மலசர பழஙகடகளன மலசமழப பணபடடயஙகயல / Ethnolinguistic Cultural Dialectics of the Malasar Tribes

The tribal communities of India have separate languages, cultural values, religious beliefs and moral values that differ from the major society and emphasize unique and collective characteristics. The tribal communities have minimal representation in government and politics. They remain marginalized in fundamental rights and basic needs such as education and health. The tribal people have never claimed ownership on the land they live and are being alienated from their ancestral territories. They possess no material wealth and the language only serves as their property and marker of their identity. The tribal languages function as a means of communication and cultural repositories by preserving traditional knowledge systems, artistic values and folk literary traditions. The Malasar tribes speak Malasar language. The Malasar language belongs to the unspecified category of the South Indian family of languages but it has a close connection with Tamil language. Certain archaic Tamil words which are no longer in common usage in the present Tamil society are still used in the Malasar language. Sangam literature registers the developed life of the ancient Tamil society and portrays the occupations such as honey collection, tuber digging, capturing elephants and the ethics of courtship and love are seen in the life of the Malasar tribes. Nowadays, the Malasar language is heading towards extinction. It is to note that protecting the Malasar language is a vital process to preserve the cultural heritage of the Malasar tribes. The revival of the Malasar language will add more strength to the Tamil heritage and create a new way for the Malasar people to sustain themselves. Moreover, this revival would contribute to the progress of new frontiers in Tamil anthropology