Meitei language Meitei (; ) also known as Manipuri ), is a Tibeto-Burman language of northeast India. It is the official language and the lingua franca of Manipur and an additional official language in four districts of Assam. It is one of the scheduled ...

(), officially and formally known as

Manipuri language Meitei (; ) also known as Manipuri ), is a Tibeto-Burman language of northeast India. It is the official language and the lingua franca of Manipur and an additional official language in four districts of Assam. It is one of the scheduled ...

(), is one of the

official language An official language is defined by the Cambridge English Dictionary as, "the language or one of the languages that is accepted by a country's government, is taught in schools, used in the courts of law, etc." Depending on the decree, establishmen ...

s of the state government of Assam. It serves as the additional official language in all the three districts of the Barak Valley (

Cachar district Cachar district is an administrative districts of Assam, district in the state of Assam in India. After independence, the pre-existing undivided Cachar district was split into four districts: Dima Hasao district, Dima Hasao (formerly North Cachar ...

, Hailakandi district and

Karimganj district Karimganj district, officially Sribhumi district, is one of the 35 List of districts of Assam, districts of the Indian state of Assam. The district's administrative headquarters and largest town is Karimganj. Located in southern Assam, it shares ...

) as well as in the

Hojai district Hojai District is a district in Assam, India. It was formed on 15 August 2015. The headquarters of the district is situated at Sankardev Nagar, which is about 8 km away from Hojai town. Hojai District was formed from three tehsils of N ...

of Assam.

History

Meitei speaking people started living in Assam as a result of migration from

Manipur Manipur () is a state in northeastern India with Imphal as its capital. It borders the Indian states of Assam to the west, Mizoram to the south, and Nagaland to the north and shares the international border with Myanmar, specifically t ...

due to the Chahi Taret Khuntakpa (literally, Seven Years' Devastation).

Geographical distribution

Meitei language speakers live in all the three districts of the Barak Valley,

Cachar Cachar district is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. After independence, the pre-existing undivided Cachar district was split into four districts: Dima Hasao (formerly North Cachar Hills), Hailakandi, Karimganj, and the ...

, Hailakandi and

Karimganj Karimganj, officially Sribhumi, is a town in the Karimganj district of the Indian States and territories of India, state of Assam. It is the administrative headquarters of the district. Karimganj town is located at . The area of Karimganj Tow ...

districts, as significant minority population. According to the

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensive catalogue of languages. It w ...

, it also has a notable presence in

Dima Hasao Dima Hasao district (), is an administrative district in the state of Assam, India. As of 2011, it is the least populous district of Assam. Dima Hasao district is one of two autonomous hill districts of Assam. The district headquarters Haflong ...

district, besides those of the Barak Valley. It also has a notable presence in the

of Assam.

Writing systems

Meitei Mayek script

In 2024, the State Cabinet of the Government of

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

approved the

Meitei script The Meitei script (), also known as the Kanglei script () or the Kok Sam Lai script (), after its first three letters is an abugida in the Brahmic scripts family used to write the Meitei language, the official language of Manipur, Assam an ...

to be used in the education of

across all the academic institutions of Assam. It was done to help the students interested in the Meitei literature (also known as Manipuri literature) to know better about the subject.

Meetei Yelhou Mayek script

A unique form of writing system called " Meetei Yelhou Mayek", distinct from the general

, was developed by Naoriya Phulo in

. This script was used to write Meitei language in certain cultural contexts.

Linguistic movements

In Assam, many people had organised a language movement, demanding that Meitei language be made one of the official languages of Assam, besides

Assamese language Assamese () or Asamiya ( ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam, where it is an official language. It has long served as a ''lingua franca'' in parts of Northeast India."Axomiya is the major langu ...

. As a part of the movement, in 2023, they walked more than 300 km long march, as a sign of protests demanding their democratic rights. In the same year, Leishemba Sanajaoba, the titular king and an Indian member of Parliament of

, wrote a letter to the government of Assam, to look into the matter. In 2024, the government of Assam approved the request, by declaring Meitei as the additional official language of four districts of Assam, namely

, Hailakandi district,

and

. Meitei speaking people from Assam also work on the language movement demanding that Meitei be given the officially recognised classical language status by the Union Government of India.

Education

The

Board of Secondary Education, Assam The Board of Secondary Education, Assam commonly known as SEBA, was the state education regulatory board under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Education, Government of Assam for conducting examinations and providing assurance for the quality of ...

(SEBA) and the

Assam Higher Secondary Education Council The Assam Higher Secondary Education Council (AHSEC) was a state education regulatory board under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Education, Government of Assam that is responsible to regulate, supervise and develop the system of Higher Seconda ...

(AHSEC) provides Meitei language education in the schools of Assam.

Assam University Assam University is a central public university located at Silchar, Assam, India. It was founded in the year 1994 by the provisions of an act enacted by the Parliament of India. Former Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha is the Chancellor, the Gover ...

Silchar Silchar is a city and the headquarters of the Cachar district of the state of Assam, India. It is second largest city of Assam after Guwahati in terms of population and GDP. It is also administrative capital of Barak Valley division. It is locate ...

has a " Department of Manipuri", providing education up to

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

degrees.

Gauhati University Gauhati University also known as GU, is a collegiate public state university located in Guwahati, Assam, India. It was established on 26 January 1948 under the provisions of an Act enacted by the Assam Legislative Assembly and is the oldest un ...

also provides Meitei language education as an independent subject. Meitei language education is offered having independent departments for the language, in different colleges of Assam, including but not limited to the Cachar College, the Gurucharan College, the Lala Rural College, Hailakandi, the Patharkandi College, the Janata College, Kabuganj, etc.

Literature

Starting from 2020, the

Government of Assam The Government of Assam or Assam Government abbreviated as GoAS, is the Subnational legislature, state government of the Indian state of Assam. It consists of the Governors of states of India, Governor appointed by the President of India as th ...

provides a financial support of every year to the

Manipuri Sahitya Parishad The Manipuri Sahitya Parishad () is a literary council dedicated to the active promotion and the development of literary works in the Meitei language in India. in national as well as international levels. It has its branches in the Manupur citi ...

, a group that works for the development of Meitei literature (also called Manipuri literature) in Assam as well as other Meitei populated states. Moreover, the government also gave for the development of Meitei

language corpus In linguistics and natural language processing, a corpus (: corpora) or text corpus is a dataset, consisting of natively digital and older, digitalized, language resources, either annotated or unannotated. Annotated, they have been used in cor ...

Language day

In Assam, Manipuri Language Day, also known as

Meitei language day Manipuri Language Day (; /ma-nee-poo-ree lon-gee noo-meet/), is an annual celebration of the Manipuri (Meitei) language in India and Bangladesh on 20 August. It is the day in 1992 on which Manipuri was added to the Eighth Schedule to the Cons ...

, is celebrated, like it is done in other states every year. The event is celebrated to honour the day on which Meitei was made an official language recognised by the

Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India The Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India lists the languages officially recognized by the Government of India. , 22 languages have been classified under the schedule. Definition As per the Constitution of India, the provisions belongi ...

. The notable groups that celebrate the event are

Asam Sahitya Sabha The Asam Sahitya Sabha (; ) is a non Government, non profit, literary organisation of Assam. It was founded in December 1917 in Assam, India to promote the culture of Assam and Assamese literature. A branch of the organisation named ''Singapor ...

, Department of Manipuri, Assam University.

Cinema

Meitei language movies are often shown in different film festivals in Assam, including the

Brahmaputra Valley Film Festival The 7 Sisters North East International Film Festival which was previously called Brahmaputra Valley Film Festival (BVFF) is a film festival hosted in Guwahati, Assam, India annually since 2013. Short film contest A short film contest is organis ...

(BVFF), in

Guwahati Guwahati () the largest city of the Indian state of Assam, and also the largest metropolis in northeastern India. Dispur, the capital of Assam, is in the circuit city region located within Guwahati and is the seat of the Government of Assam. Th ...

. In 2023, a Meitei language movie named " Nine Hills One Valley", directed by Haobam Pabankumar, was shown in the event. "Phisakhol" () is the first Meitei language movie having its debut in the

city of the Barak Valley in Assam.

Associations and organizations

The following groups took active participation in the historic Meitei associate official language movement in Assam: * All Manipur Students' Union (AMSU) * Assam Manipuri Meira Paibi Lup * Assam Manipuri Sahitya Parishad * All Assam Manipuri Muslim Youth Front * All Assam Manipuri Students Union (AAMSU) * Guwahati Manipuri Coordination Committee (GMCC) * Manipuri Youth Front of Assam (MYFA) * Union of Association of Manipuri Writers * Youth's Action Committee for Protection of Indigenous People (YACPIP)

Notes

References

External links

{{Authority control Meitei culture Official languages of Assam Meitei language