Every Indian language including Angika has equal rights to be got flourished under government policy

Angika row: Litterateur skips poets’ meet

TNN | Updated: May 16, 2017, 10:31 AM IST

MADHUBANI: The two-day eastern zone poets' meet held at Darbhanga under the auspices of Sahitya Academy, has evoked protests from locals over treatment of Angika as a language distinct from Maithili.

The meeting, which ended on Sunday, was attended by more than two dozen litterateurs of Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Assamese, Odia, Magahi, Bhojpuri, Maithili and Angika.

In his letter to the organisers, Jha sought to know the reason behind treating Angika independent of Maithili. Angika is a dialect of Maithili spoken in the southeastern region of the state, he wrote, adding the poets writing in the dialect have always been gracing Maithili literary programmes.

Jha also accused the Academy of lacking a clear-cut policy on language and dialect. "If Angika can be treated as a separate language, why tribal languages have been left out?" he asked while talking to this correspondent.

His decision to skip the event to register his protest has been widely hailed by Maithili litterateurs from the region.

Taking exception to the Academy move to treat Angika independent of Maithili, noted Maithili scholar Ram Deo Jha, who was invited to preside over one of the sessions, skipped the event.

Comments

Angika is a dialect of Hindi and not a dialect of Maithili. Angika is one of the oldest languages of India. It is more older than Maithili. It is not uncommon to include a dialect in to Sahitya Akademi programme and activities . Sahitya Akademi has been including Maithili and other dialects in to their programme since years back of it inclusion in 8th Schedule of the Constitution. Infact Maithili has only three districts of Bihar where it is spoken by only few lakh speaker. While Angika is spoken in 26 districts of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal by around 5 Crores of people. It is very shameful act of Litterateur to skip poets’ meet on Angika row. Every Indian language has equal rights to be got flourished under government policy. : Kundan Amitabh

Angika is not a dialect. It is one of the most ancient languages of the world. It is a dialect of Hindi. It is written in Devanagri. Angika was written in Anga Lipi during ancient period. There are 5 crores of Speakers who speak Angika. Maithili is spoken by only 6 to 8 lakh people of Bihar. While Angika is spoken in Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal. We can only laugh on the activity of Maithili Litterateur skipping the poet meet. : Angika Samvad

Fighting for language is not good for the litterateur rate meetings. : Mithilesh Kumar
(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/angika-row-litterateur-skips-poets-meet/articleshow/58688315.cms)