Acharya initiates action for Naga dialects through Bharatavani project

DIMAPUR, OCTOBER 5: On an invitation by the Governor of Nagaland, PB Acharya, a delegation from the Central Institute of Indian Language visited Kohima, understood to be on October 4.
The Bharatavani Project, under the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) of Mysuru (under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, has chalked out an action plan for the development of languages of Nagaland including development of dictionaries, learning materials etc.
“It was decided that an online learning programme for Tenyidie (Angami) dialect may be commissioned within a year, in collaboration with the University of Nagaland, Kohima campus,” a media handout about the event stated on Wednesday.
During his meeting with the CIIL officials and the representatives of various knowledge institutions in Nagaland, Governor PB Acharya advised that the languages and cultural identities of the Naga people have to be promoted.
‘The language of a person is his first identity. We have to give respect to each. Learning dialect is respecting them. We all are equal in a democratic country India,’ the press release stated.
The institute is concerned with protection and promotion of Indian Languages and development of such languages as a means of promoting better understanding among different communities and to strengthen emotional and national integration.
The CIIL delegation is in Kohima from 4-6 October on the invitation of the governor. The visitors are Prof. D G Rao, director; VV Bhat, senior consultant; Dr R Ramamoorthy, reader and research officer; Beluru Sudarshana, consultant for Bharatavani Project; Dr. Chandan Singh and Dr Hidam Dolen Singh, both senior resource persons for the Bharatavani Project. They reached Dimapur from Mysuru by flight on the 4th and will back on the 6th of October.
Speaking during the meeting, the governor declared his ‘fullest support’ for the initiatives by Bharatavani project which he said will ‘make knowledge about Naga languages available, worldwide through the portal.’
He suggested bringing in ‘all the knowledge institutions in Nagaland to develop content materials for Naga languages.’ The governor also stressed that the universities ‘should be more active and involved in the development of the younger generation, who should be made aware of our rich and diverse culture.’
Bharatavani Project is a portal (www.bharatavani.in) which has been launched to publish knowledge in and about all the Indian languages including most of the dialects of the north eastern states. It covers the Tenyidie (Angami), the Ao, the Chakru/Chokri, the Chang, the Dimasa, the Kabui (Rongmei), the Khezha, the Khiemnungan, the Konyak, the Liangmei, the Lotha, the Nocte, the Phom, the Pochuri, the Rengma, the Sangtam, the Sema, and the Yimchungre,Zemi/ Zeme in the first phase of the activity.
Bharatavani publishes content in six sections, namely Knowledge Section, Textbooks Section, Dictionary Section, Multimedia Section, Language Learning materials Section and Language IT Tools Sections.
Providing available knowledge already created by Government, and publicly funded institutions, Non-Governmental institutions and individuals from all over India, and putting it across for the public usage on a multilingual web portal is the main objective of Bharatavani Project.
It may be recalled that the governor had launched by video conference Manipuri Online Learning Programme by CIIL recently, during his Mangaluru visit as chief guest for 6th convocation of the NITTE University of Mangaluru.
CIIL has offered academic and financial suport to language development related projects of Nagaland. CIIL has invited all the knowledge institutions like Universities, Academies, Sahitya Sabhas, Tribal research institutions and individual contributors to support by sharing their publications (books on land and culture, people, multimedia publications, dictionaries, grammar tools, etc.,) to be published on Bharatavani Portal. Bharatavani has already published more than 200 books about Nagaland and other North Eastern States. “Bharatavani” App on Android Smartphone is now the largest multilingual Dictionary in India.
The Hon’ble Governor called upon our linguistic scholars from each tribe to take this golden opportunity to interact with Bharatavani project officers from Mysuru for the full-fledged documentation and codification of our each dialect, with a firm desire to preserve and promote our Mother Tongue. Our mother tongue is our identity. Let us take care of it and give the respect.