Mizoram

Language, Articulation and Empowerment: The Chakma and Language Politics in the State of Mizoram

Language, Articulation and Empowerment: The Chakma and Language Politics in the State of Mizoram

Written by : Dr. Anup Shekhar Chakraborty Photo : Shutterstock.com The Backdrop Traditionally the Chakma occupy the South-West and the western belts of the territory between Mizoram and the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) now in Bangladesh and Tripura. The Chakma tribes speak a language heavily influenced by the Eastern Indo-Aryan language group; it is closely related to the Bengali language. They speak different dialects, and their connection with the Zo/Mizo is contested. Recent linguists’ observations have found that the modern Chakma language known as Changma Vaj or Changma Kodha (and a script ‘Ojhopath’) is a part of the South-eastern Bengali…
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Let’s Make History: Appropriating Histories to Make Newer Histories

Let’s Make History: Appropriating Histories to Make Newer Histories

Written by : Dr. Anup Shekhar Chakraborty Photo : Shutterstock.com Vexed Histories History writing, its interpretation, and conception of any event as history are markedly selective and involve ‘political’ choices and decisions. The methodology infused into the engagement and resource collection and documentation is strongly marked by familiarising and de-familiarising select events. Thereby the event is perceived through what Foucault calls a gaze. In many senses, the gaze of history which fills our knowledge/information for the common is marked by the statist enterprise (governance, governmentality). In short, history is a political engagement in many senses not merely because of the…
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