Prasun Singh In kathmandu Post July 24, 2013_ KATHMANDU, APR 05 - A month ago, Ambikesh Jha was called in to do a voiceover in Maithili for a radio programme. Jha, from Mahottari and in his early 20s, was elated about the offer, and certain that it would pose no difficulties—Maithili, after all, was his mother tongue. But the task proved much more challenging than he had expected. Although he was able to get it done eventually, he recalls stammering and stuttering the whole way through, and his early enthusiasm had died down entirely by the end. The problem, Jha believes, lies in the lack of priority given to making available books and other publications in Maithili in the school curriculum in Nepal. “Although I could speak it, I just didn’t have enough practice reading the script,” he laments. According to the 2011 census, 11.7 percent of the Nepali population speaks Maithili (including local and standard dialects), making it the second most-spoken language in the country. Now Maithili is the language indigenous to the ancient Mithila region—comprising the north-eastern Indo-gangetic plain, in areas which today spread over more than half of Bihar, India and the southeastern part of Nepal—and it has its own script, called the Tirhuta or Mithilakshar. But, at present, no publications in Nepal actually use the script, a clear indication of the bleak status of written materials in the language. Records at the Department of Information (DOI) show that until May 2012 there were 38 registered Maithili print media, consisting of 19 weeklies, 10 monthlies, four dailies, two tri-monthlies, two bi-annuals and one fortnightly. All, however, were published in Devnagari, none in the Tirhuta script. Moreover, only seven out of these enjoy permanent status at the DOI. “Unlike English and Nepali, Maithili has little to no utility in administration, employment or governance, and is naturally languishing,” says Hriday Kant Jha, editor of Appan Mithila, a monthly magazine. “When I was a student, there were no Maithili publications in Nepal, so we had to get these from Darbhanga and Madhubani in Bihar.” Overshadowed they might be at present, but history shows that the roots of Maithili publications, particularly literature, can be traced back to the eighth century. Most notable among the early Maithili literary works are Charyapad and Dakarnab. Later on, in the 14th century, the poet Vidyapati and writer Jyotisrishwor Thakur were accredited with enriching the language and literature with their contributions. And Maithili was believed to have become especially prominent during the reign of the Malla dynasty in the medieval era. But as the centuries passed, that glory could not persist. With the Mughal invasion and the coming of the British, the ancient Mithila region struggled to maintain the relevance of its language, and long after, in Nepal, the one-language-and-dress policy implemented during the partyless Panchayat era led by King Mahendra further eroded its standing. Something of an encouraging moment was witnessed when, following the launch of the Local Self-Governance Act in 1999, the Rajbiraj municipality and the Dhanusha district committee moved to use Maithili as their official language. But a verdict of the Supreme Court that very year reversed this decision, declaring that no other language save Nepali could be used for official purposes in the kingdom. With the state itself seemingly indifferent to the recognition and development of Maithili, there seemed little in the way of conditions necessary for its continued progress. However, some hope has emerged of late for the fortification of the language in its written form. The Madhesh movement of 2007, the movement for a Mithila state in 2012, and various other similar uprisings, have catapulted the issue of linguistic rights, among others, into the forums of national debate. As an instance of the effects of these, one has been seeing Maithili articles being featured every week in the Gorkhapatra daily’s New Nepal page since it was launched in 2007. Likewise, different literary works in Maithili have also been published recently—almost 10 books in the last year and a half alone—including the novel Sangor by Ramesh Ranjan, Ziddi and Koili Ghuir Aau, both collections of stories, by Sujit Jha, and Bichar Kranti, an anthology of poems, and Sohagin, a short-story collection, by Rajeshwor Nepali. While these certainly point towards a more favourable future for Maithili writing, there is still much more to be done before that can be achieved, especially with regards to the importance the language is attributed in the school curriculum—a change in which would signal a substantial victory. For a language that is used by so many in the country, it is unfortunate that it has been relegated to a corner and for so long, and to bring it out of that dark place and dust off the cobwebs will require the efforts of writers, publishers, and of course, the Maithili-speaking community, among other supporters. “It’s all a matter of producing quality works in the language, and publicising these well,” says author and theatre artist Ranjan. “It’s the only way to ensure its sustainability.” Posted on: 2013-04-06 09:04
Posted on: Wed, 24 Jul 2013 18:16:25 +0000
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