IT News
Imphal , May 11:
The All Naga Students’ Association, Manipur (ANSAM) has strongly reacted to the Union Govt. decision to enforced Hindi till class ten in the NE states of India.
A statement of ANSAM said that India is a union of States that embrace, respect and celebrate its diversity. Such pluralistic characters range from physical geography, political history, social fabric, religion, race, language and ways of life. It is this rich diversity that is recognized and sustained through the Constitution since independence.
“Any callous political attempt to nullify this fundamental pluralistic union to any form of a homogenous identity is thus insensitive, regressive and is reflective of the ruling dispensation’s inconsiderate bent of mind towards smaller communities. Such unconstitutional and undemocratic policy fundamentally overlooks the consequences to an already vulnerable smaller communities like Nagas, who have been struggling to preserve our unique identities and cultures”, the ANSAM statement said.
It added that Language is an intrinsic aspect of every culture and in the northeastern region this character is synonymous with our diverse tribal identity.
Manipur is a state where 34 recognized tribes have thrived belong with other non-tribal communities and our diverse languages are a predominant identity that is sung, spoken, written and preserved with pride. Hence even the erstwhile attempt to make Meiteilon (Manipuri) compulsory in school syllabus was opposed tooth and nail by all the Tribals including ANSAM and the same was eventually forced to withdraw.
In such a sensitive backdrop, the abrupt decision to impose Hindi as a compulsory subject up to Class X in the northeast comes as an extremely irrational and immature political move. While agreeing to introducing a plethora of languages in education institutes and through the linguistic departments, the mandatory imposition of any language will threaten the survival of local/native/indigenous languages.
As such the new policy not only carries the potent risk of widespread unrest but also that of irretrievably destroying the very ideals of Indian pluralistic character. Hindi is merely an official language which is not even spoken by half of the country. Given this non-qualifiable statistical proportion of Hindi speaking population in India and even a lower percentage in the north east, promotion of the same as a national language is both irrelevant and condescending. Indigenous communities like the Nagas see this as hegemonic imposition to an already vulnerable survival of our traditional culture and identity. ANSAM will not accept any form of language imposition under any circumstances and rise to fight all out to protect and sustain our age-old indigenous languages that have been existing far before Indian Independence.
The ANSAM urged the government to categorically dismiss such “compulsory” “mandatory” dictates immediately. Instead of making unjustifiable imposition upon the young populace who are the future pillars of the society, the government should strive to efficiently preserve and promote our local tribal languages by increasing the composition and mandate of linguistic departments in the northeastern states.
“Peaceful co-existence of various communities cannot come through imposed policies, it can only be achieved through mutual respect and preservation of our pluralistic composition”, ANSAM statement said.
