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Tripura indigenous bodies seek Roman script for Kokborok
The Roman Script for Kokborok Choba (RSKC), a body comprising 56 indigenous organisations, has said that the government should not introduce any language for their own interests.
AGARTALA: Expressing gratitude for including Kokborok in Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) curriculum for secondary levels in Tripura, the Roman Script for Kokborok Choba (RSKC), a body comprising 56 indigenous organisations, on Saturday said they preferred Roman script over Devanagiri for the language.
The RSKC’s statement comes in the backdrop of union home minister Amit Shah’s remark earlier this month at the 37th meeting of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee in New Delhi that nine tribal communities in the North East have converted their dialects’ scripts into Devanagari and all eight North East states have agreed to make Hindi compulsory in schools up to Class 10.
“We are not against Hindi or Devanagiri but the Roman script will be easy for the Kokborok speaking people. The government should not introduce any language for their own interests. Let the matter be decided by the Kokborok speaking people, “ RSKC chairperson Bikash Rai Debbarma said.
Kokborok, the lingua franca of the indigenous community of the state, is found to be a vulnerable language by UNESCO. Currently, it is taught in 22 colleges and varsities. It got its first recognition as an official state language in 1979. Two commissions were set up under former minister Shyama Charan Tripura and linguist Pabitra Sarkar. There has been a prolonged debate over use of Bengali and Roman script for the language. The erstwhile Left government was in favour of introducing Bengali script while the RSKC claimed that both the commissions recommended Roman script to be used for Kokborok.
“We thanked the CBSE authorities, central and state governments for inclusion of Kokborok in the curriculum. It’s a great success of the decades-long language activists,” RSKC chairperson said.
The organisation also stressed that the students are learning both official languages of the state, Kokborok and Bengali in the educational institutions. Many are studying in English medium schools and hence learning English. “ If Hindi is made compulsory for the Tripura students, then they have to learn four languages or have to sacrifice their mother tongue, “ RSKC said.
