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Sahitya Sabha, AASU oppose move to impose Hindi

By Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Sept 16 - The reported suggestion of Union Home Minister Amit Shah made on the Hindi Diwas on September 14, that India should be united with Hindi, the most widely-spoken language of the country, with the assertion, it is �important for India to have one language marking its identity globally,� has been opposed by several quarters here.

According to some reports, the Union Home Minister also said that Hindi would be made compulsory for the children of the NE region.

Reacting to the above assertion of the Union Home Minister, Asam Sahitya Sabha president Dr Paramananda Rajbongshi said that it is important for the leaders of country to remember that the Indian states have been re-organised on the basis of the languages spoken by majority of their peoples. Moreover, it is also pertinent to note here that mother tongue is the first language for the children in matters of their education.

Hindi or English should be taught to the children of the country only after they learn the basics of their vernacular languages. If this principle is not followed and Hindi is sought to be imposed, the Asam Sahitya Sabha will not sit idle. It will vehemently oppose such a move, warned Dr Rajbongshi.

All Assam Students� Union (AASU) has also opposed the above reported move of the Union Home Minister to impose Hindi on the NE region.

AASU chief advisor Samujjal Bhattacharyya has described the above move as an undemocratic and anti-national one. This move has struck at the core of the Indian constitution.

In Assam, the children learn Hindi, Sanskrit etc languages at the school level. Imposition of Hindi on the people of the State and the NE region as a whole would go against the very spirit of the Indian constitution. The Union Government should honour the cultural heritage of the NE people.

In Assam, Assamese is the official language and Bodo has been recognised as the Eight Schedule language, while Rabha, Mising, Tiwa, Tai and Karbi languages have been recognised at the primary level of education as medium of instruction.

It is time to take effective steps for the development of these indigenous languages of the State and to extend support to the move made by Asam Sahitya Sabha together with the tribal literary bodies of the State to develop the indigenous languages of the State.

The Union Government should give up the tendency of imposing Hindi by taking the advantage of the brute majority of the ruling coalition in the Parliament. It should instead work for development of the indigenous languages, said the AASU chief advisor.

The Asom Sangrami Mancha has also made an appeal to the people of the State to defeat any conspiracy to impose Hindi on them.

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