. It is important also to preserve the traditional cultural knowledge that these groups have of their native forest environment, a knowledge that is more immediately threatened than their languages are.  

References
Coelho, Gail. 2003. A grammar of Betta Kurumba. University of Texas doctoral dissertation, Austin, Texas.
Emeneau, Murray B. 1944-6. Kota texts (in 4 volumes). University of California Publications in Linguistics 2: 1-191.
_____. 1984. Toda grammar and texts. Philadelphia : American Philosophical Society.
Hockings, Paul. (ed.) 1989. Blue Mountains: The ethnography and biogeography of a South Indian region. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Zvelebil, Kamil. 1973. The Irula language. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
_____. 1979. The Irula (ërla) language, Part 2. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
_____. 1981. Problems of identification and classification of some Nilagiri tribes. Anthropos 76: 467-528.