SHILLONG: The Treasury and the Opposition in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly came together on Thursday to pass a resolution to include Khasi and Garo languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
Moving the resolution, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said the entire House is united on the resolution “as it is a long pending aspiration of the people of the state”.
Participating in the discussion, Mawsynram MLA HM Shangpliang said that both the opposition and the ruling members will join hands on the matter and all 60 MLAs will go to New Delhi if required.
Another Congress MLA from Mawlai, PT Sawkmie said pressure must be put on the Ministry of Home Affairs to fulfil the demand.
“We will try to ensure that the Khasi and Garo languages are included in the Eighth Schedule within our tenure,” Sawkmie said.
Independent MLA SK Sunn, who also participated in the discussion, urged the state government to have a detailed discussion with the Khasi Authors’ Society and the A’chik Literature Society on the subject before taking it up with the Centre.
“The Khasi Authors’ Society, in its booklet released during the rally on September 22 in Shillong, has provided reply to the many queries of the MHA,” the Mawphlang MLA said.
According to the 2011 census, the Khasi and Garo languages are spoken by 13.8 lakh and 9.36 lakh people. Describing the salient features of the two indigenous languages, the resolution points out that Calcutta University recognised Garo at matriculation level as one of the modern Indian languages in 1923. Garo was introduced as a subject at post graduate level in 1996.
The language has also been a medium for broadcasting in AIR (Prasar Bharati) since 1953 and for telecasting in Doordarshan since its inception in Tura on March 31, 1993, the resolution stated.
Similarly, “Khasi is being studied as a subject with due recognition from the Calcutta University up to the entrance level since 1900, at degree level since 1919 in the same university, at honours level by the Gauhati university since 1976, at the Master degree level under NEHU since 1981 and now till M.Phil and PhD and research scholars are permitted to present their thesis and dissertation in Khasi for the Khasi subject”.
“With the presence of linguist like Rev. Fr Sylvanus Sngi Lyngdoh, Khasi (is) perhaps the only indigenous language in the world that has a Khasi Aramaic Dictionary, a Khasi Hebrew Dictionary and a Khasi Greek Dictionary. The same scholar has produced massive works to document the history of the Khasi race in a series of books of close to a 1,000 pages each,” the resolution states.
It adds that previous legislators HS Shylla, Francis Mawlot, JM Marak, J Phanbuh, M Rava, TD Shira and Ardhendu Chaudhuri too had taken up the issue after which Khasi and Garo were notified as associate official languages of the state as per Section 4 of the Meghalaya State Language Act, 2005.
Speaking to reporters after the Assembly session, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said many people in the state “are emotional” about the matter and recalled that his father, PA Sangma, had raised the issue in Parliament.
Conrad, however, admitted that there would be hurdles on the way to achieving the goal as there is demand for recognition of 42 other languages. “The passing of the resolution is just the beginning,” he added.
The resolution points out the hurdles stating none of the two languages is a medium if instruction up to higher secondary or higher education and there is no Sahitya Sabha for either, which are among the criteria for recognition. “It will be difficult for Khasi and Garo to get through in the Lok Sabha if the above are not taken care of in due time,” the resolution said.
Asserting that all stakeholders have to work hard on the issue, Conrad said, “The fact that opposition and ruling have come together on the matter will give a strong message to the central government.”
Leader of the Opposition Mukul Sangma said the state has come a long way and a lot of work has been done in this regard. He hoped that the departments concerned had worked on all the minute details.
The demand for including Khasi language has recently gained momentum in the state.
As per KAS, according to the census of 2011, the number of people speaking Khasi in India is up to 14,31,344, which is much higher than the limit set by the MHA.
Another important criterion the MHA had set is that the language should be a medium of instruction in schools and colleges.
