Agartala: Even though Tripura Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha has assured that he would write a letter to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to allow students to write their answer sheet in Roman Script, the Kokborok-speaking people are not ready to accept this move as a major development in their movement persistent since the 1970s.
In the recently-concluded Tripura Legislative Assembly session, Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha assured Leader of the Opposition Animesh Debbarma that he would request the CBSE to allow students to write their papers in both Roman and Bengali script.
Earlier, the CBSE had declined to allow dual scripts for writing answer sheets in the Board exams scheduled to be started on February 15, 2024. Leader of the Opposition Animesh Debbarma raised the issue in the state assembly and cited examples of subjects like Sanskrit and Lushai which are allowed to be written in the answer sheet on multiple scripts.
Debbarma also informed the Chief Minister that 5,000 students were set to write their Kokborok papers in the CBSE-conducted Board exams slated on February 15.
“The students who had been studying in the CBSE schools are habituated to write Kokborok in Roman Script. Now all of a sudden, if they are asked to write papers in Bengali script we all know what would be the results. The Chief Minister has patiently considered our demand and decided to write a letter to the CBSE. I have received a call from his office and I was informed that the letter is being prepared. Hopefully, it will be sent a day after Sankranti”, LoP Animesh Debbarma told EastMojo.
Sources in the Chief Minister’s office said that the letter would be dispatched this week as the exams are scheduled for next month. Even as the move comes as an official recognition of the genuine sentiment of the tribal population on the script debate, the tribal bodies are not ready to accept it as a major development.
“We don’t see it as a major development in our fight for Roman script. This is just a letter for writing one particular exam is not the solution for the movement that has been continuing for several decades. We don’t have textbooks in the Kokborok language. All our books prepared by State Center for Educational Research Tripura (SCERT) are printed on Bengali script while all our major literary works are published in Roman script”, a senior leader of the Twipra Students Federation said.
He also said that no one should impose a script upon others.
Noteworthy here, the first language commission was constituted under the stewardship of former minister Shyamacharan Tripura, a leader of Tripura Upajati Juba Samiti (TUJS) to find out which script should be preferred for writing and learning Kokborok.
TUJS was considered to be the strongest political opponent of the Left parties and all the regional political parties including Pradyot Kishore Debbarman-led TIPRA, ruling ally IPFT, and INPT (now merged in TIPRA) are seen as descendants of TUJS.
TUJS has advocated for Roman script and the report of the 1992 commission was quite evidently in favour of Roman script introduction. With a political change of guard, that report lost its relevance.
Later in 2004, when Manik Sarkar was the Chief Minister of Tripura another commission was formed which was headed by eminent educationist Pabitra Sarkar. Apart from being famed for his expertise in linguistics, Sarkar was also inclined to the Left politics.
The anti-left section of the indigenous society outrightly rejected the commission because of the Left political influence.
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“We thought the results would be similar to the view of the CPIM party who wanted Kokborok to be taught and learnt through Bengali script. The anti-Left political parties then rejected the proposal and did not even participate in the opinion polls. On the contrary, CPIM-affiliated organizations took part in the polls and compiled the answers in the questionnaire. And, to an utter surprise, 67 per cent of the votes were cast in favour of Roman script. To escape the embarrassment, the report was never published in public”, a senior CPIM leader said requesting anonymity.
Even the repeated independent surveys conducted time and again found that Kokborok learners want to write this language in Roman script.
Also Read: The best script for Kokborok? The answer is clear, but politics isn’t