2 January 2017
PUNE: An initiative devised by a Pune-based organisation, Sarhad,
Bhasha Bhavan is a campus which will provide conducive environment to students,
teachers, researchers and scholars working for the Indian languages.
While language can
sometimes divide people and communities, it can also be a medium of bringing
people together. And that’s exactly the vision of Bhasha Bhavan, which is
taking shape in Ghuman in Punjab and has its roots in Pune. An initiative
devised by a Pune-based organisation, Sarhad, Bhasha Bhavan is a campus which
will provide conducive environment to students, teachers, researchers and
scholars working for the Indian languages.
Sanjay Nahar,
founder of Sarhad — an organisation dedicated to the cause of people afflicted
by violence, from the border regions, through socio-cultural and literary means
— said, “The primary aim is that through this Bhavan, language will become a
catalyst to get people from various regions together. This shall be achieved by
means of facilitating linguistic research, seminars, conventions and field
studies for linguistic interaction amongst the known and lesser known Indian
languages.”
Nahar added that
Bhasha Bhavan aims to celebrate the rich linguistic heritage of India and it
shall endeavour to be the medium for bringing together people speaking and
exercising diverse languages. It shall act as a conduit for exchange of
thoughts and creative concepts through literature.
The reason for
choosing Ghuman in Gurdaspur district as the place for setting up the language
centre, Nahar says it is the birth place of Sant Namdeo, a poet and saint from
Maharashtra who sought to bring people together on the path of devotion
irrespective of their caste, creed, geography or language.
The 2-acre land
for the construction of the centre has been given by the government of Punjab
to Sarhad. The architectural design of the Bhasha Bhavan comprises classrooms
for instructional activities, auditorium, seminar hall, library, hostel
accommodation, amphitheatre, administrative office and other amenities. While
the work of compound wall has concluded, construction of the first phase of
Bhasha Bhavan will take almost a year and completion of the entire project may
take upto five years.
Unanimous support
and inputs by eminent linguistic scholars and writers have been instrumental in
formulating the concept of Bhasha Bhavan. One of them being Padma Shri and
Sahitya Akademi Awardee Ganesh Devy, founder director of the Bhasha Research
and Publication Centre, Vadodara and Adivasi Academy at Tejgadh, Gujarat. Devy
says, “There are three types of language schools/institutions running in the
country.
While all universities have their own respective language schools for
students, all states have their own language institutions such as Bangla
Sahitya Parishad, Marathi Sahitya Parishad, Hindi Sahitya Parishad and
likewise, that cater to one major regional language. On national level,
institutes like National Book Trust and Sahitya Akademi are for accomplished writers.”
So, he says, there is no school or language institution that is meant for those
who are neither students nor accomplished.
Thus, an initiative like Bhasha
Bhavan will focus on speakers, writers, poets and littérateurs of various
languages working together to promote circulation and life of different
languages, he adds.
It is Devy who has
visualised the campus with academic focus on four key areas – translation,
education in mother language, promotion of minor languages and community
linguistic research; and ‘Sant Sahitya’ or the prose and poetry written by
various saints. Other scholars, writers and poets who have provided inputs for
the Bhavan include Vasant A Dahake, Rajan Khan, Ramdas Phutane and Atamjit
Singhji, among others.
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