Nepal: Linguistic Black Day

The indigenous janajati people have been agitating against the verdict of Supreme Court-Nepal that has barred the use of mother tongue of different janajatis in local governance and offices. They have been calling Jestha-18 (June-1) a Linguistic Black Day. Demanding their linguistic rights indigenous people called a one-day general strike on that very day.

World's linguists are worried about the alarming decline of a large number of languages in the world. They have estimated that the future of 90-95% of the world's spoken languages is threatened/endangered only 10% or even 5% of today's languages may exist in 2100 as vital, healthy languages which are being passed on to children. In all parts of the world indigenous peoples (and minorities) are trying to counteract this threat. In many if not most cases, the initiatives and demands for linguistic human rights come from the people themselves, not governments or even (outsider) NGOs. So is the case of Nepal.

According to recent online version of Ethnologue- the record of world languages, 126 languages have been identified in Nepal. But the population census of Nepal-2001 has listed out only 92 languages identified to be spoken. This shows the severe negligence of the government towards preservation of minority languages. Thus majority of languages are in the verge of extinction. In this context, the demand of indigenous people is relevant.

The demand of linguistic rights is not only the case of Nepal. Being one of the fundamental rights of people, it is the case of all multilingual countries. Language is identity and power for all. One of the major identities of janajatis is their language. Thus to ignore their language means to ignore their identity. In Ian Martin's study which was carried out in 2000 in Nunavut, Canada, shows a fourteen-year-old high school student writes that he feels ashamed not to be able to understand his grandparents and other elders, and wonders why the school does nothing to help. Not only Martin's study all studies carried out in language planning policies show that linguistic rights of indigenous people should be granted in education, mass media and so on.

We know linguistic pluralism is the identity of Nepal. But because of unitary governance from the regime of Prithvi Narayan Shah to date no minority languages other than Nepali have been given due respect for their preservation and promotion. Thus majority of languages are endangered and moribund which are in the verge of extinction. After the restoration of democracy in 1990, indigenous nationalities have been raising their voice for their linguistic rights although there is no any commendable effort from the part of the government to address the linguistic issues. Although janaandolan-II has established a loktantrik government of eight parties, the government does not seem to give priority to linguistic issue for discussion for New Nepal. Even though all languages have been given the status of national languages in interim constitution, in practice there is no linguistic pluralism. Eight parties have just made political decision but they have never consulted with other stakeholders of language planning like linguists, economists, educationalists and native speakers of different minority languages. The provision in interim constitution is not functional at all.

The then verdict of Supreme Court was against the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights-1996. According to Article-3 of the declaration, people have right to the use of their own language both in private and in public atmosphere. Similarly, Article-17 of the declaration clearly asserts that all language communities are entitled to have at their disposal and to obtain in their own language all official documents pertaining to relations which affect the territory to which the language is proper, whether such documents be in printed, machine-readable or any other form. Furthermore, the declaration has also made provision that all language communities are entitled to the official use of their language within their territory and the language and culture of all language communities must be the subject of study and research at university level.

The verdict of Supreme Court is an example of violation of linguistic rights of majority people in Nepal. Since the slogan of inclusive democracy is proliferating in the nation, assurance of linguistic rights to indigenous people is compulsory because language is the most important variable for making democracy inclusive. Because of such injustice over indigenous people, they have already called one day strike and this is the right time to raise such issue for indigenous people. 

Although linguistic pluralism is the ground reality of Nepal, language planning of the nation could not adopt multilingual policy that has led languages to commit suicide that is called linguicide (linguistic + suicide). Nation should broadly think that all languages are equally important. At present to criticize voices of indigenous nationalities, people superficially enunciate that linguistic pluralism policy disintegrates the nation. They further amplify their voice that nobody has stopped indigenous people to use their language. These are irresponsible arguments. It is sure that if language planning policy is not multilingual i.e. harmonious to ground reality or social context, that will disintegrate the nation. Present agitation of indigenous nationalities is the result of one language policy that has suppressed majority of languages for more than 238 years.

In fact there is no harm in giving official status to local languages in different regions. For this, nation can work with linguists and educationists along with the sentiment of people in the nation. We have to learn lesson from India, Singapore, and many other African and European countries which have adopted multilingual language policy. This is the nation's responsibility to preserve and promote endangered languages of nation and indigenous people should also be aware of such issues.  

(Mr. Phyak teaches at the Department of English Education at TU, Kirtipur. He writes on current political issues and issues on social inclusion)

Posted on : 2007-06-13 05:26:09

Comments (0)