Sylheti and the Debate over Linguistic Identity: More than a Dialect, Not a ‘Bangladeshi Language’

Recently controversy broke out when the Delhi Police communication termed Bengali as the national language of Bangladesh, which further was criticised. The tension was fueled further by BJP president Amit Malviya who differentiated Sylheti and Indian Bengali and linked language profiling of the illegal immigrants. The comments have caused outrage especially among people living in the Barak Valley in Assam where the Sylheti language is in common use.

Key Points for RAS Mains

What is Sylheti?

• Spoken In:
  • Bangladesh Sylhet Division
  • Assam, India: Barak Valley
  • Tripura and Meghalaya parts
• Speakers: more than 7 million in Northeast India solely
• Linguistic Status:
• Characterized on many accounts as a dialect of Bengali because of mutual intelligibility
  • Nevertheless, this is contested among linguists under the following:
  • Distinct phonetics
  • Unique vocabulary
  • Sylhet Nagri script in history
• Diglossia: Sylheti in everyday life and Bengali in the education and socially formal settings

History and Culture

This is during the Colonial Period and migration:

• 1874: Under British rule the Sylhet district was amalgamated to Assam because of administrative viability reasons
• 1901 Census: Sylhetis reported as being enterprising traders and clerks and found in Assam
• Sylheti bhodrolok (middle-class Hindus) moved to Cachar and Brahmaputra valleys
• Common family, cultural, and economic affiliations that are distributed within Sylhet-Cachar-Tripura region

The partition and Referendum of 1947:

• July 1947: Sylhet referendum: most of it enthusiastically entered East Pakistan
• But Karimganj (which now constitutes Barak Valley in the state of Assam) remained in India
• Huge Settlement of the Hindu Sylheti refugees in Assam Post-Partition: Large-scale Hindu Sylheti refugee settlement in Assam

The Current Problem:

• Trigger:
  • In a letter issued by Delhi Police, Bengali was called the Bangladeshi national language
  • It was defended by Amit Malviya, who claimed that Sylheti is incomprehensible to Indian Bengalis, and may be important to establish Bangladeshi identity
• The reasons why the controversy matters.
  • 1. Identity and Citizenship:
    • Defining Sylheti as the Bangladeshi language poses a risk to the culture and the national identity of the Indians who have a long history of associating themselves as Bengalis and Indians.
    • Fuels ethnic-profiling and migrant stereotype fear
  • 2. Federalization and Forked Tongue:
    • Weakens Indian multilingual culture which is provided under the Article 29 & 30
    • Questions validity of the local dialects/languages used by locals (in the borderlands)
  • 3. Electoral and social fallout:
    • The possible weakening of BJP support base of Barak Valley
    • Risk of alienating the Hindu Bengali people who were in favour of the NRC/CAA
    • Reawakens unhealed Partition trauma and language marginalisation

Academic Views on Sylheti:

Conclusion:

The discussion of the Sylheti gives a pattern of how language, identity, migration, and memory form a web in post-Partition India. The British policy of classifying a culturally native Indian dialect of dialogue and its speakers as an overseas one presents a threat to invalidate the history of citizens and polarise the lines further. In a multilingual democracy such as India, linguistic diversity should not only be handled sensitively; it is a necessity to national unity that is constitutional.