[Assam] Sabha platform of all Sahitya Sabhas: Deka(The Assam Tribune, Wednesday, April 09, 2008 )

[Buljit Buragohain]

Sabha platform of all Sahitya Sabhas: Deka
  
By A Staff Reporter
 GUWAHATI, April 8 – The role of the Asam Sahitya Sabha has now changed into a common platform of all the sahitya sabhas (literary bodies) of the State. It is also dedicating itself for the development of all the languages and literatures of the State taking all of them as its own languages initiating a move to reconstruct the society. Asam Sahitya Sabha president Kanaksen Deka made the above statement while releasing Tai-Assamese-English dictionary prepared by Purvanchal Tai Sahitya Sabha president Dr Puspa Gogoi at the Lakhiram Baruah Sadan here today.

Saying that the entire society of the State should be grateful to Dr Gogoi, who is basically a botanist, for this work of his, Deka said that the Asam Sahitya Sabha executive committee would adopt a resolution expressing gratefulness to Dr Gogoi.

The history of the State is not replete with any story of conflict among the peoples living in it. The conflicts recorded in the history of the State are connected with the rulers and the pykes (ordinary citizens) who worked as the troops of the rulers were bound by their economic compulsions, said Deka.

Addressing the function, noted linguist Prof Taburam Taid said that Assamese had been serving the State’s peoples as a bingua frenca since the time of Bhaskar Barma, described to be a Hinduised Kirata by Suniti Chatterjee in his Kirata Janakriti. 

Though Bhaskar Barma had his own mother tongue, he might had problems concerning the script of his language. But that was not the problem with the Tai-Ahoms, who have their own script. But still, due to socio-political compulsions, they accepted Assamese as their mother tongue. The process of accepting Assamese as their own language among the ethnic groups of Assam continued till democracy came into being in this part of the globe, he said.

He also lamented that arrogance on the part of some forces to impose Assamese on other groups made Assamese unacceptable for many groups today.

Dr Puspa Gogoi said that he had been working on the dictionary for about 15 years and for the past about four years he was engaged in it constantly. To prepare it he travelled to Shan Province of Myanmar, Northern Thailand, South China’s Yunan Province and consulted the scholars connected with the Tai language speaking groups of those parts of the globe.

The dictionary contains the 15,000 Tai words belonging to the Tai-Ahoms, Khamtis, Phalkes, Aitons, Turungs and Khamyangs groups of NE India, besides the Tai groups of Yunan Province, Northern Thailand and Shan Province of Myanmar. The Tai words are written here in Tai script, he said, adding the cost of the printing of the dictionary was borne by Chou Na Mein, a Minister of Arunachal Pradesh.

In the function, the travelogue of Chou Na Mein – To The Land of Tai Khamtis of Myanmar—was released by former Minister Hemaprova Saikia. The function was also addressed by noted linguist Dr Pramod Chandra Bhattacharyya, among others. It was presided over by Amarjyoti Gogoi, president of the Tai Ahom Council.
  
(The Assam Tribune,Guwahati, Wednesday, April 09, 2008 )



       
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