Imphal, May 16: The sentence has been declared but death will be slow for the Bengali script in Manipur.

Experts predict that it will take at least a quarter century to put a complete end to the tradition of nearly three centuries of writing Manipuri in Bengali script because of the huge task involved.

On Saturday night, the Okram Ibobi Singh government decided to replace Bengali with the Meitei Mayek script after a violent agitation that saw the state’s central library being burnt down.

“Since Meitei will be introduced in the next academic session only in the lower classes, by the time the entire process is complete, it will take not less than a quarter of a century (to complete the transition),” said an educationist, requesting anonymity.

The decision has been generally welcomed in Manipur, even by the hills people, whose leaders had initially opposed the change.

As a compromise, the government has decided that the hills people will use the Roman script.

Meitei Mayek is the script of the Meitei community, who form over 50 per cent of Manipur’s population.

It was abandoned under duress in the 18th century when King Pamheiba under the influence of the travelling Bengali Vaishnavite, Santidas Gossain, burnt all scriptures and other books in that script.

John Pulamte, the president of the All-Tribal Students’ Union, said: “We welcome the cabinet decision and particularly the resolution to allow use of Roman script by non-Meitei communities. We also welcome the idea of replacing the Bengali script.”

The only demand the hills people have made is that the government promote tribal dialects.

The United Democratic Front ministry of Youngmasho Seiza, a Naga, passed a resolution in the Assembly in 1980 to make the switch.

Two years ago, the government allowed voluntary organisations to teach Meitei in schools in Classes I and II. The experiment met with little success as learning the script was not compulsory.

At the request of language activists, vernacular newspapers have started writing at least one news report in Meitei.

But the newspaper industry will be among those fields where Bengali will die the slowest.

“People will have to first learn the script so that they can read a newspaper,” added T. Gautam, bureau chief of Naharolgi Thoudang, a leading vernacular paper.

The Bengali script was introduced in educational institutions after the British conquered Manipur in 1891.

“Bengali is virtually in the blood” of Manipuris, said the educationist.

Like him, Irengbam Arun, consulting editor of Ereibak, another vernacular daily, believes “it will take at least 25 to 30 years” to make the full transition.