Call for rightful status to Assamese script

SIVASISH THAKUR

GUWAHATI, July 15 - The reluctance of the authorities concerned in the Government of India to accord the Assamese script its rightful status as an independent entity has led to misrepresentation of the language at various fora. Even in Unicode, the Assamese script is yet to have a separate slot for the same reasons despite the fact that new research has shown the antiquity of the Assamese script to be far older than previously thought of, and as a separate script distinct from any other Indic script. �In spite of the new findings, it is unfortunate that the Assamese script is still not recognized as a separate script distinct from any other Indic script. The Unicode Consortium in the USA and the Department of Electronics and Information Technology of India mentioned the Assamese script to be nothing but Bangla script,� Ashok Sarma, a researcher in ancient Kamrupi civilization, said. �As a result, there have been numerous misrepresentations and distortions concerning the rightful status of the Assamese script and consequently the language. For instance, the Mathematical Totem Enclave at the Regional Science Centre at Khanapara here which describes the evolution of many Indian numerical symbols besides those of other countries has no mention of the Assamese numerical symbols,� Sarma said. According to Sarma, this is ridiculous because the contribution of ancient Kamrup in the evolution of Indian numerical symbols is significant. Linguist Bisweswar Hazarika, while commenting on the development, said that there could be no second opinion on the antiquity of Assamese script and numerical symbols. This is borne out by various archaeological evidences, he added. Litterateur and linguist Dr Nagen Saikia said that it was regrettable that Assamese numerical symbols were not getting the recognition that they deserved. He added that the authorities concerned in the Government of India should treat the matter seriously and rectify the drawbacks concerning the issue at the earliest. Another linguist Jatin Goswami said that it was shocking that any authority dealing with language and script should be so ignorant that it should be unaware of the antiquity and rich tradition of the Assamese script. Sarma, who is also a member of the committee constituted by the Assam government to study in detail the computational intricacies of the Assamese writing script in the Unicode standard, said that a proposal to the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India would soon be sent for an individual and separate Unicode for the Assamese script. Sarma, however, added that the Union Ministry of Cultural Affairs in its reply to a query from him had recently stated that the Assamese language had a distinct script.