A special event was organized at Barnagar College in Sarvoor on Sunday (July 19) to bring together artists, writers, cultural activists and digital media content creators working in Kamarupi language. Creative and thoughtful work in Kamarupi language was discussed in the program.
The event featured people involved in literature, art, culture and various mediums of expression who discussed their experiences of using the Kamarupi language as a medium of serious creative expression. The discussion highlights the possibilities of working in a non-standard linguistic form as well as the challenges faced by creative people when working in a language that does not have the same cultural recognition as standard Assamese.
Dr. Amiya Mohanty spoke about the dictionary he created by collecting words common in the region. Popular YouTube content creator Ricky Varali talks about his efforts to document and promote the traditional food and cuisine of western Assam, especially his own region. He expressed concern about the loss of knowledge of many local foods and cooking traditions among the younger generation.
Renowned cartoonist Nitupar Rajvanshi also attended the event and spoke about representing Kamarupi culture through art. Acclaimed filmmaker Kankan Deka also spoke about his work. Among them, he mentions the Kamarupi-language film Sivam, through which he shows that the language of South Assam can also be used as a medium to release serious films. Poets Yugjyoti Das, Ajay Kumar Roy and Ziaul Islam who have written poetry in the vernacular and published it in popular magazines, discuss the experience of writing in Kamarupi.
The event was organized as part of an ongoing project led by Jyotirmoy Talukdar of Ashoka University. This foundation project is conducted by India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) under Arts Practice Program and in collaboration with Hudumdeo.
Hudumdeor is a socio-cultural organization working for the research, restoration and promotion of folk art, literature and cultural heritage of Assam. The organization also provides a forum for discussion and exchange of local art, language, literature and indigenous traditions.
The project seeks to bring together on a single platform the diverse individuals and experiences of an unorganized local speaking community whose language has historically been deprived of cultural power and recognition. One of the objectives of this initiative is to boost the confidence of Kamrupi speakers by creating a common platform for creative practitioners and to encourage the use of the language in everyday conversation as well as in the creation of art and literature.
The project seeks to contribute to the process of “de-voicing” the Kamarupi language. This concept implies the need to move Kamarupi language away from its tendency to use exaggerated pronunciations, characters and conventional ideas only to create humor. Such representations have long prevented the Kamarupi language from being recognized as a legitimate medium of serious literary, artistic and contemplative practice.
This initiative is expected to make artists and writers more confident to present their local reality in their own language. They should not feel compelled to express their local experience of languages in geographically and culturally distant regions because the standard linguistic form has received more institutional recognition.
The project is particularly significant at a time when inclusion and linguistic diversity are gaining importance. The rapid expansion of digital media has also opened up new possibilities for the documentation, promotion and revitalization of marginalized linguistic traditions. Such initiatives can give new impetus to cultural empowerment and creative use of languages like Kamarupi.