Make Manipuri associate official language of Assam: AAMSU
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, September 21 2021: All Assam Manipuri Students' Union (AAMSU) has been demanding the government of Assam to make Manipuri language the state's associate official language.

In a statement, AAMSU informed that Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sharma in an interaction with intellectuals and teachers of Manipuri community during a recent visit in Silchar said that the Manipuri speaking population of Assam is too small to make Manipuri the associate official language.

AAMSU strongly condemns such irresponsible statement of the chief minister, the statement said.

In Assam, there is a new trend of making Assamese, Bengali and Bodo languages mandatory for every Assamese and in this trend, Manipuri medium will exist no more within a short period of time since those who do not study any of these three languages will no longer be able to secure government jobs in the state.

As a result, Manipuri students are on the verge of giving up study in Manipuri medium.

In order to keep the Manipuri language alive, it has become necessary to make it an associate official language of the state, the statement said.

The union further said that Manipuri language has been included in the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution and Manipuri medium has been incorporated in the education system since 1956.Courses in Manipuri language are offered in different universities including Assam University and Silchar University.

It is also a language recognised by the Sahitya Akademi.

The Assam CM is suppressing the language despite such high status and the union sees it as an attempt to suppress the language, it added.

Maintaining that statu's of a language cannot be measured by its population, the union demanded the Assam government to treat Manipuri language at the same level as Assamese, Bengali and Bodo, and to declare it as an associate official language of the state.

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