It is rare to find a person in India or in Bangladesh who has never heard of the Manipuri Community. Given that they have a very rich history and vibrant culture, but it's particularly their dance that made them this well-known.
Albeit most of them live in Manipur, along with other states of northeastern India, a notable number of Manipuris live in Sylhet, a northeastern district in Bangladesh.
Due to the population proportion and other reasons, the facts about indigenous minorities often remains unknown to the majority of Bangladesh. Ergo this article aims to inform about a fact that's almost unknown to the other groups of people in Bangladesh, The Language Movement of Bishnupriya Manipuris.
Manipuri is a very ancient language. According to some scholars, it's about three and a half thousand years old. Historian and researcher from Manipur W. Yumjao Singh states, ‘….All these facts doubtlessly show that Manipuri as a spoken language has been in existence prior to the age of the Epic or at least to the compilation of the Mahabharata as a book. Hence its age is at least 3400 years old. Its phonetic diversity and development is a sure proof of its long existence as an independent language.’ (Parishad : 1970 : P. 35).
Pandit Raj Atombapu Sharma and Acharya Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyay also supported this hypothesis.
Pertinently notable that Manipur had been an independent state from the very beginning of its history. It was an independent state for a long time even after almost the whole of India came under British rule. However, Manipur lost its independence in 1791 after losing a battle with the British. Therefore, when the imperialist British power withdrew their empire from India in 1947, Manipur regained its independence. After that, Manipur, as an independent state, formed a legislature and government through a general election and also drafted a constitution. But later in 1949, as a result of unavoidable political and geographical influences, it joined the Indian Union and since then Manipur has been one of the northeastern states in India.
The Manipuris, from a linguistic point of view, are divided into two groups, namely- the Meiteis and the Bishnupriyas. According to their cast name the languages of them are called Meitei and Bishnupriya respectively.
In Assam and Tripura, Bishnupriya language recognition movement emerged in the 1950s. A language council was formed in 1955 by the initiative of 'Nikhil Bishnupriya Manipuri Mahasabha', demanding for primary education in mother tongue which later turned into a mass movement.
But due to the government's indifference, deception and counter action, the demand got stumbled in both states repeatedly. To knock out the public demand, the government of India took the path of deception in the census reports.
In the continuation of Satyagraha movement, on July 2 of 1961, the language council celebrated Language Demand Day. Then on July 2-8 of 1965, the council celebrated a language week instead of only a day.
Finally, after a 45 year-long mass movement, the Tripura State Government introduced the Bishnupriya Manipuri language in the primary schools on 26 May, 1995.
But in Assam, as the demand had not yet met with success, the movement continued. As a part of the movement, a 501-hour rail blockade was announced in Patharkandi (where only 1 Bishnupriya Manipuri was counted in the 1971 census).
On March 16, 1996 the movement had reached its climax in whole Assam after a young protester named Sudeshna Singh was martyred in a police firing. The death provoked widespread civil unrest.
After years of conflict, the government finally granted the demands. On February 8, 2001, the Bishnupriya Manipuri textbook 'Kanakpath' was launched in 152 schools in the Barak Valley.
Source: Jumjournal
Written by Neeti Chakma
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