‘International conspiracy’: Why the BJP is opposing the Roman script for Tripura’s Kokborok tongue

Last week, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha declared that his government would not agree to the Kokborok language, spoken by Tripura’s tribal groups, being written in the Roman script.

These groups account for a little over 30% of the state’s total population.

The decision puts the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on a path of conflict with its ally, the Tipra Motha, which has in the last few weeks stepped up its demand for a change of script for Kokborok.

Kokborok is currently written in Bengali but demand for it to be written in Roman dates back several decades.

Chief Minister Saha shot down the demand for the “foreign script”, calling it part of an “international conspiracy”. He asked tribal groups to either develop a script for the Kokborok language or to adopt the Devanagari script instead of Bengali.

“We will never allow Roman script for Kokborok language because it poses a threat to the indigenous traditional and culture,” Saha said at a party programme in South Tripura. “The young generation will completely forget their culture if Roman script is adopted for their language.”

Saha’s stand is in line with the Centre’s suggestion and Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s backing for the Devanagari script for indigenous languages in the North East. Both Bengali and Devanagari evolved from the Brahmi script.

Tipra Motha leaders reacted sharply. “It is our language, our right, our choice,” said Anthony Debbarma, a Tipra Motha spokesperson. “Who are they to object?”

Debbarma admitted that the relationship between the allies is on rocky ground, especially over the issue of the script. “Our indigenous people are suppressed in so many ways by the state government,” he said. “Whenever we raise the issues, they have no response.”

The Tipra Motha joined hands with the BJP in 2024, even though it had fought the 2023 elections on its own. It agreed to join the Manik Saha government after the Centre signed a “historic” tripartite pact with the Tripura government and the Tipra Motha, which aimed to “amicably resolve all issues of indigenous people” of the state.

But ahead of elections to the autonomous district council in Tripura’s tribal areas, a rift appears to have emerged in the alliance.

Debbarma alleged that the Centre has not fulfilled a single issue under the tripartite pact even after two years.

On Monday, Saha launched a sharp attack on the Tipra Motha-led district council, accusing it of failing to deliver on promises despite having the money to do so, and misleading indigenous communities.

‘RSS hand’

Thirteen tribal legislators from Tripura and Tipra Motha’s chief Pradyot Debbarma wrote to Saha on January 15 asking for the Roman script to be adopted for the Kokborok language

The letter was written ahead of elections to the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council, where most of the tribal population is concentrated and which accounts for 20 of the state’s 60 Assembly seats. The elections are supposed to be held in a month or two.

Chief Minister Saha, however, refused to concede to the demand. “Why are you demanding a foreign script?” he said at a rally. “Our central leadership and central government has repeatedly told us to opt for the Devanagari script. We speak Hindi but we don’t opt for Devanagari script. This is strange. This is an international conspiracy.”

Opposition leaders have alleged that the BJP government was following the doctrine of its ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, in refusing the old demand. “RSS’s slogan is Hindu, Hindi, Hindustan,” said Jitendra Chaudhury, senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader.

He alleged that the RSS worldview does not permit the flourishing of “any language or culture of any indigenous in our country”.

“Opposing the Roman script, opposing the culture of indigenous people is part of that same doctrine only,” he said.

Animesh Debbarma, Tipra Motha leader and a Cabinet colleague of Saha, said the script for Kokborok will be decided by the speakers of the language. “A language does not develop because of government order or because of government restriction,” the state forest minister said. “A language is developed by poets, writers, students, artists, not politicians.”

A longstanding demand

Tripura is the only state in the North East, where the tribal population is not in a majority. The arrival of Bengali refugees in the years after Partition altered the demography of the state and led to a sense of tribals being disempowered

Kokborok is spoken by 19 tribes in the state, approximately 14 lakh people. The 2011 census put the state’s population at 36.7 lakh.

Since 1967, tribal groups have been demanding that the language be written in the Roman script and not Bengali – a demand that over the years has become associated with the politics of ethnic identity. Kokborok was recognised as one of the state’s two official languages in 1979.

While early Left governments promoted the Kokborok language through the Bengali script, tribal intellectuals believe that is an imposition.

“The Bengali script can do nothing for the development of the [Kokborok] since it, or any Indic script derived from the Brahmi script, has got some limitations,” Kokborok author, poet and composer Bikash Rai Debbarma told Scroll.

The main feature of the language, which belongs to a family of Tibeto-Burman languages, is that of tonal variations. “The same word can express five or six meanings, depending on the tone,” Bikash Rai Debbarma said. “We need a script that can express these variations.”

Despite the state’s reluctance, the use of the Roman script is on the rise – on social media and in books.

“In 2023, more than 20 books were published in Kokborok language – 16 were printed in Roman script,” said Rai Debbarma. “Young writers increasingly use Roman script because it is easy to write.”

Across the state, college students are given the option of writing examinations in either of the two scripts, though school students have to write the Kokborok test in Bengali script.

“According to the higher education department’s responses to our right to information requests, of more than 10,000 students who took the undergraduate exams, no one wrote in the Bengali script,” Rai Debbarma said. “Our point is why should one script be imposed upon students and speakers.”

Reaction to CM’s charge

Chief Minister Saha’s strident position and insinuations that the demand for Roman script is linked to the spread of Christianity has led to several protests across the state.

“It's an imposition and against the collective rights of the indigenous people,” John Debbarma, the vice president of Twipra Students’ Federation, the apex tribal students’ body of the state, said.

He pointed out that several tribes in the region – Khasi, Garo, Dimasa, Mizo Kuki, and others – have already adopted the Roman script.

“Most importantly, each of these languages has reformed and adapted the script according to its own needs,” John Debbarma said. “Then why does the state administration continue to pressure national boards to print Kokborok examination papers in Bengali script instead of respecting the linguistic autonomy of Kokborok speakers?”

John Debbarma also criticised the chief minister’s claim of a“foreign conspiracy” behind their demand and accused him of spreading “conspiracy theories” to divert the issue.

The writer, Bikash Rai Debbarma, agreed. “The chief minister of a state cannot unilaterally decide over the script issue of a particular language,” he said. “It's totally unconstitutional and against democracy. They don't want Kokborok to develop.”

He also criticised attempts to link the Roman script with attempts to spread Christianity. “To consume the language of a numerically smaller community, the majority community continuously creates such narratives with great care and implants them into the public mind,” Bikash Rai Debbarma said.

‘Only a spectacle’

Critics of the Tipra Motha were sceptical about the party’s commitment to the cause of Kokborok.

“All parties are doing politics over the script,” Rebati Tripura, a former MP and a prominent BJP leader from tribal communities, told Scroll.

He alleged that Motha’s chief Pradyot Debbarma does not even speak the language. “Only the villagers have kept Kokborok alive.”

Tripura admitted that cracks had developed in the alliance. “The alliance is only for name's sake and on paper,” he said. “It is only limited to the state government as the Motha wanted two ministers. But we are not fighting the district council elections together. Rather, they say they will not allow the BJP to enter the council. How can an alliance partner say such things about a national party?”

The CPI(M)’s Chaudhury, who is the leader of Opposition in the Tripura Assembly, dismissed the apparent hostility between the parties.

He called the face-off a “drama”, and was sceptical of any substantive fallout between the alliance partners. “They need a spectacle for the next council elections and so they are organising this thing,” he said.

Anthony Debbarma, the Tipra Motha spokesperson, told Scroll that the party has no plans of exiting the government and will continue to raise their demands while staying with the BJP.