Barring a very few, Cutchi Memons, both men and women, were practically illiterate, except to the extent they could read the Holy Qur’an. Men in business could make correspondence in Gujarathi as they learned that language from their parents or uncles. Writing in Cutchi language using Gujarathi script was limited to writing letters to family members. Accounts were maintained in the Gujarathi system in the earlier years but were changed over to Malayalam as engaging managers and accountants from local people became necessary to deal with the local businessmen. Slowly writing in Gujarathi and the learning of that language totally perished, even by the first decade of the twentieth century. 

 

Nevertheless, there were women upto about 1950 who could read the Noor Namo and Tarteeb Salaath in Sindhi language, akin to Cutchi, and explain the same to the children. Their knowledge of Islamic faith and beliefs was well founded within the frame work of these two books, which were somehow lost in the later years. A few people in the later part of the century had also equipped themselves with Urdu.

 

The princely state of Travancore was credited with establishment of vernacular and English schools dating back to the time Cutchi Memons arrived here. Boys and girls did attend to these schools where they learned the local language and arithmetic. As a general rule, girls did not proceed beyond Class 2 as by then they were 7 years or above and were forced to stay home. Most of the boys joined around nine or ten years of age and left the schools by the time they reached the Preparatory Class, equivalent of present 5th standard, when they were 14 or 15, by then eager to earn their own living. Thereafter it was Form I, where Teaching of English language commenced, going upto Form VI (the eleventh year of schooling) known as the School Final. The need to go all the way up was not felt until Cutchi Memons were in business, in large numbers, or were associated with businesses as Dalals (Brokers), agents and servants because the little knowledge they had gained was more than sufficient for their survival. Yet a few of them did cross the border to become lawyers, clerks etc. Those who had the opportunity to deal with the British people then in business or administration managed to pick up English and that too quite well, without attending any school. 

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Cutchi Memons invariably used Cutchi language at home and for communicating with the members of the community. Once they started to have a second or third wife from the local Muslim community it was imperative that they should use the local language simultaneously. The women from the non-memon communities picked up the Cutchi language pretty well and soon, though with some mixing and distortion. The children in these marriages naturally picked up the language in their mother’s style and diction. Many of the original Cutchi words and phrases as also the cutchi proverbs were thus lost. The interest in education that picked up since independence paved the way for giving emphasis to the local medium of instruction and the need to master that language for the students’ social interactions. The thought process changed fast from Cutchi to the local language; there being no established means of learning the mother tongue, the local language received greater encouragement, resulting in Cutchi slipping out of the tongues of many, and majority of those who retained it had a skewed version of it.