Mail News Service
Jamshedpur, May 25: The State Conference of the Jharkhand Bangla Bhashi Unnayan Samiti (JBBUS) was held in Jamshedpur, bringing together Bengali-speaking organizations from across the state. The gathering addressed the ongoing marginalization of the Bengali language and Bengali-speaking community in Jharkhand and formulated future strategies to counter it.
In a press release, State President Achintam Gupta asserted that Jharkhand was historically and geographically a Bengali-speaking region, with Bengali being the dominant communication language in 16 out of the state’s 24 districts. He alleged that over the past 25 years, successive state governments had conspired to erase the presence of the Bengali language by discontinuing Bengali textbooks, halting the recruitment of Bengali-speaking teachers, and ultimately closing schools with dwindling Bengali student populations.
Gupta strongly criticized the Education Minister’s recent remarks, labeling them irresponsible and dismissive of the crisis. He also condemned the state government’s move to rename a university previously named after nationalist leader Dr. Syama Prasad Mukherjee, calling it an insult to a respected Bengali icon who contributed immensely to India’s national integration.
The conference emphasized that Bengali-speaking citizens had a significant role in the Jharkhand movement alongside leaders like Shibu Soren and Binod Bihari Mahto. A state-wide Bangla Janjagran Abhiyan had been launched from May 19, targeting 25,000 villages in 150 blocks to mobilize grassroots resistance.
