PREPAK calls for conserving Kanglei language
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, February 20 2012:
On the occasion of the International Mother Language Day, the proscribed UG group PREPAK in a press statement called for joint effort to conserve and promote the dying Kanglei language as well as other languages of different communities in the state which are on the verge of extinction.
Giving a brief account on the origin of the day, the statement said that Bangalis in Bangladesh revolted against the decision of Pakistan government which enforced Urdu as the only official language of Pakistan on March 21, 1948.In the revolt, at least three protestors were killed and hundreds injured on February 21, 1952 .
As a result of their protest, Bangla was made an official language on February 29, 1956 and subsequently Bangladesh got separated from Pakistan as a separate country in 1971 .
Since then, the people of Bangladesh (the then East Pakistan) began to observe the day as Mother Language Day.
After many years, two Bangali elders named Rafiq and Salam from Canada along with eight members of the Mother Language Lovers of the World approached United Nations on October 26, 1999 with a request to designate the day as International Mother Language Day.
Later, in November of that year, UNESCO in its 30th General Conference adopted the day as International Mother Language Day, the statement added.
According to The Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger or Disappearing, almost half of the around 6000 languages spoken in 188 countries in the world are on the verge of extinction.
India alone has 1652 mother languages, among which 33 languages are still spoken by lakhs of people while others are rarely spoken.
Kanglei language, the primary communication language of Manipur which people of all communities residing in the state can speak has also recieved threat of extinction ever since Manipur was forcefully annexed into the Indian Union.
In such a situation, it very much needed for all the people in the state to take up certain responsibility towards promotion of Kanglei language as well as other languages spoken by different communities in the state, the statement exhorted.