Sabha must develop State's ethnic languages

GUWAHATI, February 6: There is no point in being scared that the development of ethnic languages and literatures will rob the Assamese language and its literature of the vitality, but contrary to it Assamese language and literature will gain more from such developments. It is high time the Asam Sahitya Sabha should realise it and engage itself more in the development of languages and literatures of the State's ethnic groups, said president-elect of the Asam Sahitya Sabha Homen Borgohain here today. Borgohain, an eminent litterateur-cum-journalist, who was addressing a function at the Guwahati Press Club as its guest of the month, this morning, attributed the development of ethnic languages and their literatures to both the rise of middle classes within the ethnic groups after independence and their subsequent attempts at identity assertions. He also said emphatically that the Asam Sahitya Sabha could not be blamed for such developments, it was in no way responsible for the alienation of the ethnic groups from the Assamese-speaking people, he said. Borgohain, who is going to take over charge as the president of the Asam Sahitya Sabha during its Dibrugarh session, commencing from tomorrow, also allayed the fears of a gloomy prospect awaiting Assamese literature because of lack of readership emanating from the fact that most of the Assamese elites have now started taking fancy in sending their children to English-medium schools. Reasoning, he said, the English literature which is one of the most prominent literatures in the world today, had only 40 lakh people as its support base when the Bard was creating his immortal works, similarly, there are only 60 lakh Jews world over to support the literary creations of the Jewish writers. So, with 1.5 crore Assamese-speaking people, the Assamese literature has nothing to be afraid of. It will thrive on though those educated through Assamese medium will remain its main support base, he said. He also asked the mediapersons and other members of the gathering whether they should ask Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta who shot into prominence as the leader of the Assam agitation, (which was launched to protect the identity of the Assamese people), to send his children to Assamese-medium schools or not. In reply to a question he said that instead of allowing itself to be involved in politics, the Asam Sahitya Sabha should concentrate more on building an intellectually-strong Assamese society. However, he said as the Sabha president, he would try to mobilise public opinion against violence and terrorism. He also expressed his dissatisfaction at the facts that the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) had slapped certain conditions on the Sabha for the former's help to organise the Dibrugarh session and had asked the Sabha to clarify its stand on certain issues concerning the Assamese people. But, he said, to save it from the snares of the politicians, particularly the politicians in power, the Sabha should have a self-sustaining economy. Or else, it will ever remain in victim of the blackmailing manoeuvres of the politicians, he said. Regretting the fact that a sort of lethargy is pronounced among the Assamese intelligentsia, Borgohain said that such an attitude was responsible for the failure of the Publication Board, Assam's 12-volume Assamese encyclopaedia project and the Anundoram Borooah Institute of Language and Culture's six-volume history of Assamese literature project. He therefore called upon all educated Assamese persons to engage themselves in the task to make contributions to Assamese literature without bothering about the pain involved. A time has come today that taking to writing as a professional in Assamese society one can at least earn two square meals, contrary to the bygone days, he said. In reply to a question, Borgohain, who is known for his political analysis as well as his in-depth analysis of the social problems, said that the roots of the ills confronting the Assamese society today lie in the failure of both the political leaders and the intelligentsia to provide proper leadership. While the political leaders have become corrupt now-a-days, the intelligentsia have failed to check the inroads of the vices spread by the politicians, he claimed. When asked as to which tasks he has given priority to for his tenure as the Sabha president, Borgohain said that he would give priority to raise a fund of the Sabha with contributions from the people, restoration of the age-old amity among the ethnic groups, publishing advanced Assamese dictionary and encyclopaedia and standardisation of Assamese language. The last of the tasks is being planned to be completed within one year's time with the help of the experts. And for the rest, best efforts will be made at least to initiate the process if completion of the tasks remains elusive, he said. When asked to comment whether he has any point to grieve for any of his failures both as a litterateur and as a journalist, he said that he failed to do justice to both the fields. Though he started writing at the age of 7 years, he had to join journalism under some compelling circumstances. Despite deriving a bit of satisfaction as a journalist with the success in some cases of undoing injustice that befell the people, his career as a journalist always stood on the way of his making more contribution to literature he said, adding, no doubt journalism has become a glamorous profession in the State today with attractive pay packets tagged to it.