Prime Minister Narendra Modi (File photo)

DEHRADUN: In the 59th edition of his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ on Sunday, PM Narendra Modi spoke about Uttarakhand ’s Rung community and its novel effort to preserve its language. The PM spent six out of 30 minutes of the episode citing details from an article recently published by TOI, highlighting efforts being made by the 10,000-member-strong community to develop a script for its language, Runglwo. “If you are feeling motivated with this story, then start using your mother tongue,” Modi said.

The TOI article, published on November 13, narrated how the Rung community, losing touch with its language, turned to social media to pass it on to the next generation.

Modi said: “Recently, I read a story about Uttarakhand’s Dharchula... This town has Nepal on one side and the Kali Ganga river on the other. I read with interest how the Rung community which is concentrated in this region is using modern technology and social media tools like WhatsApp to keep the scriptless language alive.”

‘For progress, knowledge of mother tongue must’

One day, they all decided to protect their language and very soon many Rung community people joined this mission. You will be surprised to know that be it 84-year-old Deewan Singh or 22-year-old Vaishali Garbyal, everyone got involved. Social media was also used and WhatsApp groups were formed and many people joined the movement,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Maan Ki Baat.

“This language has no script. People started posting songs, stories, poems and correcting each other. In a way, WhatsApp became a classroom where everyone was a teacher and a student. In the effort to preserve Runglow language, various programmes are also being organised,” he said.

The Prime Minister also quoted the father of modern Hindi, Bhartendu Harishchandra, who almost 150 years ago had said progress was not possible without the knowledge of mother tongue.

“This initiative of Rung community shows the way to the world.”

