Shillong, Nov. 27: The Meghalaya government today assured that a committee would be constituted to pursue and put pressure on the Centre in relation to the demand for the inclusion of Khasi language in the Eighth Schedule.

Chief minister Mukul Sangma gave the assurance on the fifth day of the winter session of the state Assembly while replying to a resolution tabled by UDP legislator Paul Lyngdoh who demanded that Khasi should find a place in the schedule.

“I propose to constitute a committee involving members of this august House and members from the Khasi Authors’ Society, Sahitya Akademi and other academicians,” Sangma said, adding that a notification in this regard would be issued by tomorrow.

He said the purpose of the committee would be to move the Centre to complete the process of setting up an uniform criteria for paving the way for any language for inclusion in the Eighth Schedule.

Sangma said since there was no criteria for inclusion of any language in the schedule, an inter-ministerial committee was constituted by the Union home affairs ministry.

The committee made an in-depth study of the entire gamut of the issue, including the recommendations of the Sitakant Mohapatra committee to suggest a set of uniform criteria, which may pave the way for deciding the inclusion or otherwise of a language in the Eighth Schedule, he said. However, a final decision on this was yet to be taken, he added.

Moreover, the chief minister said the main hurdles that the Khasi language face today was that it is not a medium of instruction upto the higher secondary or higher education levels, and the non-existence of a state Sahitya Sabha.

He also said the demand for inclusion of the Khasi language in the Eighth Schedule has been increasing because of the advantages the language gets once it is incorporated in the schedule.

These include job opportunities for the speakers of the language and it becomes a subject in the UPSC examinations. Besides funds for the implementation of the language are made available.

While moving the resolution, Lyngdoh asserted that in the light of the growing popularity of English, advancements made in science and technology, it was important for the Khasi language, which has ancient roots, to get state patronage.

He also said the language has the potential of producing the “best of human thought”.

Lyngdoh, who withdrew the resolution after receiving an assurance from the chief minister to constitute the committee of legislators and academicians, said the demand for inclusion of Khasi in the Eighth Schedule was not merely for sentimental reasons. “Apart from being the mother tongue, the language is also a unifier of the Khasi-Jaintia people throughout the Hynniewtrep land,” he said.

Others who supported the resolution included HSPDP legislator Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit, UDP legislators Donkupar Roy, Jemino Mawthoh and Metbah Lyngdoh while Congress legislators Ronnie V. Lyngdoh and Pynshngainlang N. Syiem participated in the debate.

In his remarks, the chief minister said, “Khasi today, as it stands, deserves to get a place in the Eighth Schedule.”

He also quoted the late Rev. Fr. H. Elias who said: “Haba ka ktien ka im, ka Jaidynriew ka im, bad ka Jaidbynriew kaba pule kan ym iap (When a language survives, the race will survive, and a race that reads in its own language will never die).”

Fact File

Khasi belongs to the Austro-Asiatic family in the Mon-Khmer group

Khasi is spoken by more than 10 lakh people out of the total population of 29.67 lakh in Meghalaya according to the 2011 census. It is also spoken in parts of Assam and parts of Bangladesh.

William Carey gave Khasi language a wriiten form in 1824 using Bengali script. In 1841, Thomas Jones introduced the Roman script.

Khasi became a medium of instruction and examination from October 1902 in schools upto the upper primary section.

The Ramayan, Mahabharat, Bible, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Geetanjali, among others, have been translated into Khasi.

Khasi and Garo languages were recognised and notified as Associate
Official Languages of the state after the Meghalaya State Language Act, 2005
received the assent of the governor on May 1, 2005.

Khasi is perhaps the only indigenous language in the world that has a Khasi-Aramaic dictionary, Khasi-Hebrew dictionary, and a Khasi-Greek dictionary authored by Rev. Sylvanus Sngi Lyngdoh.