Protecting Assam’s indigenous languages

Assam is a vibrant linguistic melting pot, defined by the confluence of three major language fam- ilies: Indo-Aryan, Sino-Tibetan, and Austro-asiatic. The identities of Assam’s diverse ethnic communities deeply intertwine with the state’s linguistic and cultural heritage. But the state’s rich ethno-linguistic heritage has been facing multiple threats in recent times. While Assamese-speaking people – people whose mother tongue is Assamese – constitute the largest segment (a little less than 49 per cent of the state’s total population, according to the 2011 Census Report), there are several other indigenous communities which have their respective distinct and rich languages. Among them again, the Bodo language is spoken by about 4.51 per cent of the state’s population and enjoys equal status with the Assamese language as per the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. The number of each of the other ethnic communities with distinct languages, which include Mising, Rabha, Tiwa, and Karbi, is significantly less. However, this does not diminish the value or richness of these indigenous languages, which have significantly enriched Assamese culture and language. It is also pertinent to note that the number of Bengali-speaking people has been increasing in Assam every passing decade. Though the fact remains that Bengali has been in use as a language in certain pockets of the state for a long time, there are a couple of more reasons behind the spurt in the number of Bengali-speakers in Assam. One is that a large number of Bengali-speaking Hindus had migrated to Assam from erstwhile East Bengal due to several historical reasons. While that happened at the time of independence, what, however, is mostly responsible for the abnormal increase in the number of Bengali speakers is the large-scale influx of Muslims from erstwhile East Bengal, erstwhile East Pakistan and present-day Bangladesh. One must always keep it in mind clearly that the second kind of migration has been part of a larger design – a dangerous conspiracy hatched way back in 1906 during the birth of the Muslim League – to cause a demographic invasion of Assam. The Assamese, however, had always successfully thwarted every attempt by various Muslim rulers of northern and central India and their subsidiaries who ruled Bengal to occupy Assam since 1206. The Battle of Saraighat (1671) was the most defining moment in Indian history when the Assamese inflicted the most crushing defeat on the Mughals, who had tried to create a myth of being invincible. It is equally important to note that in comparison to that of the other communities of the state, the population of the immigrant Muslim community has been increasing in an astronomical manner. What is currently required is a multi-pronged approach to tackle the situation so that the indigenous communities, including all Assamese, Bodo, Mising, Karbi, Tiwa, Rabha, Dimasa, etc., can be protected at all costs. One important measure is providing a constitutional safeguard. While this measure was prescribed way back in 1985 in the historic Assam Accord, it was only recently that the BJP-led government headed by Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma could be partially fulfilled by way of delimitation of the state’s Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies. The positive outcome of that measure was reflected in the recently concluded Assam Assembly election, in which the victory of candidates belonging to the various indigenous and ethnic communities could be ensured in more than one hundred out of the 126 Assembly segments. This, however, may not turn out to be a long-lasting solution because the immigrant Bengali-speaking Muslim population continues to increase at a much faster pace. Given this reality, what is also required is a massive awareness effort so that the younger generations of the state become aware of the sinister design of a demographic invasion, intended at realising a dangerous conspiracy of including Assam in the so-called larger Bangladesh, which, under the influence of fundamentalist forces, often behaves more like Pakistan. In this context, it will also be pertinent to take note of a particular aspect of the oath-taking ceremony of the newly elected members of the 16th Assam Legislative Assembly, which took place on Thursday. As has been reported, a number of newly-elected members took oath in their respective mother tongues, these being Mising, Rabha, Karbi and Rajbangshi. Unlike Assamese, Bodo, Bengali, Hindi and Sanskrit, these languages are not yet included in the eighth schedule of the Constitution. Yet, the decision taken by the present regime to accommodate these languages in the proceedings of the highest law-making body of the state by at least permitting them to take an oath in their respective languages is, in itself, a significant move, a historic gesture towards constitutional protection of the indigenous languages. After all, for most communities of the Northeastern region, identity is much more interrelated to language than anything else.