With board exams 10 days away, major Script row: Tripura student body calls for road, railway blockade from today
Agartala, Feb 12: An indefinite strike has begun across the State demanding that the roman script be allowed to write Kokborok language in the upcoming board exam. The agitation comes in wake of Tripura Board of Secondary Education (TBSE) President Dr. Dhananjay Ganchoudhury stating that students taking Kokborok exam will be permitted to use only the Bengali script.
The Tipra Indigenous Students Federation (TISF), the student wing of the main opposition in the State -Tipra Motha Party (TMP), have started blocking National Highway-8 and rail routes for an indefinite period from this morning.
The NH-8 is the lifeline of Tripura which also has a lone railway line connecting it with the rest of India. This planned blockade is part of the students’ protest against the Tripura Board of Secondary Education’s (TBSE) decision not to allow tribal students appearing for tribal ‘Kokborak’ language to write answers in the Roman script.
The TBSE will conduct the Higher Secondary and Secondary Examinations from March 1, and over 5,000 tribal students would appear in both the examinations. They want to write their answer scripts for the ‘Kokborak’ language in Roman script instead of Bengali.
The issue also recently rocked the Tripura Assembly session.
Kokborok, is a Sino-Tibetan language of the Bodo-Garo branch, spoken in Tripura. It is similar to the Bodo and Dimasa language spoken in the State of Assam and Meghalaya. The origin of the word comes from kok meaning “verbal” and borok meaning “people”. Kokborok consists of several dialects spoken in the State of Tripura.
It is an official language of Tripura State notified on January 19, 1979. The autonomous council had declared Kokborok as the official language in the autonomous district council on April 20, 1999.
The Borok or Tripuris are the branch of Bodo people of Assam belonging to the Sino-Tibetan linguistic group and racially Mongoloids. The British Historians has recognized this people as Tibeto-Burmese linguistic group.
Concerns over exam : If the examinations go as scheduled, students from English medium who can’t read Bengali or write the script will lose a year. In the past, Roman and Bengali script were allowed to write Kokborok.
Other tribal bodies like the Twipra Students Federation (TSF) has extended their full support to TISF and is participating in the blockade. Following an agitation on February 5, 2024, the Tripura board had assured the use of both Roman and Bengali for Kokborok but they have suddenly changed their stand. The students organisation has submitted their memorandum on February 9 and is awaiting response from the board.
