MANOJ SINHA
Ramgarh, Dec.2: Four MPs of Jharkhand, including Giridih MP Chandraprakash Choudhary, have urged the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai, to implement a language code for Kudmali, the mother tongue of Kudmis, in the language list of the census of India.
This demand has been made jointly in New Delhi by Giridih MP Chandra Prakash Chaudhary, Jamshedpur MP Vidyut Varan Mahto, Purulia MP Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato and Rajya Sabha MP Mamta Mohanta.
They met the union minister and apprised him that the Kudmali language is the autonomous tribal mother tongue of more than 2 crore Kudmis residing in different districts of Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Assam and is also spoken by other communities.
They also mentioned that the language is taught in 6 universities of Jharkhand and West Bengal but the code of Kudmali is not included in the census. According to their statement, the code for the Kudmali language was present in the 1951 census as Kurmali. But in the 1961 census, Kurmali was used in place of Kudmali.
Names of Kurmali and Karmali language have remained a subject of confusion since 1931. Hence, the way Dravid is used for Dravid, Badodara for Vadodara, Odisha for Odisha, Odia for Odia and Kannad for Kannada, proper justice should be done by using Kudmali instead of Kurmali or Kurmali Thar for Kudmali language also. The MPs have said that taking special care of the spelling error, language code for the Kudmali language should be implemented independently as a tribal language in the census.
