CPI(M) Slams Push for Devanagari in Northeast
- By Thetripurapost Desk, Agartala
- Feb 21, 2026
- 1032
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has mounted a strong critique of the Union government’s perceived attempt to promote the Devanagari script for tribal languages of the Northeast that presently lack a standardised written form.
Tripura State secretary Jitendra Chaudhury, who also serves as Leader of the Opposition in the 60-member Assembly, denounced Union Home Minister Amit Shah for urging speakers of indigenous languages to adopt Devanagari. Addressing journalists in Agartala on Saturday (February 21, 2026), Mr. Chaudhury cautioned that any attempt to standardise scripts across diverse linguistic communities would erode the region’s cultural heterogeneity.
At the Northern Regional Rajbhasha Sammelan held in Agartala on Friday (February 20), Mr. Shah contended that the ‘Nagari Lipi’ could serve as an instrument for safeguarding linguistic identities in a region where numerous dialects and languages remain unwritten. He further appealed to stakeholders to refrain from politicising linguistic issues or fomenting controversy over scripts.
Promotion versus imposition
While acknowledging that the promotion of Hindi through the Official Language Department is legitimate, Mr. Chaudhury drew a firm distinction between encouragement and compulsion. Any endeavour to obligate northeastern communities to adopt Devanagari for their mother tongues, he argued, would constitute an unacceptable encroachment on linguistic autonomy. He further criticised attempts to correlate script adoption with regional development, asserting that such reasoning diminishes the intrinsic value of the region’s linguistic plurality and cultural inheritance.
Characterising the move as an expression of “cultural hegemony,” he alleged that it resonates with the ideological orientation of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
A member of the Tripuri community—one of Tripura’s 19 recognised tribes—Mr. Chaudhury highlighted the protracted debate over the script of Kokborok, the lingua franca of at least eight tribal groups, including the Tripuri.
Although the Bengali script has been employed for Kokborok since 1897, a significant section of tribal intellectuals and leaders advocate the Roman script, maintaining that it more faithfully captures the phonetic structure of the language. For years, Kokborok speakers have campaigned for a transition from Bengali to Roman. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led State government, whose support base is largely Bengali-speaking, has insisted that only an “Indian script” — rather than what it terms a “foreign” one — should be adopted.
The debate has also been entangled with allegations that Christian missionaries are influencing the demand for the Roman script, given that a substantial segment of Tripura’s tribal population adheres to Christianity.
Recently, Chief Minister Manik Saha declared that his administration “will never allow Roman script for Kokborok,” arguing that it imperils indigenous traditions and cultural values. He advised tribal scholars and language experts either to devise a suitable indigenous script, retain the Bengali script, or consider other Indian-origin scripts such as Devanagari.
His remarks elicited opposition from the Tipra Motha Party, a political ally of the BJP that endorses the Roman script. The controversy has also galvanised student organisations, including the United Movement for Kokborok, whose members organised human chains to press for official recognition of the Roman script.