2-Day Nt’nl Seminar on ‘Bharatiya Bhashaon Ki Samasikata’ At CUO

Koraput, Jan 9: Two-day national seminar titled, ‘Bharatiya Bhashaon Ki Samasikata’ (Inclusivity of Indian Languages) organized by Department of Hindi, Central University of Odisha in association with Bharatiya Bhasha Samiti, Ministry of Education, Government of India and Bharatiya Shikshan Mandal was inaugurated today at the CUO campus in Koraput by Prof Chakradhar Tripathi, Vice Chancellor, CUO in presence of academic and literary luminaries including Padmashri Haladhar Nag, eminent Odia poet.

The inaugural dais featured alongside Nag and Prof Tripathi, Prof R S Sarraju, Former Pro Vice Chancellor, University of Hyderabad, Prof Nandini Sahu, Vice Chancellor, Hindi University, Howrah, West Bengal and Prof V C Jha, Former V-C, Bhagalpur University and Advisor, Central University of Odisha. At the onset, the dignitaries and audience observed a minute of silence to pay tribute to the late academicians Prof Siyaram Tiwari and Prof Sudarshan Pujari.

Padmashri Haladhar Nag started by singing a patriotic song composed by him and expressed his desire to be reborn in Bharat which is the country of great sages. Have you ever heard of a sage penancing in a jungle in any other country than Bharat? He asked. He stressed the difference between Shiksha & Vidya and lamented that presently people are running after degrees rather than real knowledge. He said that we should love our folk language, Raskaelira Bhasha and literature should have the essence of the soil of the land, matira bhasha.

Prof R S Sarraju explained the various socio-political interpretation of the word, Samasikata. He explained how foreign invasion and influence of foreign culture and administration in our country affected the Indian languages. He correlated Samasikata with the Ganga Yamuna Sanskriti or the dialect of the conquerors creating a divide across religion, language and culture.

Prof V C Jha emphasized on the use of science & technology in the development of Indian languages and recommended the use of language apps by teachers. He also asserted that geography is an important parameter in the study of languages.

Prof Nandini Sahu in her keynote address titled, Composite Literature and myth of linguistic neutrality, began with recollecting her efforts to include the works of Padmashri Haladhar Nag in syllabus of IGNOU programmes like Folk Lore & Cultural Studies. She elaborated on her plans to conduct studies in 25 Indian languages in the University she has taken over as V-C and emphasized on the need for contextualizing language and literature, alternative modernity vis-à-vis literature and preservation of endangered languages. Prof Sahu stressed that languages are sisters not enemies.

Prof Chakradhar Tripathi in his presidential address said that the European social concepts like Everything is fair in love & war and survival of the fittest are at opposite poles to the Bharatiya concepts of ethical war and cooperation not competition and therefore Europe cannot teach Bharat which has Samasikata or Inclusion at her philosophical core from which her languages and literature have emerged. To illustrate this, he recalled the writing of Hanuman Charit Manas by Prof Siyaram Tiwari. Prof Tripathi stressed that Indian philosophy is not consumerist but sacrificial and samasikata in language and literature should aim to create a coordination between logic and emotion, head and heart like in the works of Sant Tulsidas.