Shillong, Oct 5: The Khasi Authors’ Society (KAS) president DRL Nonglait said on Thursday that faulty policy after the state was formed led to the delay in getting recognition to Khasi language.
Soon after the formation of the state, English was declared the official language of the state reducing the significance of the mother tongue.
However, Nonglait pointed out that English was adopted at that point of time to excel in competitions.
The KAS chief said if Khasi would have been declared as the official language of the state during its formation, things would have been different.
He pointed out that if Khasi is included in the eight schedule to the constitution, everyone will learn Khasi as official transactions will be in Khasi.
The KAS adopted four resolutions which include the demand for the Centre to introduce an official Bill for the inclusion of Khasi language in the eighth schedule to the constitution in the upcoming session of the Parliament.
The resolutions were adopted after the successful holding of the national seminar on ‘Khasi language, literature and culture’ in Delhi and a peaceful demonstration at Jantar Mantar from September 29-30.
Speaking to reporters, KAS president Nonglait said, “We have decided to urge the Government of India through the Ministry of Home Affairs to initiate necessary steps to introduce an official Bill in the next session of the Parliament as that will be a step for bringing Khasi into the 8th Schedule to the Constitution of India. The government has to amend the 8th Schedule for inclusion of any language to be part of the other scheduled languages.”
He said the KAS has also decided to seek a response from the office of the Union Home Minister regarding the status of its memorandum demanding inclusion of the Khasi language in the eighth schedule to the Constitution.
He said the KAS had also met former union home minister Rajnath Singh in January 2019 and the current union home minister on July 24, 2021 in Shillong.
“But we got the response from the Ministry of Home Affairs only in March 2019 after that there was no information, no correspondence from the ministry to the KAS or perhaps even to the state government. That is why we have adopted this resolution to seek a response from the government of India on the status of our demand,” Nonglait said.
Documentation submitted
The KAS president informed that the society has also submitted documentation on Khasi language, containing exhaustive information and concrete justifications, to the President of India, Prime Minister and Union Home Minister for their intervention.
“Because we have been demanding for over 4 decades now, our demands have been kept pending till now, so we feel that we should provide the state and Centre government exhaustive information and also concrete justification,” he said.
“Last decision taken was to wait for a respectable lapse of time before the KAS took further steps of action or agitation regarding this demand,” he added.
According to him, the KAS will wait for the upcoming session of the Parliament before taking a call on the next course of action.
