Tripura: Here is all you need to know about Kokborok Day
TNT Desk | January 19, 2019
On Tripura's 41st Kokborok Day, several political leaders including Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, Tripura royal scion Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma and Union Forest & Environment Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan have greeted the people of the State. The Tripura Congress also greeted the people of the State on the occasion. Here is all that you need to know about the significance of this day:
Kokborok Day (Borok Day) is a festival celebrated in the Northeast Indian state of Tripura to celebrate the development of the Kokborok language.
It is observed every year on January 19.
The Kokborok language is an official language of Tripura. This day is chosen to commemorate its initial recognition as an official language in 1979.
Various cultural programmes and literary activities mark the Kokborok Day Celebration.
Kokborok is the Indigenous language of Tripura, spoken for thousands of years among the indigenous communities of Tripura."Kok" means language and "borok" means people (the people who speak Kokborok). Kokborok is one of the Tibeto-Burman languages widely spoken in the Northeast part of India and neighbouring Chittagong hill tracts of Bangladesh.
The language is spoken mainly by the Debbarma, Kalai, Reang, Jamatia, Tripura, Noatia, Rupini, Murasing and Uchoi people.
However, the language has similarities with other Tibeto-Burman languages such as Bodo, Garo and Dimasa. The communities who speak Kokborok are categorised as Tripuri communities. All the communities who speak Kokborok are known as "Tipra/Tripuris."
The script of the Kokborok is not yet finalised due to many socio-political debates, but many people prefer writing it in "Latin script" and some people write Kokborok in "Bengali" script.
It has been mentioned in the chronicle of the Tripura Kings who were the Borok rulers (184 kings) of Tripura for more than a thousand years that "Koloma" was the script of Kokborok, but is not known anymore.
"Kokborok tei Hukumu Mission", many government and non-government groups are continuously involved in promoting and developing Kokborok languages, literature, and films/songs through cultural revolution. It has been a great achievement by the people of Tripura that the Kokborok language is now taught in government schools, colleges, and universities. The effort is still being made to further improve the language to bring it into the mainstream.
It may be mentioned that Tripura's indigeneous community is facing an existential crisis and more so with the passing of the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha this month.
Read more about the entire turn of events below:
