Dear friends,
I rarely participate in the discussions of this community but i regularly read
contents of the discussions.
For tackling this Bangladeshi menace I have got an idea which may sound funny
to some but i think even the wierdest of ideas could sometimes work. Let us use
this thread exclusively for collecting ideas on how we ourselves could do
something to solve this issue and then get down to work.
1)
A few years back i read in the Reader's Digest an article about two tribes of
Kashmir: The Kalash and Hunza tribes. These tribes are found in the Hunza
valley near Gilgit. Some people opine that these tribes are descended from some
of the soldiers of Alexander The Great who had after wandering through the
mountains settled down in Hunza valley. The Government of Greece was so
interested in these ppl that they had initiated some scholarship schemes so
that students from these two tribes could come to Greece to study Greek culture.
Why i told you this story is because these Europeans are very enthusiastic
about such things. While no community of Assam could be said to be descended
from Greeks or any other European race but our language Assamese being the
easternmost Indo-European language is very important with respect to world
history.
I hope there are activists in the western countries who are doing research on
topics like Indo-European etc. etc. And i hope some such people are
also campaigning for safeguarding important languages which are on the verge of
extinction. If we could somehow make contacts with such people, make them
understannd our cause, educate the people of the world through media how the
easternmost Indo-European language could die out, and in this way if we could
bring this issue in front of the UN or UNESCO etc. etc. then i think half of
our work is done. We could then create world opinion on how India's wrong
policies is leading to the death of an important language.
Even then India might not award Assam something like constitutional protection
but our issue would get world focus, some countries may also condemn India for
its policies and surely the main opposition party may raise an uproar in the
Parliament. All this could happen only if we could create a movement out of
this. For implementing my idea, we would require a big publicity through world
media. Also we might need contacts with important people in other countries.
May be the Assamese NRIs could play a vital role in this regard. There are
about 6000 Assamese NRIs and some of them are doing really well. Even if only
100 hundred NRAs come together for this cause amy be our job would be done.And
even if they are not able to help directly they still might have contacts who
could really help. Some Assamese NRAs are also working in the media. They could
use their position to cause awareness for this issue.
2)
I had read an article in some newspaper a few years back how some scholar from
Japan had come to study the Bodo language. A similar approach as 1) could be
used for the tribal languages of Assam but this time involving the east Asian
countries.
May be we could at least give this a try. Even if we are unsuccessful, our
efforts won't go unnoticed. In these crucial times, even the slightest of
efforts could mean a lot. This is the time when the NRAs could give Assam the
best possible gift ever possible. All this must however be done clandestinely
as there would be people who would like to sabotage it.
This is just one idea. There could be many other ideas. So let us pour in our
ideas and then get down to work.
Subhash
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