Type Koligeet in a search engine and a host of videos will pop up; a glimpse into the vibrant culture and language of the Koli community across the Konkan. But the ground reality might paint a different picture. The Koli language is on a steady decline. Mohit Nandakishor Ramle, president of Akhil Koli Samaj ani Sanskruti Sanwardhan Sangha, Mumbai, notes, “Koli is spoken by the indigenous tribe of the Maharashtra coast located on the Konkan belt, from Dahanu in Palghar, southwards to Ratnagiri. It is different from Marathi in the sense that it carries a different flavour to it. However, the language faces the threat of extinction.”

Preserve the language

Artiste Kadambari Anjali Mahesh Koli, who with artiste Parag Kamal Kashinath Tandel, founded the Tandel Fund of Archives (TFA), a socially-engaged archive and ethnographic pop-up museum of Mumbai’s Koli tribes, tells us, “Very few people in our koliwada (Chendani Koliwada, Thane) speak Koli. We are losing the language, and so the first stance is to create the TFA to promote Koli.” In 2020, TFA declared September 1 as Koli Language Day, a day close to Narali Purnima and the onset of the fishing season. This evening, in collaboration with Ramle, TFA will host an online reading room for poets, dhavlas (songsters) and writers to present their poems in Koli. The event will conclude with an open discussion and audience Q&A. Kadambari continues that the poetry event acts as a common platform for older and younger generation poets and singers to showcase talents, and share the knowledge of the culture.