EDITORIAL 1: Why Sylheti spoken by millions in Northeast, is not a 'Bangladeshi language'
Context
Amid a roiling controversy triggered by a Delhi Police letter seemingly referring to Bengali as the “Bangladeshi national language,” the example of “Sylhelti” was given as being nearly incomprehensible to Indian Bengalis.
What is Sylheti? What is the history of its speakers?
- Sylheti is spoken on both sides of the border, in the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh as well as the Barak Valley Division of southern Assam.
- There is also a sizable presence of Sylheti-speakers in neighbouring Meghalaya and Tripura.
- Every language has dialects and Bengali has several of them. The primary argument for referring to Sylheti as a dialect of Bengali — and not a language in its own right — is mutual intelligibility, that is, speakers of both tongues understand each other.
- However, there is significant scholarly disagreement on the matter.
- Sylheti-speaking areas of Bangladesh and India are characterised by diglossia, where standard Bengali is the language of education and literacy and Sylheti is the vernacular variety used in everyday interactions.
Why Sylheti, not a ‘Bangladeshi language’
- Speakers on both sides of the border nonetheless have a strong affinity to the Bengali language, and often identify as Bengali themselves.
- The primary difference between the Sylheti dialect and standardised Bengali is phonetical, while the two are almost identical in morphology and syntax.
- There was once a Sylhet-Nagri script — the existence of a unique system of writing is often seen as a marker of a language — he refers to it as an “esoteric script”.
- It was never a common script used by all. It came into existence in the late medieval ages in Muslim society due to Persian influence.
- It was mostly used by Sufi fakirs in texts to express their mystic approach towards the Almighty.
Sylhet, Partition & migration
- Historian Ashfaque Hossain refers to Sylhet as historically being “a frontier of Bengal”.
- The present-day Sylhet Division in Bangladesh, comprising the districts of Habibganj, Sunamganj, Sylhet, and Moulvibazar, was made a part of Assam soon after it was split from Bengal in 1874.
- Although vast in area, this new province of Assam, with its population of 2.4 million, had a low revenue potential to make it financially viable.
- The British decided in September 1874 to annex the Bengali-speaking and populous district of Sylhet.
- With its population of 1.7 million, Sylhet had been historically an integral part of Bengal.
- Geographically contiguous with Cachar in the Bengali-majority Barak Valley, between 1874 and 1947, Sylhet witnessed a sustained churn over the question of whether it should be a part of Assam or Bengal.
- On one side, this was a matter of Bengali versus Assamese, and on the other, Hindu versus Muslim.
- The Hindus of Sylhet demanded for a return to the more “advanced” Bengal, whereas the Muslims by and large preferred to remain in Assam where its leaders, along with the Assamese Muslims, found a more powerful political voice.
- But come 1947, this situation reversed. Now the Hindus of Sylhet demanded to remain in Assam, and hence India, while the Muslims sought to join East Pakistan.
- This culminated in a controversial referendum on July 6 and 7, 1947 which sealed the fate of the region.
- The story of Sylheti migration to parts of present-day Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura, however, is even older.
- Sylheti middle-class economic migrants to the Brahmaputra Valley and Cachar areas were a population in motion in colonial Assam, moving back and forth, many with simultaneous homes in both Sylhet and the Brahmaputra Valley districts and Cachar since the late nineteenth century.
- The Census of 1901 noted that Sylhetis who are good clerks and are enterprising traders are found, in small numbers, in most of the districts of the province of Assam.
- There was thus a significant population of Sylhetis in what is now India well before East Pakistan, let alone Bangladesh, was even imagined.
Conclusion
Over 7 million people in Northeast India — across Barak Valley, parts of Meghalaya and Tripura — speak Sylheti. They are proud Indian and Bengalis. To dismiss their language as something foreign, or ‘non-Bengali,’ is to rub salt in the wounds of a people already scarred by Partition.