IMPHAL, February 20: The People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak has encouraged all communities and groups of people of Manipur in their efforts to develop their language and dialects with the International Mother Language Day, 2013, said a press statement.
Language plays an important role in the development and identifying a community or a society, it said.
Equating a community with a family, the statement said as the development of a family lies with the mother and as such language plays an important role in developing a community.
The International Mother Language Day was proclaimed by the UNESCO general conference on November 1999 and was observed since 2000 in the month of February, it said and added that it is related to the movement in Bangladesh for the recognition of Bengali as one of the national languages. Urdu was the national language of Pakistan when Bangladesh was still the East Pakistan as announced on March 21, 1948.
The statement further said that due to the deteriorating situation, on February 29, 1956, Pakistan announced Bengali as one of its national languages.
Such movements encouraged the Bengali nationalism and ignited the 1971 Bengali freedom war, it said.
The statement further continued that an organization “Mother language Lovers of the World” on October 26, 1999 proposed the observation of the International Mother Language Day to the United Nations.
It has further continued that the entry of other languages and religions into Manipur during the times of Pamheiba Ninghthou hit hard the languages of Manipur.
It continued that the time has come for the people of Manipur to put efforts into safeguarding the languages of Manipur from going extinct.