Skip to main content

From the archive: ‘Manipuri’ stays with Bishnupriya

Friday, March 10, 2006
SANTANU GHOSH

Silchar, March 9: In a landmark judgment yesterday, the Supreme Court has recognised Bishnupriya Manipuri language as a separate entity in the family of Indo-Aryan languages.

A two-bench division of the apex court, comprising Justice Ruma Paul and Justice Dalbir Bhandari, also made it clear that there was nothing wrong if Bishnupriyas continued to use the term ‘Manipuri’ either as a prefix or a suffix to the nomenclature of the Bishnupriyas.

With this verdict, the Supreme Court endorsed Gauhati High Court’s judgment, delivered on April 9, 1999, approving the inclusion of Bishnupriya Manipuri linguistic community in the list of the other backward communities (OBC) in Assam.

The case came to the Supreme Court after the Manipur government and one K. Kumardhan Singh challenged the Gauhati High Court’s verdict, in a bid to assert the identity of the Meiteis as the only Manipuri population. They objected to the use of the term ‘Manipuri’ along with Bishnupriya.

Describing this verdict as “historic”, Debendra Chandra Singh, president of Nikhil Bishnupriya Manipuri Mahasabha, the apex body of the five-lakh Bishnupriya Manipuri people in Assam and Tripura, today said it has now put an end to the controversy surrounding the identity of the Bishnupriyas.

The Bishnupriya Manipuri community, which had organised protests since 1955 under the aegis of the mahasabha demanding recognition of their language in Assam, won an important victory when the Assam government in 1999 accepted the Bishnupriya Manipuri language as one of the vernacular languages in primary and middle school stages in the state.

Courtesy: The Telegraph

Labels

Labels:

Comments

  1. B N22 October 2011 at 19:25

    It is definitely one of best of news for the entire community. I extend my gratitude  to Dr D K Sinha under whose leadership the community achieves few good things like this verdict and the formation of BMDC.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

We all love comments. It is moderated

Popular posts from this blog

Sri Sri Bhubaneshwar Sadhu Thakur

By Ranita Sinha, Kolkata Sri Sri Bhubaneshwar Thakur, the great saint of the Bishnupriya Manipuri Community was born on 26th October, 1871, in a remote village of Cachar district called Baropua in the state of Assam. He was born to a Xatriya Manipuri family. His father Sri Sanatan Pandit was a Sanskrit teacher and mother Srimati Malati Devi, a house wife. Sadhu Baba from his childhood was indifferent to all worldly happenings. He was engrossed in chanting the name of Lord Krishna. Along with other students of his age, Sadhu Baba started taking lessons of grammar and other spiritual literature from his father. At a very young age he lost his mother but he was brought up with utmost love and care by his step mother. At the age of eighteen, Sadhu baba lost his father, so, to continue his spiritual education under the guidance of Rajpandit Mineshwas Swarbabhwam Bhattacherjee, he went to Tripura. But within one year he made up his mind to visit all the holy places and as such he took permis...
9 comments
Read more

The 'Star' Krishankant Sinha of Space City Sigma

By RK Rishikesh Sinha, New Delhi It is a myth that the all-knowing Internet knows everything. One such myth relates to old television stuff aired on Doordarshan before 1990. Search in Google “Space City Sigma”, the search engine would throw up reminiscent results from the people who still long for those days. Those days were really golden days. Krishankant Sinha in the role of Captain Tara in Space City Singma For those who have watched Doordarshan some 15 to 20 years back, am sure they will have nostalgic memories of it. The days when possessing a now ubiquitous looking television set was a luxury. It was a neighbour’s envy product. It was a visual product to showoff, to flaunt that we have a television set . Those were the days when black and white, locked television was rarely found in homes. The days became immortal for teleserials like Ramayana, Mahabharata, Swami’s Malgudi Days (Ta-Na-Na-Na…), Ek-Do-Teen-Char (Title song: Ek do teen char, chaaro mil ke saath chale to ...
26 comments
Read more

A short history of the Bishnupriya Manipuri and their religio-cultural consciousness

Undoubtedly, the accurate period of the emergence or the development of religious consciousness of the Bishnupriya Manipuri is difficult to ascertain, but it is an old one that is undoubted, writes Rini Sinha , Guwahati . Religious beliefs are found virtually in every human society. Religious beliefs usually relates to the existence and worship of a deity or deities and divine involvement in the universe and human life. Religious knowledge according to religious practitioners may be gained from religious leaders, sacred texts or personal revelation. The development of religion has taken many forms in various cultural communities. The accurate period of emergence or development of religious consciousness of the Bishnupriya Manipuries is difficult to ascertain, but it is an old one that is undoubted. However, on the basis of the views of different scholars, pre-historic and historical remain whatsoever is available and from the logic of personal observations, we may put forward some view...
6 comments
Read more