J'khand drops Bhojpuri, Magahi from regional languages list; inclusion of Urdu stirs row

A controversy erupted after the Hemant Soren government in Jharkhand dropped Bhojpuri and Magahi from the list of regional languages and added Urdu along with Bangla and Nagpuri.

In a notification on Friday, the Soren government issued a list of regional languages vis-a-vis the names of districts where these languages are used/spoken.

The decision to drop the Bhojpuri and Magahi from the list was taken in view of growing protests against Bhojpuri and Magahi. The protest that broke out in Bokaro and Dhanbad has reached Ranchi recently.

A section of people, especially in Bokaro and Dhanbad, viewed the inclusion of Bhojpuri and Magahi as an “infringement” on the rights of Adivasis and Moolvasis.

Silence on part of CM Soren aggravated the situation.

Those who opposed the decision believe “low population” of Magahi and Bhojpuri speakers in these two districts did not “warrant” the inclusion of these languages in the job selection process.

With the new notification, Soren government has also rolled back a prior notification wherein Bhojpuri and Magahi were included in the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) examinations.

The JSSC are conducted for district-level appointments at the Bokaro and Dhanbad districts.

People protested the exclusion of Bhojpuri and Magahi alleging that the Soren government has included Urdu for political gains.

Some appealed Bihar CM Nitish Kumar to remove Urdu from the list of regional languages.

The state government issued a notification on December 23 last year to include Magahi and Bhojpuri as regional languages in Dhanbad, Bokaro districts of Jharkhand.

Though there is no precise data available to show how many speakers of a particular language live in a particular district, going by the anecdotal evidence, the government believes that a relatively small population of Magahi- and Bhojpuri-speaking people exist in these districts.