In one of the comments in Bishnupriya Manipuri Status in Google it reads:
Anonymous said…
Dear Rishi, you have done good analysis.. in addition I like to name some other sites on Bishnupriya like http://freespaces.com/ithaak and http://manipuri.freehomepage.com which worth mention.
Curiously enough all the websites about Bishnupriya manipuri in world wide web are the contribution from the Bangladeshi Bishnupriyas. Is there any website or a single page about Bishnupriya Manipuri by any Bishnupriya from Assam or Tripura or any state from India? Is it not a strange thing that 70% of Bishnupriyas live in India?
It is really an unfortunate affair and is a scathing attack to the fact that India where a bigger population of Bishnupriya Manipuri exists, its contribution in the Internet world is almost nowhere, absolutely nil. It is not that in India, the Bishnupriya Manipuri populace are socially marginalised, away from the modern education, and to all those resources that are required to invigorate a society. It has every thing in its disposal to electrify, to give a sweeping change to the society. But, again we come to the same point from where we have started – back to square one: why we are so negligent to use this tool called Internet!
Is it because in the colleges and universities we have people devoted to the study of the language Bishnupriya Manipuri and to catch any changes that the community is experiencing? It is not the case. There is no department in the universities to study about us. Well, is there any newspaper, very popular with RNI registration that is being circulated in the Bishnupriya Manipuri inhabited areas? Of course, not.
Going further, do we participate in any sort of cultural programmes that are being organised in national and international level? Such question doesn’t arise. Sorry. Then what are you doing to propagate our culture, customs, language and anything related to us to the whole world? What do we export to the other world? That is something we can call it is ours! The answer is big No No.
Our status in the three building blocks of media television, radio and print is not a secret. We are non-existent amongst the three media. Are we so much oblivious of the truth that this three media is considered – history written in haste. The daily report that we read in the newspaper with a cup of tea, watch television and hear radio with the passage of time is what that transformed into history. The history that we need capriciously and urgently.
Time has changed, it will change without your permission. It is not constant. So the time that our fathers and forefathers lived has also underwent change. Remember, how attentively we all listen to the stories of the bygone days. It is only because it has the tinge of the history, the history that relates closely to us, to our neighbourhood, to our village. For a moment, minus the person who tells his life and time, what is left. Nothing, we are living dead cut off from the past. Are we not doing the same creating a world for our coming generations? Ponder!
Why Internet in this attempt to cement the bonding of the Bishnupriya Manipuri? It has many reasons: 1) it is not geographically restricted. A person view the same content from Australia, Delhi, Dhaka and Silchar. 2) the space is not a constraint. It doesn’t matter the article consists of one line or thousands words. 3) Viewers have the choice to read the first article or the recent article. He is independent of his choice. 4) Archiving is easy and not an issue. Unlike other media, here archiving is easy. 5) the Internet is superseding other media in many ways.
Why Bishnupriya Manipuri Indians are keeping their hands off to such initiatives? First reason, might be we are content and complacent to our achievements in our own world. Secondly, might be we are not tune to the air of developments taking place and very much confused where and how to put ourselves in the national and international arena. Thirdly, lack of coherent urge to steer a change to the Bishnupriya Manipuri. Fourthly, might be the sense of belongingness and mutual comity is non-existent.
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As I see it, there could be mainly two reasons:
Purely on an application level, there are a limited number of fluent BM english speakers. Out of that not many are in the habit of writing or blogging. Yours truly accidentally discovered this blog 4-5 months back, however, my “limited writing skills” did not allow me to make any inputs. If I had to comment on some post, all I could think of some superlative adjectives like “excellent post, great post etc.” Well, I didn’t feel the need to do that.
On another level as you had rightly pointed out, there is a lack of belongingness. The community has no dearth of benglisized BM’s as opposed to bengali speaking BM. Now we also have Assamese BMs (yours truly is a assamese speaking BM), Hindi speaking or hindustani BMs, English speaking NRI BM’s, and the internet has also brought to light a Spanish speaking BM. It is one thing to be multilingual but a significant number of BM people has a tenacity to imbibe someone’s culture and making it their own. There are also instances where one takes pride in not knowing one’s mother tongue and thereby setting the ground for dissociation with BM culture.
In this light, I must appreciate your effort in creating awareness and I also would like to take this opportunity to thank active bloggers like Ranita, BN Sinha, Ashim, Rebati Mohan and so many others who are all making a difference. In retrospect, I would also like to thank the power of internet in bringing a sense of belongingness to a wide range of dynamic BM people situated across the globe.
So long then it was a excellent post. Keep up the good work.
Regards,
Rishi
there are n number of techies in our community…there are many erudite persons who visits and reads the aricles… the most unfortunate part is that till date in all the so called BM websites including this BM blogspot… the creators are non techies and are selected few… its a fact that all the initiatives by few like Mr.Ashim, Mr. Uttam, Rishi are purely non commercial and an honest effort to make the presense felt for the community as a whole in the world… sad part is that despite of regular effort, there are the same bloggers same selected readers……even though people dont need to shell out money to leave a comment…or in participating in the initiative…
when will we get out of this laid back attitude?????
However.. very well pointed out by Rishi….