‘Give patronage to tribal languages’

IMPHAL, Jan 8: Council of Tribal Languages & Literature Societies, Manipur (CTLLSM) today urged the Governor through a memorandum to direct the Manipur Government to give patronage to all tribal languages of the State by allocating budget for their promotion.

There is a firm rooted “linguistic racism” in Manipur with an unseen agenda and it is found in the State budgetary documents since the creation of the State of Manipur, the memorandum to Governor Dr KK Paul said.

It said the decades-old State-sponsored linguistic racism has suppressed and ruined the cherished hope and vision of tribal languages in Manipur, apart from weakening the spirit of belongingness of the tribal people.

Thirty-four tribal languages of the State need funds to the tune of Rs 289.70 lakh per annum but there is no fund allocation for these languages in the State budget, it said, adding CTLLSM has submitted several representations to the State Government in this regard but no response has been given till date.

It said the Manipur Government is ruining the fabric of “unity in diversity” of the State by adopting anti-tribal language policy, creating an artificial gap between the linguistically advanced people of the plain and linguistically backward people of the hills.

The State Government is promoting Meiteilon (Manipuri), Hindi and English only by totally neglecting tribal languages, it alleged.

The State-sponsored linguistic racism is quite visible in Manipur since the Council of Higher Secondary Education, Manipur (COHSEM) is charging Rs 15,000 as language and visiting fees from schools which want to introduce tribal languages as subjects, which has discouraged many schools and denied opportunity to tribal students who want to learn their own languages, the memorandum said.

9-Jan-2015 / Newmai News Network