Shillong, May 05: The Khasi Author Society (KAS) today has called for the rally as part of the yearlong celebration at the existence of 175 years of the khasi alphabet. In this public rally held today at Madan Student all the speakers demanded for the inclusion of the Khasi language in the 8th schedule of the constitution of India.
In this rally more than 5000 people including students from different school and colleges participate. The rally started from Jaiaw Shyiap Dorbar Hall and culminated at Madan Student Jaiaw.
Dr B R Kharlukhi the former KSA president in his address in the gathering at Student field said that in his understanding the Khasi language is a crown made out of gold to the Khasi community which identifies us as Khasis, he urged that the language need to be protected and it should be included in the 8th schedule of the constitution of India.
The state government and the representatives from Meghalaya in the Indian Parliament should take up this issue as it concerns the interest of the indigenous Khasi community. The demand for the separate state is base on the language.
In the year 1959 the institute of culture in Kolkata had published a book titled ‘The Culture and Heritage of India’ in IV volumes, he said, “In the book there is also a language map of the number of languages in the country and in the North East the book only indicated two languages that is the Khasi and Assamese language.”
The number of Khasi speaking people in the state at that time was 2, 90, 982 lakh and in the year 1981 Khasi language was included as a subject in the North Easter Hill University (NEHU) and at present the number of Khasi speaking people is 10, 91, 087 lakh.
The state government has constituted a Special Committee in which he is also a member and the Committee has forwarded its finding to the government in which it will later send the findings to the central government to examine it.
For any language gets included into the 8th schedule, the constitution of India should first be amended and this is the responsibility of our local representatives in the Assembly and especially those in the Parliament. There are also many others speakers who address the gathering. The yearlong celebration started on the 11th September 2016 and will conclude on the 16th September 2017.
