Towards preserving heritage of language

Chedema | March 11 : The need to promote tribal literature and dialects was stressed at the 3rd national  seminar  on tribal literature and languages with special reference to languages of North East India. The event got underway here today at the Tourist Resort.
Addressing the seminar as the chief guest, Minister for Higher Education Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsu said that language serves as the medium of understanding as well as creative powers. Literature on the other hand provides humanity with the best foundation for advancement. Literature serves as reservoir of thought and knowledge that preserve culture and other aspects of life throughout the ages, he said.
The minister said modern writers do their best to generate new knowledge  in the realms of human life. “We also honour old values, culture and wisdom of our ancestors. It is also a specimen of a person’s originality and identity. Therefore, we have  history in every field of discipline of studies that continues to the present time and will continue to the future,” the minister said.

‘Languages serve as  mediums of understanding’
“If we refer to the spread of education rather to say than development of literature in the north east region, excepting one or two, no language community has crossed two centuries, yet we should determine to stand on our own towards development of our respective literature. At the same time, we must carry the mission, propagating our literature in sharing with other language communities around the world,” Dr. Liezietsu said.
Recollecting  the  history of  languages in the North East where American missionaries brought the  Gospel  to the region, he said  although they came to preach the ‘Good News,’  they  found it necessary  to develop  local languages to fulfill their mission. They started developing  the languages by writing text books for schools and also translating  different books of  the Bible. The minister said it was the missionaries who opened ‘our eyes to the world.’ “If this did not happen, we might have been still searching for that skin which was eaten by dogs. We are indeed indebted to the missionaries,” he remarked.
The minister also informed that he came to know of even Assamese literature to be  considerably older than other languages in the area  and  was restored by the missionaries. It was during a difficult period of time in 1826 when Bengali  was  introduced in Assamese schools as the medium of instruction, he said. It was missionaries like Rev. Nathan Brown and the Bronsons  who started developing text books for use in Assamese schools. These initiatives restored the Assamese language to retain originality,  Dr. Shurhozelie said.
Dr. Liezietsu also informed the seminar that the first Tenyidie Literature Committee was constituted in 1939 under the initiative of an American missionary Rev. JE  Tanquist. The  committee  was  formed  with  four locals  and  an  American  missionary  George W. Supplee.  Before the committee was constituted, it was the American missionaries who started producing school text books  and  translated  some books  of the Bible   into  local  dialects  and  written  Gospel  songs.
In 1944, he said, the Second World War, which is popularly known as the Japanese invasion of Kohima reached Nagaland with all its ferocity. During the period of fierce fighting between the Japanese and the allied forces, all houses in Kohima were razed to the ground. “Our people fled to the jungle and lived like animals for some months and returned only after the British regained their supremacy over the area,” the minister said.
In this war, Dr. Shurhozelie said, almost everything was destroyed including the few literature that was. “Again before we fully recovered from the shock of the second world war, the political disturbances in Nagaland started again in the early fifties resulting in the burning of villages, arrests, tortures and killings Under such atmosphere, one cannot expect development of literature, because those of us who are in the literary field are well aware that literature can grow only under the atmosphere of peace.”
Only in the year 1970, when the situation improved to some certain extend, a new literature committee was set up under the name and style Ura Academy. ‘Since then, we have been trying our best to do something for the future,’ the minister said. The minister also released a book entitled “Tribal languages and literature of North East” edited by Laltluangliana Khiangte.