Inaugurating centenary celebrations, President Droupadi Murmu hails 'Ol Chiki' script as a powerful symbol of Santhali identity

NEW DELHI: President of India Droupadi Murmu on Monday described the Ol Chiki script as a "powerful symbol" of the Santhali identity. “It is also an effective means of establishing unity among the Santhal community,” she added.

The President’s remarks came at the inauguration of the centenary celebration of the Ol Chiki script, being organised by the ministry of culture. Addressing a programme to mark the occasion in the national Capital, the President said that the Santhal community has its own language, literature and culture.

“However, due to the lack of its own script, the Santhali language was initially written in the Roman, Devanagari, Oriya, and Bengali scripts. Members of the Santal community living in Nepal, Bhutan, and Mauritius also used to write in the scripts prevalent in those countries. These scripts were not able to correctly pronounce the original words of the Santhali language. In 1925, Pandit Raghunath Murmu invented the Ol Chiki script,” she highlighted.

“Since then, it has been used for the Santhali language. Now, this script is a powerful symbol of Santhal identity worldwide. It is also an effective means of establishing unity among the Santhal community,” Murmu said.

The President said that the centenary celebrations of Ol Chiki should be an occasion to resolve for promoting this script. “While children can get education in Hindi, English, Oriya and Bengali, or any other language, they should also learn their mother tongue, Santhali, in the Ol Chiki script,” she added.

The President was happy to note that many writers are enriching Santhali literature through their works. She advised them to awaken people through their writings. She also expressed happiness over the Santhali language growing in the digital medium.

“Language and literature are the threads that uphold unity within the communities. The exchange of literature can enrich languages. Efforts should be made to make Santhali literature accessible to students of other languages through translation and writing and vice versa,” the President said.

On the occasion, Murmu released a commemorative coin and postage stamp on the completion of 100 years of Ol Chiki. She also felicitated 10 achievers from the Santal community for promoting wide use of Ol Chiki script among the Santhali people.

Union minister for tribal affairs, Jual Oram, culture minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, and culture secretary, Vivek Aggarwal, were present at the event.

Last year in December, the President had participated in a centenary celebration of the script in Jamshedpur in Jharkhand. To expand constitutional awareness and accessibility, the Constitution of India was officially translated into the Santhali language using the Ol Chiki script and released in December 2025 by President Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Published by the legislative department of the ministry of law and justice, this marked the first time that the nation’s foundational legal text became available in Santhali in its own indigenous script.

Santhali language, one of India’s prominent tribal languages spoken widely across Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Assam, and Bihar. Belonging to the Austroasiatic language family, Santhali has historically thrived through these oral traditions. However, while this strength ensured cultural continuity, the absence of a standardised script posed significant challenges for documentation, formal education, and literary development.

Ol Chiki script was developed in 1925 by Pandit Raghunath Murmu specifically for the Santhali language, which was later included in the Constitution of India’s Eighth Schedule in 2003. The script consists of 30 letters designed to accurately represent Santhali phonetics.

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