SHILLONG: The Khasi Authors’ Society (KAS) took out a rally in the city on Friday to highlight the essence of the Khasi language.
Hundreds of people, including members of NGOs, school students, scholars and politicians, participated in the rally, the first of its kind in the city.
Addressing a gathering, former KAS president BR Kharlukhi said the language should be given its “rightful place” by including it in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
Kharlukhi said the three members of Parliament from the State have been requested to take up the issue of preserving Khasi language with the Centre.
Member of the Sahitya Akademi Sylvanus Lamare expressed concern over the fact that Khasi language was yet to be included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
Lamare pointed out that there are no school textbooks on Science and Mathematics written in Khasi and “this is also one of the main factors that led to increased number of dropouts among youths in the State”.
The Syiem of Hima Nongstoin, P Syiem, asserted that a community will lose its identity if it does not acknowledge its mother tongue.
Govt’s wrong policy
Many scholars feel that the State Government’s policies have also led to the drastic fall in popularity of Khasi language. “The notification of the state government through Meghalaya Board of School Education published on September 5, 2013, to remove Khasi (MIL) as a compulsory paper was in fact a shadow cast upon the Khasi Language which has weakened its essence,” D.R.L Nonglait, president of the Khasi Authors’ Society (KAS), told The Shillong Times on Friday.
Stating that Khasi MIL was made compulsory for degree courses by NEHU, Nonglait wondered why the language cannot be made compulsory at the higher secondary level.
Want of recognition
Another hurdle faced by the Khasi language is in the aspect of recognition by the government. “The state government had in May 2005 published a notification in which Khasi and Garo were made the associate official languages but till date it has not been implemented uniformly in the state government departments,” Nonglait said.
“The Khasi language is a rich and expansive language which has its own eminence but it has lost its sheen with the changing times,” he added.
Meanwhile, the rally, which started from the community hall of Jaiaw Dorbar Shnong and culminated at Students’ Field, Jaiaw, served as an instrument to create public awareness on the importance of Khasi language.
On the occasion, the members of KAS and other organisations called upon the state government and elected representatives to seriously take up the issue of strengthening the language.
Nonglait recalled that United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) once placed the Khasi language on the list of endangered languages.
UNESCO has withdrawn the language from its Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, yet he felt that the language will be endangered in the years to come.
Lack of political will
Nonglait urged the state government to use Khasi language uniformly. “The rules framed by the state government in relation to the associate official language are very weak. The government should strengthen the rules to ensure that officers and public use Khasi language for official purposes,” he said and added that inclusion of the language in the Eighth Schedule is being demanded for the past 30 years.
He asserted that the representatives of the state should have discussed and urged the Centre to include Khasi language when there was a debate during the inclusion of Nepali, Bodo and Manipuri in the Eighth Schedule.
He expressed concern that till date, the representatives did not demand the Central government to come up with a Bill to incorporate the Khasi language in the Eighth Schedule.
“This is a matter that has been taken lightly by the representatives and we feel that it has weakened the spirit of love for the language,” he added.
He observed that there is a threat to the Khasi language as the people in urban areas do not express their love for the language by speaking it among themselves but choose instead to speak in English.
However, Nonglait stated that KAS does not oppose anyone speaking in English and encouraged the people to learn other languages as well, but encouraged them to speak in Khasi in the family and in society.
He informed that there are many writers in Khasi with as many as 71 registered with the KAS.
Earlier, Nonglait presented a gist of the demands from various speakers during the gathering at Students’ Field.
He said, “The speakers have demanded the setting up of Khasi Sahitya Sabha, to include the Khasi language in the Eighth Schedule and to renew the demand to make Khasi (MIL) compulsory for class XII.”
