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Role of Public Libraries in Indigenous Language Development: a Study on Manipuri Language at Adampur Union of Kamalganj in Bangladesh

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Role of Public Libraries in Indigenous Language Development: a Study on Manipuri Language at Adampur Union of Kamalganj in Bangladesh University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal) Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln August 2021 Role of Public Libraries in indigenous language development: a study on Manipuri language at Adampur union of Kamalganj in Bangladesh Kaustuv Chakrabarti University of Calcutta, [email protected] Dhiman Mondal Ananda Mohan College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac Chakrabarti, Kaustuv and Mondal, Dhiman, "Role of Public Libraries in indigenous language development: a study on Manipuri language at Adampur union of Kamalganj in Bangladesh" (2021). Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal). 5970. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/5970 Role of Public Libraries in indigenous language development: a study on Manipuri language at Adampur union of Kamalganj in Bangladesh Kaustuv Chakrabarti Research Scholar Dept. of Library and Information Science University of Calcutta 87/1, College Street Kolkata-700073 (India) E-mail:[email protected] Dhiman Mondal Librarian Ananda Mohan College 102/1, Raja Rammohan Sarani Kolkata-700009 (India) E-mail: [email protected] Abstract: Purpose: Indigenous people have their faith on traditional living cultures. But in the context of dynamic changed situation and on the perspectives of globalization in the world the concepts of transformation, absorption, integration etc have been coming in the forefront. The merging of Small into the Big is a phenomenon of the society. In this study the social and cultural life along with the demographic situation of the Manipuri peoples (Bishnupriya) have been described. The main purpose of the study is to find out the nature of the absorbing process into the use of major language by the small Bishnupriya Manipuri community people. Moreover, an attempt has been made to identify the role of public libraries in the development and continuation of traditional language spoke by Bishnupriya Manipuri, an indigenous tribal community in Bangladesh. Scope and Coverage: Identification of the merger of traditional language of Bishnupriya Manipuri into a major language in Bangladesh and to safeguard the traditional indigenous language and culture the role of libraries has been assessed. Bishnupriya Manipuri peoples had concentrated themselves in Sylhet division and in this division the preferred place for living of Manipuri peoples is Adampur union of Kamalganj sub-division. Methods used: Basically the descriptive method was followed in this study. The geographical area was surveyed along with observation techniques to identify the social and cultural aspects of the Manipuri peoples with special reference to their use of language as a communication medium in the society. To identify the nature of language used by Bishnupriya Manipuri peoples, the rural villages and the local market areas were surveyed during the stay at Kamalganj in Bangladesh in 2019. The public libraries were identified and described to find out their role to develop the own indigenous languages in Bangladesh. Moreover, a number of documents were searched on the issue and after reviewing those published literature an attempt of discussion was made in this study which has been concentrated and focussed. Findings: As it is found from the survey that Bishnupriya Manipuri people in Bangladesh are habituated with the use of Bengali language, an attempt was made to find out the nature of origin of the language. Hence, from the discussion in the study it is revealed that a number of researches have been made in this regard. It is found that the Bishnupriya Manipuri Language may be either from the offspring of Bengali Language or from the Assamese language or Oriya language or may be regarded as own indigenous tribal language. About the role and functions of Libraries in the indigenous language development, it is seen that there is a need to establish public libraries in the rural areas. As there is no public library in the rural areas where Bishnupriya Manipuri people reside, discussion on the benefits of the public library in the language development process can not be made. Originality / Value: The article is entirely original in nature. No other research works have been done in this regard so far. Keywords: Indigenous Language, Manipuri Language, Language Development, Adampur union, Kamalganj, Role of Libraries, Bangladesh Introduction: While describing on prevention of discrimination and protection of minorities especially of the indigenous people, it is found from the reporting of Cobo (2004) that the existence of indigenous communities may consist of a number of factors which are considered as distinct from other societies. Among them, occupation of ancestral land, common ancestry with the occupation of these lands, culture in general, and in specific aspects like means of livelihood, food, dress, language, religion and geographical neighbourhood etc .are the main factors. Residing with a geographical boundary and sharing of the common beliefs, use of informal communication system among the community people are the key characteristics of an indigenous tribal community. It is often said that indigenous peoples are representative of the diverse cultural heritage and tradition. The chairman of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Mr. Magga (2004) remarked that the indigenous peoples, historically, however, have been marginalized by the dominant societies and have often faced assimilation and cultural genocide. He also remarked that the indigenous people have dynamic living cultures and seek their place in the modern world. They are not against the development but for too long they have been victims of development and sustainable development are too far for them. Naturally it is a common phenomenon that along with the development of other social and cultural factors absence of language into the main stream of the society may be one of the determining factors for the development of that particular indigenous group. It is vital to ensure the protection of the cultural identity and dignity of indigenous peoples with the development of their traditional languages. Hence the question may arise that what should be the role of the government in this regard for the development of the language of the inhabitants of the country. Which initiatives have been taken by the different organizations in culture and educational sectors? Being one of the social institutions and the recognized common place for all masses, the library should also initiate the process of language development of the inhabitants of the country concerned. So, in this study an attempt has been made to find out the scenario of languages used by the different communities, beside the particular official languages of Bangladesh. A number of communities reside in Bangladesh before the birth of the present nation and they have their own individual dialects. Some of the communities do not have their own scripts. Among the communities Bishnupriya Manipuri is one of them who are residing in Bangladesh before the birth of the present country. It is a pertinent to raise the question about the role of libraries in the arrangement of language development of the indigenous communities like Bishnupriya Manipuri in Bangladesh. Review of Literature: Stillsmoking (1999) described about the perception of selected Blackfeet elders concerning what constitutes the traditional language base and told that tribal language is in danger of being lost. Public Library should foster inter-cultural dialogue and favour cultural diversity; support oral traditions; and ensure access for citizens to all sorts of community information. In terms of language development of indigenous communities, availability of library documents are the cause of concern along with a number of identified factors. Publishers are also responsible not to publish the indigenous materials as source materials because of poor sales reason (Fredericks & Mvunelo, 2003). Krolak (2005) showed in his paper about the dedicated nature of library and information services either in public libraries or in school libraries or in community information centres or in NGO resource centres to create literate environments that support basic education for all. Though there is an approach towards the Integration of indigenous languages, still there is a paucity of materials in some languages. Prevailing attitude of viewing English as a language of power does not provide well for indigenous language.(Prah,2007 ). Civallero (2007) described that within indigenous populations, libraries could have an important role. Reznowski (2009) described about the fostering collaborative environments through academic libraries for language revitalization which may be supposed to be an endangered one. Anyira, Onoriode and Nwabueze (2010) tried to identify the roles of indigenous knowledge in Niger Delta and how do libraries preserve these. The study was carried out by them to find out the question related to how do the library make indigenous knowledge accessible. Libraries should go beyond the traditional role of information providers to creator of contents addressing the whole (Ngulube, 2012). Ramos and Vila(nd) demonstrated some examples of good practices carried out in public libraries and their role in promoting development of languages used by the different communities in the country. Shuva and Akter (2012) discussed about the status of non-government public libraries
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