Twenty Santali Wikipedia users from across India, Nepal, and Bangladesh contributed 865 articles in the language during a two-month online edit-a-thon, which was organised to mark the two years of the community.
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the community, which turned two on August 2, tried to engage itself to increase the content in Santali, one of India's 22 scheduled languages.
It is not only the first tribal language Wikipedia in India but also one of the fastest-growing Wikipedia communities, growing 198% year on year after Silesian Wikipedia (562.11%) and Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia (398.45%).
“Congratulations to the Santali Wikipedia community on their 2nd anniversary and for their brilliant edit-a-thon,” tweeted Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia.
CEO Katherine Maher also wished the first indigenous language Wikipedia from South Asia on its successful journey.
During the edit-a-thon that ended on August 2, Ramesh Murmu from Jharkhand contributed the highest articles of 174, followed by Ramjit Tudu and Aryan Murmu from Odisha, Bijendra Hansdah from Jharkhand, and Bodi Baski from West Bengal. While Albetus Tudu and Shibu Murmu were the top contributors from Bangladesh and Nepal, Odisha’s Maina Tudu wrote the highest articles among female contributors.
Santali, mainly oral language until the development of Ol Chiki by Pandit Raghunath Murmu in 1925, is spoken by 7.6 million people in India alone, according to the 2011 Census. Its speakers live mostly in Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Assam. It is also spoken in Bangladesh and Nepal.