Language Imposition!!!

       Friends, This blog speaks about the process of single language imposition and its impact on the native language of the states and so Odia(The native language of Odisha state).

8 states of India opposed the imposition of "single language(Hindi) policy" in just-post-independence era. If politicians try to declare Hindi as National language now, then the same old protest will rise again. We all pay tax for this country. If Centre wants to spend money for a single language from my tax money , then it is definitely wrong.

Adding few points on Govt run schools on language basis in Odisha about which no one know and the Central Govt is not bothered:
1) Odisha has 30 languages (Specifying... "Languages", Not dialects). One major Language "Odia" and 29 primer languages
2) The majority-spoken language "Odia" is spoken by 3 crore people in around 8 dialects. And 29 languages are spoken by 1 crore people.
3) Odisha Govt never tried to destroy those 29 languages. But developing a language needs funding. So... when we have enough funds, the govt is trying to save the tribal languages.
4) Out of 29 primer languages, 2to3 are already implemented and total 10 languages will be registered by this year.
5) What exactly is the concept of primer language and how it is implemented in schools where students are purely monolingual?:::---
The script used is Odia and the language is the tribal language. The books are printed in this fashion and schools run on this primer basis from class 1 to 3. And then the students are moved to mainstream Odia medium.
Then they learn Odia and English and and at 8th standard Hindi/Sanskrit is introduced.
Please refer the below articles on Multilingual primer languages in Odisha:
http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/odisha/article1535984.ece
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120801/jsp/odisha/story_15795223.jsp#.VgGy2Jc_60c
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-otherstates/primer-in-tribal-dialects-for-students-in-tribal-schools/article3706057.ece


So, in this process more languages are encouraged to prosper by Odisha state Govt.
Should not the Centre help in this direction???!!!

But...If Hindi is registered as National language, there is a chance that Centre will force to implement it from 1st standard which impossible for the students to digest.
Already so much revenue is spent for Hindi language. If "National" word is attached, then the funding will be more and it will be from my tax money which I would not like.
I should pay for developing the languages inside my state Odisha.
But already I am paying somewhere for funding towards Hindi. Why shall I pay more? Why the Centre dont take extra tax for developing and propagating Hindi from the people whose Mother Tongue is Hindi.

We in Odisha learn Hindi from 8th standard in Govt school (case of CBSE schools being different) as we have followed from so many years. And we feel that the current process of language learning is good for us. We accept Hindi as a lingua-franca like English and we learn it in the right time. I can bet that I know better Hindi than anyone whose Mother Tongue is Hindi and the future generation will do so.
But if the Centre makes us feel that our kids have to learn Hindi from the beginning at the cost our native languages(Odia being the 6th classical language of India), then we have to reply back.

Now let me put some more points which will add to the knowledge of my fellow Indians.
In 1855, the presence of Odia language was there at the following places (outside the present day Odisha):  Ujjayini, Bhopal, Indore, Berar, Jabalpur, Nagpur, Durg, Bastar, Telangana, Uttara Sarkar, Raipur, Bilaspur, Sarguj, Reba, Palamu, Chotnagput Uttar, Chotnagpur Dakshin, Magadh, Kolhan, Purulia, Bankuda and Medinipur.

Pic Courtesy: Media Commons

These many places had their own mother tongues as Marathi, Telugu, Khadiboli, Bhojpuri, Maithili, Magadhi.
They knew somewhat Odia and the people in Odisha also knew somewhat of their languages. There was no issues at that time, right?

But gradually single language (Hindi) propagation accelerated by some linguistic/political goons.

1st destruction happened to Khadiboli, Bhojpuri, Maithili, Magadhi.
It was injected in the mind of the people of those states, "Hindi is BHAASA(Language-Complete language with script)" and their own mother tongues are just BOLI(Language just used for speaking)". Try to understand the difference between Bhaasa and Boli.
Ask this question to someone from UP, MP, Chhatishgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand:
1) "What is your mother tongue?" and U will get the Ans: "It is Hindi".
2)"What about Bhojpuri, Maithili etc" and U will get the Ans "It is just a Boli"
3) Did Bhojpuri and Maithili had own script? and U will get the Ans: "Yes"
4) Then why it was replaced by Hindi? and U will get the Ans: People, Linguistic and Political negligence

When the mother tongues of those places were screwed, then there was no chance Odia would have survived in foreign land.

But our(Odisha) linguistic team made Odia to survive and prosper in mainland Odisha and registered it as a classical language.

Appreciate the Telugu that they were able to save themselves.
Marathi also saved themselves in some way but now-a-days they are facing huge competition with Hindi.

Now we in Odisha are neither aware of the their languages not they are aware of my language because we have Hindi as lingua franca.
It happened because it is taught in schools, "Hindi is National Language". But the truth is that it is a lingua franca/common language/samparka bhasa.

When Hindi is imposed as a National language, it will be introduced in schools from 1st standard. In all signboards, it will be written in Hindi.
This will lead to destruction of other languages.

When a job-holder from Odisha goes to other state, he/she manage with Hindi in northern states and English in southern states. If they stay there for long time (5 to 6 years), they try understand the local language. If a Odia starts a business in other state, he communicates  in local language.
But in the reverse case, it is not happening when a non-Odia job-holder stays in Odisha for long time or businessman starts a business in Odisha. This is all happening because of the apathy of city dwelling Odias towards Odia language and gradually this tendency is getting carried forwarded to villages!

So, this imposition need to be stopped from Centre & from Hindi brethren and simultaneously Odisha people and Odisha Govt also need to understand the current issue and act accordingly.

Let Odia be our foundation and state language, let English help us in some jobs and let Hindi just be a 3rd language as it is now in Odisha.

ଯଦି ଓଡ଼ିଶା ଲୋକେ ଏହାର ଅର୍ଥ ବୁଝିଲେ ତାହେଲେ ଭଲ। ଯଦି ମୋ' କଥାରେ ଏକମତ ନୁହନ୍ତି ତା'ହେଲେ ଭୁଲି ଯାଅନ୍ତୁ ଯାହା ଏଠି ପଢିଲେ। ଧନ୍ୟବାଦ।

Thanks
Ashish

OdiaTweeples and their effort in Twitter!!!

Social media users from Odisha used to upload some Odisha related videos in youtube,  write some blogs on Odisha, post in Facebook/Twitter etc..
But this work was at individual level.

But with time, some fellows gradually gathered on Twitter.
It was the month of March 2014, there was a message "Lets celebrate #PakhalaDibasa" on 20th March on twitter as it is the day when the temperature rises due to summer season.
(Pakhala is an Odia dish made of rice and water. You can add some curd to it.
Pakhala can be taken with fish fry, mixture, potato fry etc. Pakhala Dibasa means Pakhala Day).
Slowly more number of tweeples started motivating each other for trending #PakhalaDibasa.
On the 20th March morning, #OdiaTweeples started tweeting about Pakhala with some good pics and the foundation was put for twitter trends.
Some nice blogs were also written on Pakhala.

Then the time was for celebrating the Odisha state formation day on 01April.
The hastag was #UtkalaDibasa (Utkala means Odisha and Dibasa means day).
Now the number tweeples increased and so #UtkalaDibasa trended in twitter.

During this time, someone suggested why not we celebrate #RasagolaDibasa!
What is Rasagola Dibasa? Is it Rasagola Day?
And answer is YES.
So the discussion among the tweeples continued.
This year(2015), there was Nabakalebara festivals of Prabhu Jagannatha, Prabhu
Balabhadra and Maa Subhadra.
So the Odisha tourism department did the promotion in a much better level through hoardings, ads and social media as well.
And the hashtag was #NakalebaraRathaJatra.
It was a huge trend in twitter and the reach to the people was high.

The last day of RathaJatra is celebrated as #NiladriBije when Lord Jagannatha returns back to Sri Mandira and offers Rasagola to Maa Lakshmi.
So the tweeples came to a consensus to trend #RasagolaDibasa on 30th July.
#RasagolaDibasa trended top in twitter.
The story did not end here.
Media talked to the Rasagola vendors at Pahala Odisha to decorate the shops and celebrated the Rasagola Dibasa there. There was a Rasagola fair arranged in Bhubaneswar as well and the vendors made a good bussiness that day. The discussion which started in twitter, created a good business for the Rasagola vendors in Odisha. And after that Odisha gov has applied to the GI(Goegraphical Indication) for getting GI tag for Rasagola as it was originated in Odisha. A mission accomplished. :)

The the number of tweeples started getting more and got involed in the Odisha related trends which was a positive news.
People started discussing what are upcoming festivals, birthday of freedom fighters etc.
For every trend, there need to be a hashtag.
For coming to a consensus, tweeples started doing voting so the tag be selected on the vote.
And going through this process, multiples hashtags got trended:
#RajaParba
#NuakhaiJuhar
#Bhagabata #ଭାଗବତ
#UtkalaMani #ଗୋପବନ୍ଧୁ
#DurgaPujaInOdisha
#OdishaPattachitra
#IncredibleChilika
#KalingaBuddha
#BaliJatra(#BoitaBandana, #KartikaPurnima, #Kalinga)
#Konark(#Konarka)
#DhanuJatra

These hashtags contain varieties of information about #Odisha.
If someone uses internet, then the person can now very well know about the history, geography, food, culture and festivals of Odisha.

Cheers
Ashish

"SaThi dusei" Puja after a kid's birth in Odisha

Maa "SaThi" is called the Godess of birth in Odisha.
In the house(near kitchen), people make 6 marks of clay on the wall and paste 6 Kaudi(Cowrie).

SaThi Puja is performed in Odisha after a kid is born.

On the 5th day of childbirth, PanchuAti(a food) is prepared from 5 items
"Mudhi(puffed rice) mixed with Guda(Jaggery), Biri(Black gram), Muga(Moong Dal), Buta(Chana Dal), Harada(Thoovar Dal) and fried".
The mother puts the PanchuAti in mouth and while crushing the food, she makes the new born kids to hear the sound(to confirm again that the kids does not have any hearing impairedness).
The other ladies show their "PaNata KAni(AnchaLa - The end portion of the saree which is put on the shoulder)", and someone put the the food item PanchuAti on the PaNata Kani.

On the 6th day of childbirth, the child is given a light massage in the room he/she was born.
6 types of food are prepared like - Bhata(rice), Dali(Dal), Macha(fish), Chakuli(A type of cake from rice), and any two types of curries veg/fish.
And this food is 1st offered to Godess "SaThi dusei".
In the evening, a feast is arranged and people do "BandaNa" of the newborn kid.

Cheers,
Ashish

Kalinga ru Odisha jayen... - MOVED

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