Jorhat, Aug. 7: The fourteenth edition of Hemkosh, the 111-year-old Assamese dictionary by Hem Baruah, took a beating today after representatives of several indigenous community organisations demanded its immediate withdrawal from bookstalls.

According to the organisations, the new edition of the dictionary contained several new words that described several indigenous communities in a derogatory manner and was an “attempt to break up Assamese society”.

A protest meeting was held in this regard at the Central Club here today under the aegis of five organisations — Ahom Sabha, Tai Ahom Students’ Union, Tai Ahom Yuba Parishad, Jamiat Ulema-E-Hind (all Jorhat district units) and Sanmilita Jatiya Oikya Mancha.

During the meeting, speakers, while coming down heavily on the publishers for inserting the derogatory words, called for lifting of stocks from the market and stoppage of further printing.

The new edition of the Hemkosh, an Assamese dictionary by Hem Baruah, first published in 1900, has been in the eye of a storm in recent times with many organisations objecting to the use of derogatory words while describing a number of communities of Assam.

Speakers demanded that the 10,000 copies that had been printed and released in the market, as claimed by the publishers, should be withdrawn from shops immediately and also urged individuals who had bought copies to return them to the bookstalls and get refunds.

Most of the speakers said the latest edition was an “attempt to break up the Assamese society”, because though the first edition of Hemkosh already had lot of derogatory references about many communities, the latest one had a lot of new words that were much more objectionable.

The meeting demanded that a new Hemkosh should be published deleting all the new inclusions and also the objectionable words included in the first edition as Assamese society had moved ahead in the past 111 years.

It urged the publishers to constitute an editorial board, comprising representatives from all communities of the state, to prepare the new edition of the dictionary.

Speakers also debunked the myth that the Hem Baruah was the first lexicographer in Assam by saying that seven other persons, including three Europeans, had published Assamese dictionaries prior to him.

Devabrata Sarmah, a language and a literary expert whose organisation is involved in bringing out the Jatiya Abhidhan Prakalpa, an encyclopaedic dictionary, said it had been established through research that Tengai Mohan and Ramakanta Molagharia in 1795 had written the first and second Assamese dictionaries, the manuscripts of which had been collected from the London-based British Library.

He said the publishers had already acknowledged in a statement their mistake, which was actually a “big blunder”, detrimental to unity of society.

Sarmah said the publishers should follow it up and bring out a new edition, deleting all references that alluded to most indigenous communities of the state in a derogatory manner.

An 80-page book — Bitarkar Abartat Hemkosh: Asomiya Jati Garhise Ne Bhangise (Hemkosh in Midst of Controversy: Breaking Up or Shaping Assamese Society) — containing polemical write-ups of 20 prominent writers of the state on the Hemkosh, was also released during the meeting. Jorhat district unit secretary of Ahom Sabha, Amrit Chetia, edited the book that was published by Ekalabya Prakashan.

General secretary of All Assam Moran Students’ Union Jyotimoni Baruah, noted language expert and former president of Mising Sahitya Sabha Basanta Kumar Doley, secretary of All Assam Ahom Sabha Chao Uttam Kumar Gogoi, Muhibuddin Ahmed of All Assam Khilanjiya Muslim Parishad, Jogananda Bora of All Assam Jaitya Vidalay Parishad also spoke during the meeting.