If the Garo language does not yet meet the criteria to be included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, the Khasi language should go it alone and not be held back.
This was said by Khasi Authors Society (KAS) general secretary RP Kharshiing to Highland Post yesterday.
Inclusion in the Eighth Schedule, a long pending demand, would give Khasi and Garo official status within India and, for example, would open up the possibility of IAS exam sitters to take the tests in either of the two languages.
Kharshiing said that the KAS is preparing concrete documentation before a delegation goes to New Delhi to push for Khasi’s inclusion.
“We are discussing ways and means to go with the documentation directly to Delhi and meet people in the ministry because we want to see results in this matter at the earliest,” he said.
The Meghalaya Assembly has already passed a resolution to include the Khasi and Garo languages in the Eighth Schedule but the matter is still being studied by the central government.
Kharshiing said that the problem is that of the 38 languages being considered for inclusion, Khasi is one of them but Garo is not. According to him, the joint resolution in favour of both languages is holding Khasi back.
No one in the state government should be a stumbling block to the inclusion of Khasi in the Eighth Schedule, he said in a pointed reference. As an example, Kharshiing highlighted Assam, where Assamese were included first before Bodo.
Stating that it would be a matter of great joy if both the Khasi and Garo languages are included, he said, however, that it appears very difficult for the concerned ministry to recognise both at the same time for a small state like Meghalaya.
“If only one language of the state gets the recognition, let the other language not be a stumbling block,” he said.
Khasi fulfils all criteria, Khashiing added, as it is spoken by nearly 1.5 million people in Meghalaya (according to the 2011 census), has its own alphabet, is being written and studied upto PhD level and is spoken elsewhere, like Assam and Bangladesh.
The KAS wants to travel to Delhi to highlight all this and strengthen the resolution passed by the state Assembly. It also hopes to hold a seminar on the subject in the national capital.
