Tripura Elections 2018: Political parties woo tribal votes with promise of Kokborok revival

In poll-bound Tripura, as far as perceptions go, it looks like the BJP has struck a chord with the state’s indigenous people by forging an alliance with the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), whose long-standing demand for a separate state — Twipraland — has now been relegated behind a study to be conducted by a high-level interministerial committee formed to study the socio-economic, cultural and linguistic issues of the indigenous population in the state.

Yet, for the indigenous Tiprasa people, one of the key demands is to have unhindered education in the Kokborok language in the state’s schools and colleges. Taught in the Tripura University and in over 22 degree colleges in the Roman script, a demand to have the language taught in the Roman script in the 40 schools in the state, where it is currently taught in the Bengali script, the demand has found takers from across the political spectrum.

The Congress, whose state president Pradyot Manikya Debbarma is the maharaja of the erstwhile Manikya kingdom of the Tiprasa community, has promised to offer courses that are taught in Kokborok in schools under the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) under the Roman script. The BJP, that makes no mention of the language in the ‘action points’, offers to “enhance” the number of languages offered in schools to include Kokborok Chakma and Manipuri and promises to introduce university courses in Kokborok and other local languages. 

Trying not to be left behind, the CPI (M) has promised to bring the language under the 8th Schedule, and to mount a “more scientific” effort to preserve and develop the language.

Despite poll promises, students and linguists rue the lack of study material and teachers to teach the language. The demand is placed squarely with the idea of identity of the Tiprasa people, whose contention is that their culture and norms have over the years made way for those of the Bengali people in the state. A revivalist movement to bring the lost Koloma script, which is over a century old, has now found momentum. 

Of the 19 tribes and sub-tribes in the state, where 32% of the population is indigenous, people from the Halam, Mog, Chakma, Garo, Kaipei, Hrangkhwal, Kuki, and, Kaloi communities do not speak the Kokborok language, while the Reang, Bru, Jamatia, Debbarma, Kalai, Rupini, Nawatia, Moraishim, and, Uchai communities do.

Debbarma says that semantics also play a crucial role. “What does Kokborok mean — the language (kok) of the Barak Valley (borok). This is a loose term, just as the words ‘Mizo’ or ‘Naga’ are; I call it the Tiprasa language,” he says.

Kokborok as an official language in the state came to be recognised in 1979, and after years of demands, it was introduced in the University as a language in 2015. One of the earliest known records of the lost Koloma script in which the Kokborok language was written is found in a treatise called the Raj Ratna Karan, which was a chronicle of the functioning of the erstwhile Manikya kingdom. It was written in Sanskrit and mentioned the Koloma script and called the state of Tripura, ‘Traipur’.

Today, the language is taught in colleges using 21 alphabets of the Roman script. With very few study materials to draw from, students look for materials online. There are no regular teachers in the colleges and function with guest lecturers. The University, however, has six teachers in the department of Kokborok.

“The Bengali script does not capture the high-tone and the low-tone of our language, as well as the vowels and consonants. So, students find the Roman script easier,” says Rimuroshan, who is currently pursuing MA in the Kokborok language in the University. 

Linguist Binoy Debbarma, who’s working hard to revive the Koloma script and runs a publishing house, Kokbotok Tei Hukumu Mission that has already published 142 titles. “When you lose a language, you lose a culture and its norms,” he says.  

Sunil Kaloi, who heads the department of mass communication in the Tripura University and is pursuing his PhD on the Kokborok language and culture, says that it might be too late. “At a time and age when the hegemony of the English language bears heavy on all languages, it is rather late for the Indian political parties to think of the indigenous tribal population, no matter how hard one tries to preserve a language. Some of these ideas will work in a museum in this age of call-centre English,” says Kaloi.

To add to it, people from the Reang and Bru communities, feel the need for a Kokbru language to ensure that they are represented linguistically. 

Yet, Pradyot says that the communities must not miss the larger goal of the Tiprasa community. “There are people who would like to see the indigenous Tripura community divided, along the lines of Borok, Bru, Halong, Paite, Hrangkhwal, Uchoi, or Koloi. That’s why a Tiprasa language and script is important, the rest should be considered as a sub-dialect and the Tiprasa script,” he says.