Council convenes meet to amend 8th Schedule
SHILLONG: The meeting convened by KHADC which was attended by the traditional heads, eminent educationists, members of the Khasi Authors’ Society (KAS) has recently resolved to urge upon the Union Government to initiate constitutional measure to amend the 8th Schedule and called upon the State government to initiate whatever steps are necessary on its part to speed up the matter in the larger interest of the Khasi community.
“The Khasi language has managed to obtain credible status at the academic level. The language is also included in the syllabus of graduate and post graduate studies of NEHU enabling students to do research work in Khasi leading to the MPhil and PhD degrees,” KHADC CEM Adelbert Nongrum said in a statement issued here on Sunday.
He said that over the years, since Khasi language became the channel of communication and expression with the adoption of the Roman script in 1841 the language has shown progress in diverse areas of literature like drama, poetry, fiction, essays, translation, electronic & print media.
“The Khasi authors have been awarded with Bhasha Samman by the Sahitya Akademi in 1996 and 2012. The language has been accorded the Khasi associate official language of the state of Meghalaya since May 2005,” Nongrum said.
He also observed that the language is also spoken by the majority population in Meghalaya and some places outside Meghalaya like Assam and Bangladesh and has produced scholars who have contributed immensely to the cause of academic pursuits in the country.
“The need to accord constitutional recognition of Khasi language has been the long pending aspiration of the Khasi community since the struggle launched in right earnest in 1971. The language can be comfortably compared with other languages in respect of literary and socio-linguistic aspects of literature but the meeting was pained to see the language like the Bodo, Konkani, Manipuri and others have been accorded recognition and incorporated in the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution but Khasi has been excluded,” he said.
KHADC CEM said that the struggle to obtain recognition will be intensified in the peaceful and democratic manner and the need to pressurize concerned authorities be stepped up till the ultimate and legitimate goal is achieved.
He said that the KHADC also resolved to urge upon the State Government and the MBOSE to revoke the notification to make MIL into an elective subject.
“We would want that the Government maintain status-quo on MIL in the larger academic interests of the entire Khasi community,” Nongrum said
KHADC CEM said that they have taken serious note on the issue pertaining to the notification of the MBOSE removing Khasi MIL as a compulsory subject from the syllabus of higher secondary education and, converting it into one of the elective subjects.
He said that the meeting is of the view that taking recourse to such an important issue without proper valuation is extremely detrimental to the cause of higher learning of the state in general and of the Khasi academic fraternity in particular.
“The notification issued by MBOSE is not acceptable in as much as it undermines the credibility of Khasi as MIL in the context of the three language formula adopted and practiced over the years in the country. The rationale underlying the notification is highly questionable in so far as the inclusion of Khasi language as one of the elective subjects in the Higher Secondary level as it will lead to confusion,” Nongrum said.