Indigenous languages will preserve sovereignty: Minister (fwd)

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Indigenous languages will preserve sovereignty: Minister

KOL Report
http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=55801

KATHMANDU, Oct 29 - Minister for Local Development Khadga Bahadur GC on
Saturday said that the sovereignty and independence of the country
would be preserved only if the indigenous languages and cultures were
preserved properly.

Inaugurating a national symposium on 'The Indigenous languages of Nepal
(ILN): Situation, Policy Planning and Coordination in the capital today
Minister GC hoped for further development of various indigenous
languages which are on the verge of extinction due to government's
negligence in the past.

Assistant Minister for Local Development Chakka Lama said that since the
governments in the past had been unable to pay attention towards the
preservation of indigenous verbal knowledge and relied mainly upon the
modern technology by importing textual knowledge from abroad, the
country failed to grow and prosper with ample indigenous knowledge
untapped and unexploited.

He stressed the need for the intellectuals and academicians of the
country to come forward to record the verbal knowledge and contribute
towards the betterment of those illiterate masses who can not afford to
read and write and express their primitive verbal knowledge in the
textual form.

He also said the local indigenous languages were significant from
tourism point of view as well. Speaking during the same program 
Tribhuwan University's Chief of Linguistic Department Professor Dr Y.P
Yadav said that 3/4 of the national languages in Nepal were indigenous
languages.

The Vice-President of National Foundation for Development of Indigenous
Janjatis, Santa Gurung said that almost nine indigenous languages in
Nepal were already dead due to lack of preservation efforts on the part
of the government and the community itself.

One of the member of Language Rights Struggle Committee, Mall K Sundar
said that the papers presented by various writers lacked the linguistic
approach from rights point of view, while Dr. Mark Turin, Professor Dr
David Watter, Professor NK Rai, Professor Dr Stephen Watter stressed
the need to initiate steps by the language users to get legal justice
according to the provisions enshrined in the current constitution 1990.

Some of the speakers on the occasion also indicated that only 10 per
cent of the total 6000 languages spoken across the world now will be
left alive by the end of this centaury if the current trend of decline
in the number of speakers of these languages continues in the future.
(hbt)