Octogenarian Kokborok scholar, author and grammarian Naresh Chandra Debbarma, who has spent more than five decades documenting Tripura’s tribal language, has been awarded the Padma Shri this year for his contribution to education and Kokborok literature.
A self-taught language expert, Debbarma has been actively writing and promoting the tribal language since 1972, years before it was accorded official recognition as a state language in 1979. His work spans the history, grammar, evolution and usage of Kokborok.
Born in Lembuthal village in Tripura’s Sipahijala district, Debbarma grew up in a family of five. He began his higher education in science at Maharaja Bir Bikram College in Agartala, the state’s first government-run degree college. Financial constraints, however, forced him to drop out. He joined the state government’s agriculture department as a junior computer assistant and later moved to the Tripura Legislative Assembly in 1973 as an Upper Division Assistant.
After three decades in public service, Debbarma retired in 2002 as the Assembly’s first Officer on Special Duty (OSD). Alongside his career and family responsibilities, he taught himself the intricacies of Kokborok and went on to write 34 books in Kokborok, Bengali and English.
“I have always been fascinated with the Kokborok language and its literature. Back then, there was an even higher shortage of proper study and resource materials in Kokborok than today. So, I started writing about the history and evolution of the language, its literature, grammar, usage, and other aspects. I have always been interested in nonfiction. While much poetry and storytelling is being practised in Kokborok these days, I prefer to keep my work nonfiction-based,” Debbarma tells indianexpress.com.
A second innings after retirement
Debbarma’s first book, Jorani Makhang (The Face of Time), was published in 2003, a year after his retirement. Since then, he has written numerous articles, treatises and research works, bringing his total output to 34 publications.
Drawing from his five decades of work, Debbarma argues that while verses and stories are important to a language, they alone cannot ensure its survival, growth and evolution. “You need quality research for that. I have been writing about Kokborok in Bengali script, and also in the Bengali language for some time now, and I realised that while Bengali and Kokborok are equal in value, Kokborok’s own literature is still way behind Bengali. There is still too little literature and documentation available,” he says.
Asked about what needs to be done for the upliftment of the tribal language, his answer is clear: “More publications need to be done in this language, particularly those relating to research and development. Many books are being published in Kokborok every year; 17 were published this year alone, from what I understand. But most of these are works of fiction. We need more quality research work.”
Language, script, and politics
Kokborok was recognised as an official language of Tripura in 1979, a period marked by a shift in the state’s political landscape with the formation of the first Left Front government under Nripen Chakraborty in 1978. Successive governments constituted two Kokborok language commissions, under linguists Pabitra Sarkar and Kumud Kundu Chowdhury. In 1988, the Congress-Tripura Upajati Juba Samiti (TUJS) coalition was formed and it set up a commission in 1990, headed by tribal ideologue Shyama Charan Tripura.
While the Left Front government publicly favoured the Bengali script, these commissions found that a majority of tribal speakers preferred the Roman script. Until 2018, both Bengali and Roman scripts were allowed in examinations.
After the BJP came to power, the state government opposed the use of scripts of “foreign origin” and suggested that Kokborok intellectuals either evolve an indigenous script or adopt one of Indian origin, indicating a preference for Devanagari.
The issue remains contentious, resurfacing almost every year during Tripura Board of Secondary Education examinations, with the government favouring the Bengali script and Tipra Motha maintaining its demand for the Roman script.
Asked about the issue, Debbarma says, “It’s a democratic demand, and they have the right to raise it. Time will tell what will be accepted. But I personally have been writing in Bengali script all along, and I don’t feel there is any particularly unique substance to the claim of Roman script having any added advantage over Bengali script for use in Kokborok language”.
He explains that scripts are written symbols of languages, and any script can be adapted to any language if it is modified to suit that language’s needs.
“For example, there are four forms of ‘s’ in Bengali script, but I have used only one in writing Kokborok. Similarly, there are four types of ‘d’ in Bangla script, but I’ve used only one. It doesn’t matter what pronunciation an alphabet has in its root language… to say Roman script has some kind of additional advantage over Bangla script, is something I don’t personally feel logical,” he says.
For Debbarma, the debate over scripts should not overshadow the larger challenge: building a body of scholarly work to ensure Kokborok’s survival and growth.
Photo courtesy: Family of Naresh Chandra Debbarma 
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