BENGALI SCRIPT AND
KOKBOROK: A COLONIAL PROJECT
With the recent
reversal to Bengali script for kokborok by the
oppositionless TTAADC ‘politics of kokborok’ is set to
deepen and further accentuate entrenched animosities
between the Tripura Communists and Tripuri
intelligentsia. Over the past few years the controversy
surrounding kokborok have been two-dimensional: First,
pertaining to script for language; and second,
appointment of an imported Bengali as Chairperson of
Kokborok Commission. The latter generated uproariously
staunched opposition led by MFK. The Government had to
confront and find it hard to ward off scathing
criticisms, perhaps unexpected, from all directions for
its callous insensitivity in importing and imposing a
dubious, unsavory tainted academician: a plagiarist from
the motherland of Bengalis. The issue, now buried, exposed
the colonial mindset and mental feudalism of the Bengali
political elites. The scriptwriters continue to
stage-manage the issue now staged within the walls of the
hollow institution of TTAADC. A masterstroke. The former
controversy drags on with brainless bungling politicians
dancing to the tunes of their refugee masters.
In the
ongoing discourse on the script issue the broader social
and political imperatives have been veiled and diluted
with the debate confined to the shallow narrow question of
‘suitability’ of Bengali script for kokborok vis-a vis
the Roman script. Debated on this line it is
doubtless that Bengali script wins hands down given bulk
of our population are educated in government ran Bengali
medium schools. However, given the socio-political
imperatives of language and the pivotal role it plays in
conditioning the way people think: how it shapes peoples
mindscapes, the way they see themselves and view others in
their day-to-day definition of their lives the adoption of
other’s script for kokborok needs to placed on broader
plane and wider framework.
Here it
would be pertinent to take a brief historical overview of
language movements in Northeast directed against Bengali
language and its script. The Assamese were the first to
unfurl staunch vehement opposition to imposition of
Bengali as official language during the British rule. In
fact the rise of Assamese nationalism is intimately linked
with their opposition to imposition of Bengali language in
Assam. The Bengali babus had connived and convinced their
colonial masters to adopt Bengali as official language of
Assam. Assamese nationalist rose to thwart this political
designs of the Bengalis. After India’s independence
Bengali was thrown out of educational institutions.
Another opposition to Bengali Script have been , in
greater intensity now, raging in Manipur. About a century
ago the latter Meitei rulers have, under the influence
and spell of Bengali babus adopted Bengali script. Meitei
Mayek the original script of Meitei almost disappeared.
Progressive minded forces rose seeking its revival. Of
late Meitie Intellectuals frontlines are engaged in
intense intimate dialogue with the government for its full
restoration.
Both these
movements were/are not concerned with ‘suitability’ or
‘goodness’ of neither Bengali script nor its language.
They were/are concerned with the very question of their
political identity and reworking their political spaces.
In Tripura, unfortunately, the discourse or debate had
been confined to and structured around the narrow shallow
question of which script is most suitable or good for
kokborok? This narrow angle veils the big picture: the
larger socio-political question of our identity and our
struggle for political space. for about a century Meitei’s
used the Bengali script despite the existence of its own
original script. Why this sudden outburst against the
Bengali script? The reason lies beyond the question of
“suitability’ or ‘goodness’ of script. It has to be
understood in the broader issue of the political process
of re-asserting and re-constructing the Meitei’s political
identity: A conscious attempt at grounding the way
Meitei’s redefine their society and give meaning to their
past and their present.
Movement
for Kokborok need to placed and viewed in this broader
framework of redefining our society; re-asserting our
political rights. Given our political context( there is a
tacit consensus among the youths that our society is
half-dead, stagnant, caught in time-warp unable to define
itself), two diametrically opposed people - Tripuris and
Bengalis - locked in an unnamed silent struggle, politics
of language ( adoption of script for kokborok) assumes the
character of at once a crucial and critical issue. Tripura
epitomizes a dangerous politicalscape with potentially
disastrous political construct. An alien illegal people
rabidly determined to perpetuate their domination over the
Tripuris and the indigenous people bracing up for a
sustained struggle to challenged this domination and
alter the power equation. The imposition of Benglai script
needs to questioned, discussed and understood in this
context. For domination is pursued and perpetuated not
only though political power but also through the
‘invasion of the minds’: invading and controlling the
way invaded and dominated people think. Bengali
political elites insistence on imposing their script is a
reflection of their colonial mental frame, their political
project of constructing the idea of superiority of their
language, their culture in the minds of Tripuris. And by
that superiority construct legitimating their superior
imposition in Tripura’s politicalscape. This colonial
design lasted unchecked till the turn of 21st
century. When in AD 2000 the IPFT mandated that Roman
script be followed for kokborok the Bengali political
class went jittery and maneuvered hard to resist this
challenge for within this lay their future hold over
Tripura. They were able to carved out structures within
our society who sought to undercut politics aimed at
Bengali domination. In 2002-3 Tripuri youth organizations
affiliated to the communists staged a rowdy raucous
demonstration outside the Agartala Doordarshan demanding
that the program highlights during kokborok slots the
language be written in Bengali script. The bulk of the
participants were uneducated and the rest Bengali medium
educated transported from the interior villages.
Thus
today we confront not only outside inimical forces bent on
perpetuating their domination over us. There are elements
and structures within our society which are used as
instruments ( by that inimical forces) to thwart out
attempts at redefining our identity. These structures will
need to dismantled layer by layer. This imposition of
Bengali script needs to be opposed for within it lay
embedded projects capable of rendering us identity less
and our political space meaningless. Sucked into this
complex political vortex our society stands stranded
directionless, unable to question and find answers to
problems besetting our society. This script issue provides
us with propitious opportunity to question our present
predicament. At the very root of this issue lie a core
issue of our identity and our future.
R K Debbarma
University of Hyderbad
sanja_db@yahoo.co.in
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