The Asam Sahitya Bhawan in Jorhat. Picture by UB Photos

Jorhat, May 4: The Asam Sahitya Sabha is planning to send a delegation to the US and the UK to strengthen its two branches abroad and open up new ones as part of its Sadbhavana Yatra.

This programme is intended to bring people of all communities in the region, country and world closer to the people here to foster better understanding and relationship.

Debojit Bora, assistant general secretary of the organisation, said they were in contact with a few members of Asam Sahitya Sabha North American branch and the modalities were being worked out to visit both the countries.

“We have branches in the US and in Leicester in the UK, and both the branches are centralised. We would like to open up more branches in both these places and decentralise the single branch,” Bora said.

“We have been in touch with Manjira Choudhury, president of the UK branch and with members of the US branch. The programme will most likely be fixed for July or August,” Bora added.

“The process is on to prepare a curriculum, which will be uploaded on the Net and where Assamese living in foreign countries can learn the language easily. By the time we reach the countries, this website should be functional and we will try to popularise the concept of learning the language from the site for those interested in learning Assamese. Once this takes off, we will try to popularise other languages,” Bora said.

In the US, the literary organisation’s branch magazine, Luitor Pora Mississippi, is brought out annually with articles written by a large Assamese community that resides there, as well as from people here.

“The society traditionally brings out the magazine every year during Assam Association of North America’s annual convention on July 4. The annual meeting, which includes panel discussions, is also held at that time,” Gayatree Siddhanta, president of the organisation and the editor of the magazine, said in a mail to The Telegraph from Poughkeepsie in the US.

“The main goal of Asam Sahitya Sabha North America (ASSNA) is to keep the literary culture of Assam alive among the Assamese all around the world and create a forum to give them an opportunity to express their literary creativity. Authors from Assam also grace the pages of Luitor Pora Mississippi through their contributions,” she wrote.

ASSNA does not have a set office as the president works on a two-year tenure. Its annual meetings take place wherever the body chooses to host its annual convention. “The world may be turning into a global village on the one hand, but on the other, each community is struggling to retain its identity and views other communities with suspicion. In this region itself we have witnessed border skirmishes with Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Meghalaya, all three of which formed a part of Assam, but the distance now is so great that there has arisen the necessity to bridge this gap,” Bora further said, adding that people in other parts of the country also know very little about Assam.

Two branches have been set up in Arunachal Pradesh, one in Nagaland, one in Tripura, one in Orissa and one each in Calcutta and Delhi besides the 900 odd branches in Assam.

“The best way to understand people and communities is through their literature and proposals for extensive translations into English and other languages have been made,” the assistant general secretary said.

“The trip to the UK and the US would not only strengthen ties but will also ensure that the Assamese language thrived in alien land,” he said.