JORHAT, Oct 5 - The centenary celebration of Jorhat Sahitya Sabha (the oldest recognised unit of Assam Sahitya Sabha) has started today with various programmes and thought provoking lectures by eminent litterateurs, intellectuals and journalist here who urged Asam Sahitya Sabha to play pivotal role for promoting Assamese language, unity and brotherhood among various tribes of different pockets in the State to prevent separation and among the indigenous people of the State.
Participating in the open session of the inaugural function noted educationist and connoisseur of social, literary and cultural arenas of the State Dr Amarjyoti Choudhury, Padmasri Dr Lakshmi Nandan Bora and senior journalist Utpal Barua of the vernacular daily newspaper Dainik Janambhumi expressed their concern over the pathetic conditions of several vernacular medium schools that witnessed poor enrolment for years.
According to Dr Choudhury, Jorhat Sahitya Sabha has the potential to uplift Assamese language, education and culture as it has a glorious past of sensitising indigenous population for promoting social, cultural and linguistic development in the State.
It is to be mentioned that Jorhat Sahitya Sabha, which is the first recognised unit of Asam Sahitya Sabha, was formed in 1915 (two years before the formation of Asam Sahitya Sabha).
Remembering the immense contributions of several luminaries of Jorhat including best-known Sankrit scholar Krishna Kanta Handiqui, Sarat Chandra Goswami, Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya, Jatindra Nath Goswami, Sayed Abdul Malik, Mitradev Mahanta and many other eminent litterateurs to the realm of literature and culture of the State, Dr Choudhury said that the first recognised unit of Asam Sahitya Sabha will have the prime responsibility to protect the language, culture and social unity and brotherhood from the aggression of divisive forces during �this period of crisis�.
According to him the new generation youths will be attracted to read the valuable pieces of Assamese literature of past and present if those writings can be available in web versions. He suggested Jorhat Sahitya Sabha to give their best possible effort for including Assamese alphabets and linguistic symbols in the Unicode so that web versions of the vernacular scripts can be made available for the new generation readers.
With a number of suggestions to popularise Assamese medium among the students and their guardians in the State eminent litterateur Padmasri Dr Lakshmi Nandan Bora requested the office-bearers of Asam Sahitya Sabha to spread the message of unity and brotherhood among various tribes including the tea garden workers and the people of char areas in the State. On the basis of his first hand experience in various char areas Dr Bora said that most of those populations adopted Assamese language and they contributed to the development of Assamese literature.
Expressing concern over the critical conditions of linguistic and demographic patterns of the State executive editor of vernacular daily newspaper Utpal Dutta said that infiltration from neighbouring Bangladesh caused serious problems including Muslim fundamentalists� terrorism. Citing the data of 2011 census journalist Barua said that Asam Sahitya Sabha would have to play significant role in the State to prevent the external threat.
Paying tribute to the former presidents, secretaries and the members and other contributions of Jorhat Sahitya Sabha the president of the centenary celebration committee and the local MLA Rana Goswami, secretary and the former Titabor MLA Hemanta Kalita also recounted the glorious memory of Sahitya Sabha unit.
Along with the president of Jorhat Sahitya Sabha Dhirendra Kumar Gogoi, secretary Mridul Kumar Bora, office-bearer of Jorhat Zila Sahitya Sabha Samiran Bordoloi and many other dignitaries also attended the inaugural programme.
