Reader's Article: Assam is the ancestral home to Boro peoples, mostly concentrated on the
northern bank of the mighty Brahmaputra, but there are numbers of Boro people
living in Bangladesh, Meghalaya and other parts of India. We are generally
farmers by occupation, but in course of time we have attained a development in
our living standard through modernization and globalization. We have improved
our living standard and embraced the western culture by far, but have not
forgotten our rich culture, tradition, our Kham, Jotha and Sifung.
Even our traditional dress, Dokhona and Gamsa are admired around
the world.
We have been struggling for our identity and
fighting for our motherland, our Bodoland for as long as we can
remember. Now we are very close to our achievement. Our youths are more
enthusiastic and participating more in the politics, business and
administrations of the country than ever. More effective education is provided
for children through best institutes available. More effective healthcare
facilities are available. We are developing in all aspects of life, overall
improving the living standard of our life.
But, are we missing something in the rush for
development? Yes, we are. We are slowly giving up on our beloved Bodo language
and embracing other languages. Today, lots of youth can’t even read and write
Bodo language, some can’t even speak fluently. We are degrading our language,
which our great leaders were able to enlist into the scheduled languages of the constitution by sacrificing so much and preserving it. The future of Bodo language lies in the hands of us
youths. We should preserve it by learning, teaching and by loving our native
language, only then we will be able to achieve true freedom and true Bodoland.
If we do not act quickly for saving and enriching our language and literature
soon it will be extinct, sadly, but true so far. According to 2001
census, there are 1,350,478 Bodo speaking
people in India, particularly Assam, but still, it is placed among the
vulnerable and endangered language of India by UNESCO (Wikipedia).
Some of such attempts to enrich
the Bodo literature were made in the past by prominent Boro leaders and writers,
like publishing of ‘Bibar’ the first quarterly Bodo magazine published as an organ of the Assam
Boro students’ conference (assam.info)
and publishing of monthly ‘Khobam’ magazine, launched by a group of Bodo-medium college
students (The Telegraph, Sunday , October 9 , 2011). Today’s youths reads lots
of English literature but very a few Boro people reads Bodo literature. We
should read more Bodo contents to love our literature and to be acquainted
about it.
Language is the identity of a community and for us
Boro peoples Bodo language is our true distinctiveness and pride. We are ought
to preserve it and pass on to the future generations to come for a better Bodoland.
Words by Rejoice Daimari (Reader’s Article)
[This article was sent by one of our B.T Reader; we thank him for
sending us this lovely article]
0 comments:
Post a Comment