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ments have now completely switched to Kannada, while in the highland villages,
children of school age (and young adults) would be able to speak little or no Solega,
but still have a passive comprehension of it. Their parents, now in their 30s and 40s
are still able to hold an extended conversation in ‘pure’ Solega, but would, in prac-
tice, frequently switch between Kannada and Solega. Even in the highland villages
near the fi eld station (i.e. accessible by road, but within the rainforest proper), cer-
tain high frequency Kannada words, such as benki ‘ fi re ’, have completely displaced
their indigenous Solega counterparts— kiccu in this case. People were defi nitely
aware of the Solega word, but only used it in my presence for humorous effect. It is
only in the interior settlements that very young children can still speak Solega as a
fi rst language. The division of labour between Solega and Kannada among bilin-
guals seems, on the surface, to be straightforward. Simply put, Kannada is used with
non-Solega people, while Solega is reserved for in-group members. Most adult
Solega in their 30s and 40s are now bilingual, however, and are equally at home in
either code. I did observe Solega bilinguals frequently switching between codes, but
neglected to record any sociolinguistic contexts that might motivate the switches.
The knowledge of ritual texts, plant and animal names, their uses and usual habi-
tats, place name s and their cultural signifi cance, and other items of specialised
vocabulary and cultural information is being signifi cantly eroded in all but the inte-
rior villages. My consultants, with whom I had discussions on this topic, regretted
this state of affairs, but were pragmatic about their children ’s opportunities to keep
up the old ways. These consultants, in their 30s and 40s, arguably represent the last
Solega generation to have been brought up in the times when shifting cultivation
was still practised, but was already on the decline. Now faced with a very different
reality, this generation of Solega are convinced that the only way for their children
to prosper (or at the very least, escape crushing poverty) would be to be educated in,
and adopt, mainstream ways of living. Another extremely signifi cant factor that has
precipitated a break in the transmission of traditional knowledge is the dominance
of Lantana camara in the forests of the B. R. Hills. Acting as a cruel and highly
visible metaphor for the infl ux of foreign cultural infl uences into the Solegas’ world,
this plant has completely swamped large tracts of the forest understorey, obliterat-
ing old forest trails, swallowing up sites of religious and utilitarian signifi cance, and
driving many culturally important species of plants and animals to local extinction.
The impact of this invasion on Solega cultural transmission is as noxious as any
government directive to curtail traditional activities— Lantana ensures that the
knowledge of countless plants and animals will fade from the Solega’s collective
memory, even as those species quietly disappear from the forest fl oor.
1.7.10 Attitudes Towards the Forest................................................
“ The forest is our home ”, is a statement that all Solega will, no doubt, agree on. Far
from being a trivial statement of fact, it is an utterance that also conveys a strong sense
of pathos, for the Solega are no longer free to live in their home as their ancestors did.
1 Introduction