SHILLONG, MAY 21: The ruling National People’s Party candidate for the Shillong Lok Sabha byelection, Dr DRL Nonglait, on Wednesday pledged to take the demand for inclusion of Khasi in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution to Parliament, saying coordination between the State Government and the MP was key to achieving recognition from Delhi.
Addressing a campaign rally at Nongpoh that drew supporters from Nongpoh and Umsning, Nonglait said Khasi had now attained full official language status in Meghalaya and the next step was constitutional recognition.
“Khasi literature is a literature whose stature is higher than other tribal literatures in Northeast India,” Nonglait said, recalling his own PhD experience.
“At that time, the University felt it was not yet possible to allow a PhD thesis to be written in the Khasi language because its standard needed to rise further. So, I had to write my thesis in English.”
He added that the situation had since changed. “But a few years after I completed my PhD, the UGC and NEHU assessed the status of the Khasi language and found it adequate, and theses for PhD were then permitted in Khasi. So, Khasi is a language that can be read and written from the lowest class A up to PhD, the highest level of education.”
Crediting the Khasi Authors’ Society, he said the state government had now accepted the demand to make Khasi a full official language.
“Since 2005, Dr DD Lapang had done his part… Khasi was made an Associate Official Language. But now Khasi has been upgraded; it is no longer just an additional language of the government but a full official language,” he said.
“Now we can write letters to the DC of Nongpoh in Khasi, and it is our demand that letters from the DC’s office and other government departments to village heads or the public should also be written in Khasi,” Nonglait added. He noted that rules for implementation would be framed by the government.
Nonglait stressed that state-level recognition was not enough. “The work does not end here. We need recognition from the Constitution of India and we need an MP to take this matter to Parliament, to consult other MPs and the Ministry concerned, which is the Ministry of Home Affairs,” he said.
He cited past missed opportunities, noting that Nepali and Manipuri were included in 1992 and Bodo in 2003.
“Our MP could not say anything because there was no proper coordination between the MP and the Chief Minister,” he said of the 1992 inclusion.
On Bodo’s inclusion, he added, “The MP at that time also could not do anything to take Khasi forward even though Khasi was more advanced than Bodo.”
Nonglait said he had accepted the NPP ticket “not as personal honor or opportunity,” but with “humility and a sense of responsibility to carry this burden of the community.”
“I will not lose or gain anything by becoming an MP because I already have a good position in the University. But I take this as a responsibility for the Hynniewtrep community,” he said.
The NPP candidate also listed secularism and agriculture as key issues. He called for “freedom of religion and service to fellow human beings through various missions and religious organizations,” adding, “We have many religions, many ways of life, but only one community.”
On agriculture, he said Khasi land had “been shrinking since the time of the British,” with fertile areas included in Assam and Bangladesh.
“We are left with only this small portion that God has still preserved for the community that knows man and knows God, the Hynniewtrep community,” he said.
Nonglait said he was confident that with “cooperation of NPP leaders, and with the cooperation of the government and cabinet in the state now, we firmly believe we can convince the government in Delhi to make Khasi a language included in the Eighth Schedule in the next few years.”
The meeting was held in presence of NPP national vice president and deputy chief minister Sniawbhalang Dhar, Mawhati MLA Charles Marngar, Umsning MLA Dr Celestine Lyngdoh, Nongpoh MDC Rona Khymdeit, party leaders and workers.
