Naga Scholars' Association organises its fourth Insight Lecture on indigenous languages and NEP 2020.
DIMAPUR — The Naga Scholars' Association (NSA), New Delhi, hosted the fourth edition of its Insight Lecture Series via a webinar on September 26, featuring Upasana Bora Sinha from the Department of Chemistry at Nagaland University.
Delivering a lecture titled "Lost in translation: Decline of indigenous languages as a threat to knowledge system and why NEP 2020 matters", Sinha focused on the decline of indigenous languages and their critical role in preserving knowledge systems, cultural identity, and biodiversity, drawing examples from Nagaland.
Sinha discussed how the loss of language leads to the erosion of memory and knowledge and highlighted the impact of colonial education policies on language hierarchy in India. She advocated for using the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 to promote multilingualism and integrate indigenous knowledge into formal education.
Sinha pointed out the importance of the mother tongue and highlighted the need to preserve indigenous languages and knowledge systems. Citing examples from across Northeast India, she made connections with the biodiverse landscape of Nagaland, explaining that indigenous languages serve as knowledge repositories for vast species of flora and fauna that risk becoming extinct before being documented.
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She illustrated this with reference to the word "herbs", which serves as an umbrella term for different types of plants used by local communities for medicinal purposes, noting that indigenous knowledge becomes restricted with the loss of local languages.
She traced the decline of indigenous education systems to colonial influences, particularly the Charter Act of 1813, which created a language hierarchy that devalued local dialects in favour of English and Hindi. This led to a decline in the usage of indigenous languages, leaving them vulnerable to eventual extinction, with more than 200 indigenous languages having become extinct in the past 50 years, the most recent being the Majhi language from Sikkim in 2015.
In line with UNESCO’s aim of preserving, revitalising, and promoting indigenous languages under the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, Sinha proposed using NEP 2020 as a framework to incorporate indigenous knowledge into education through community schools, skill enhancement courses, and documenting oral traditions before they are lost.
The lecture was followed by a question-and-answer session.