Meet the ex-DGP who led efforts to make Assamese a classical language

While the demand for classical status to some of these languages had been pending for as long as since 2013, the push for Assamese was first made in 2021, when Saikia was heading the Assam Sahitya Sabha, the state’s apex literary and socio-cultural non-governmental body. By then, there had been calls to recognise Assamese as a classical language but the practical work for its inclusion had not yet begun.

In 2021, a committee that included archaeologists, linguists such as Bishweshwar Hazarika and Narayan Das and artists such as Noni Borpuzari was set up under Saikia’s initiative to build the case for Assamese as a classical language.

Among the criteria for a language to be recognised as a classical language are a recorded history over a period of 1,500-2,000 years; a body of literature and texts that are considered “a heritage by generations of speakers”; and epigraphic and inscriptional evidence. The committee headed by eminent writer and former Rajya Sabha MP Nagen Saikia was tasked with collating evidence that Assamese meets the criteria.

After modern-day Assam was made part of the Bengal Presidency by the British East India Company, Bengali was made the official language of the region in 1836. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

“The challenge was basically to prove its antiquity… Archaeology, history, geography, and anthropological findings are what determine the antiquity of a language more than just morphology, syntax or phonology. That will not tell you the development of literature. So, we shifted to all these pieces of evidence and we wanted to cover all aspects of the language,” he said.

The final product was a 391-page report called ‘Memorandum for Granting Classical Status to Assamese Language’ filled with evidence such as images of sculptures, inscriptions, and copper plates to make the case. That report was submitted to the Sahitya Akademi in 2021 and discussed by the central government’s Linguistics Experts Committee to examine proposals from various states and bodies for this status.

Meanwhile, another report was submitted through the state government this year by a committee chaired by Sumanta Chaliha, vice-chairman of the Publication Board Assam. In both reports, one of the crucial archaeological pieces of evidence for establishing the antiquity of the language was a 5th Century land grant written in the eastern variety of the Brahmi script and inscribed on a stone slab found in Assam’s Golaghat district.

The 2021 report also refers to verses in the Buddhist texts Charyapadas, dated to around 8th century CE.

The recognition to the five languages was given earlier this month after the criteria was tweaked to remove the condition that the literary tradition should be original and not borrowed from another speech community. This status opens the door for support from the Ministry of Education to promote these languages through various ventures – including setting up Centres of Excellence for their study. According to officials, the ministries of culture (through the various academies) and education, together with the state governments of West Bengal, Assam and Maharashtra, will come together for greater knowledge-sharing and research as well as for digitisation of manuscripts in these languages.

But Saikia believes that the greatest significance of this tag for the Assamese language is tied to anxieties in a state where language and identity are fraught issues.

“It’s the psychology of Assamese people because of their historical experience that there have been questions on the antiquity and independent development of the language… Everybody wanted this particular declaration because they wanted to show the country that we have a very well-defined path of development and that we have been developing independently as the language of old Kamrup and Pragjyotishpura, which spread to other areas beyond Assam and the North East,” he said.

After modern-day Assam was made part of the Bengal Presidency by the British East India Company, Bengali was made the official language of the region in 1836. This marked the beginning of agitations — first for the recognition of Assamese as the official language, and later, resistance from other linguistic communities in the state against it being the sole official language.

According to Saikia, the “shock” of the developments of 1836 “is still persistent.”

“That fear of questions about whether it has an independent root and development, there is some liberation from that,” he said. “Now, our deep roots in the past have now been accepted and widely recognised. But we have many things to do. Good literature should come up. Our medium schools should be developed so people come to them. If a language is not connected with your daily life and living, it dies a slow death.”