Khasi, Garo in the 8th Schedule : Meghalaya Assembly Speaker Dr Donkupar Roy

Meghalaya Assembly Speaker Dr Donkupar Roy on Tuesday announced in Shillong that the State Assembly would pass an official resolution in its next session seeking inclusion of the Khasi language in the 8th Schedule to Constitution. He also indicated that a similar move would be also made in respect to the Garo language. This is a very significant development, especially in view of the fact that demand for inclusion of Khasi in the 8th Schedule has been pending fulfillment for nearly four decades. While the Speaker has strongly advocated inclusion of Khasi, what is necessary is that both Khasi as well as Garo equally deserve to be included in the 8th Schedule. The Meghalaya Language Act, 2005, recognises Khasi and Garo as the state’s associate official languages.

According to the Census of 2011, as many as 14,31,344 people had returned Khasi as their mother tongue. This included 10,37,964 who had declared just Khasi as their mother tongue, 3,19,324 declared Pnar/Synteng, 51,558 declared War, 11,586 declared Lyngngam and 10,912 declared “others” as their mother tongue in the 2011 Census, with the report clubbing all of them as Khasi. Important to mention, Khasi is an Austro-Asiatic language which is said to be related to the Cambodian and Mon languages of South-east Asia and the Munda branch of that family which is spoken in east-central India. Khasi-speaking people are also found in Bangladesh and Assam. Rich in folklore and folk-tales, it is said that there is a story among the Khasis behind names of every hill, mountain, river, waterfall, bird, flower, tree and animal of the Khasi Hills.

Readers should note that while there are as many as 22 languages in the 8th Schedule, Khasi is one among 99 Non-Scheduled languages in Part B of the Schedule as mentioned in the Census report of 2011. The list of 99 Non-Scheduled languages also includes Mao. A language spoken by more than 10,000 people in Manipur and Nagaland, Mao was included in the list of Non-Scheduled languages only in 2011. What is significant is that of the total population of India, 96.71 per cent have one of the 22 Scheduled languages as their mother tongue, while the remaining 3.29 per cent speak one or the other remaining 99 Non-Scheduled languages. After all, as they say in Khasi, “Haba im ka ktien, im ka Jaitbynriew,” meaning – If the language is alive so are the people.