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  • Living Heritage

Language & Oral Traditions

"This is how we speak."

Voices that carry a world of wisdom

At KISS, language is more than instruction — it is identity, memory, and future. Each Indigenous tongue carries with it ways of knowing land, community, and culture. With students from 64 tribes speaking over 20 mother tongues, KISS is one of the few institutions that turns multilingualism into strength, not a barrier.

Our work in language preservation gained international acclaim when KISS was honoured with the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize in 2022 — an award recognizing outstanding achievements in mother-tongue literacy and multilingual education. This global recognition affirmed our belief: that linguistic diversity must be central to equitable education.

  • "When a child learns in their mother tongue, they don't just understand — they belong."

Learning in the Mother Tongue

Transforming early education

For more than a decade, we’ve run Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) programs to enable children from tribal backgrounds to learn first in their home languages.

Structured Learning

Classrooms are structured to gradually introduce Odia, English, or regional languages after a strong base in the mother tongue.

Teacher Training

Teachers are trained in multilingual pedagogies and culturally anchored instruction.

Campus Integration

Across campus, language kiosks and visual aids reinforce vocabulary, script and phonetics.

  • Impact
    These efforts have improved comprehension, reduced dropouts tied to language gaps, and built confidence in students from their earliest years — turning what is often a disadvantage into a foundation of strength.

A Multilingual Movement

Language preservation at KISS goes far beyond one department or dialect; it is a collective institutional mission. Across our schools and university, Indigenous languages are not only taught, but actively researched, documented, digitised, and shared with the world. This multilingual diversity forms the foundation of both early learning and advanced study.

School of Comparative Tribal Languages & Literatures (SCTLL)

Under KISS-DU, promoting Indigenous linguistics, comparative studies, and literary research

  • Department of Santali
  • India’s largest academic centre for Santali studies
  • Hosts Santali Bhasha Diwas (22 December)
  • Publishes Kunami journal
  • Leads Mission Ol Chiki 2025 for script literacy
  • Centre for Indigenous Languages & Narratives
  • Documentation and translation
  • Inter-tribal linguistic exchange
  • Houses the KISS Language Club
  • Living archive of oral traditions

Kuvi Keyboard Project

In collaboration with Motorola, Lenovo Foundation, and KISS

  • The world's first Kuvi digital keyboard, bringing an endangered language into the digital age.
  • Supports typing in Kuvi using multiple scripts — Devanagari, Telugu, Odia, and Latin
  • Integrated into the Motorola Indigenous Keyboard (Android 13+), available globally via Google Play Store
  • Reaches over 1.5 lakh Kuvi speakers, promoting digital communication and visibility
  • Developed with community input from Kondh, Kond, and Jatapu tribes, linguists, and technologists
  • "This initiative sets the path for the revival of many more such languages."
    — Dr. Achyuta Samanta, Founder of KIIT & KISS
  • Impact
    KISS has evolved from an educational institution into a linguistic ecosystem — where oral traditions are archived, endangered languages are digitised, and Indigenous youth become both teachers and technologists. From the classroom blackboard to the mobile keyboard, every effort expands the space for tribal voices to thrive in the modern world.
  • Since 2018

Santali Khabar

On-air Indigenous Voice

A weekly news bulletin in Santali broadcast on Kalinga TV, entirely produced by KISS students — from reporting to anchoring.

  • The entire show — reporting, editing, anchoring — is student-led.
  • It reaches Santali communities in Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar, Tripura, and beyond.
  • Archived episodes on digital platforms extend access to younger generations.
  • Transforming the Narrative
    Santali Khabar shifts the paradigm: from tribes being reported on, to tribes reporting themselves. It gives Indigenous youth agency in media and inspires similar language-based media projects across tribal regions.

Programs & Initiatives

From scripts to speech, preserving Indigenous voices

A living language needs a living script.

  • Ol Chiki Script
  • Taught and used across KISS
  • Celebrating 100 years in 2025
  • Kunami journal published in Santali
  • KUVI Character Set
  • Workshop with Lenovo and Motorola
  • Standard digital encoding for KUVI
  • Supporting revival in the digital age
  • Endangered language preservation
  • Impact
    These efforts bridge tradition and technology — enabling Indigenous scripts to survive in print, on screens, and in the digital future.

Part of the Centre for Indigenous Languages & Narratives, the Language Club is a student-led incubator of linguistic creativity.

Folk Narratives

Retrieves and performs folk narratives in native tongues

Multilingual Fluency

Encourages bilingual/multilingual fluency via translation and storytelling

Inter-tribal Exchange

Students teach and learn each other’s languages

  • Impact
    The Club transforms language from a subject into a living skill — building confidence, storytelling ability, and cross-cultural respect among youth.

The KISS Language Lab, together with the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) initiative, complements these efforts with recording, phonetic analysis and archival tools

Students record oral stories, songs, vocabulary and pronunciations, creating a growing digital archive of mother tongues.

  • Impact
    What began as a lab becomes a living archive — a resource for researchers, students, and community language revival.

Recognition & Reach

KISS’ language work has earned both national and global validation:

UNESCO Prize 2022

UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize for exemplary contribution to mother-tongue literacy and multilingual education

India Trek Program

Since 2024, over 200 international scholars learn tribal languages like Santali and Ho through immersive methods

Academic Forums

Participation in national seminars, linguistic workshops and conferences elevating KISS’ role in language advocacy

When Language Becomes Legacy

At KISS, preserving Indigenous languages is not an add-on — it is integral to our mission. In every mother-tongue classroom, every script revived, and every broadcast aired, we nurture futures rooted in identity. By weaving language into education, media, research, and technology, KISS ensures that tribal youth don’t just learn language — they own it, carry it forward, and amplify it.

"When our students speak in their own tongue, they find not just a voice, but their power."