RAJBANSHI PRIDE

In the official record, as of today, indigenous Rajbanshi people constitute meagre 0.1% of total population of Nepal. Like their counterparts in India and Bangladesh, in Nepal also, these unfortunate people belonging to Rajbanshi community are caught in a vortex of both social and political predicament. Their actual population is almost half a Million. Their estimated population is 508170 as of today. Like Indian Rajbanshi people, for Nepali Rajbanshi people too, census count appears to be biased as most Rajbanshi people identify themselves as mainstream Nepali; thus their actual population is never truly depicted. In the heyday of monarchy and British hegemony, Rajbanshi people enjoyed domineering status in Nepalese society. During those days, they were in majority in Jhapa and Morang districts and sizable part of Sunsari district. In these districts, Rajbanshi community was the most prominent ethnic group. Today, their actual social status is not being shown in the official record

Off late, numbers of opinions are in the air regarding renaming one of the militarily strategic airports of the nation i.e. Bagdogra, located in the plains near Siliguri of Darjeeling district in West Bengal. Not going by the various names as suggested by mainstream people of West Bengal and people with vested interests which hold no much water, I wish to pen down my suggestion which is purely based on the sacrifices and contributions made by the local Rajbanshi people while constructing Bagdogra   airport during World War-II.  As I heard from my late father, our forefathers were too glad to give their fertile lands to the Govt. of British India, free of cost, for construction of a military air base for the Royal Indian Air Force during World War-II. As the area was full of jungles with lush green trees where tigers used to roar in the nights, the air base came to be known as Bagdogra which connotes roaring of tiger in local Rajbanshi-Kamta language (Bag denotes Tiger and Dogra deno

Introduction 1.         Kamtapuri/Rajbanshi is an old language and is spoken by a large ethnic group of people residing from time immemorial in a vast region of eastern/ northeastern part of India. Their demographic location is contiguously spread over entire North Bengal, Lower & major portion of Assam, north-eastern districts of Bihar and neighbouring countries viz. northern part of Bangladesh and north-eastern districts of Nepal. Although their mother tongue meets all the criteria for official recognition as a language, government patronage and official recognition are essential for its existence and further development. With a view to save this language from getting extinct, immediate steps should be taken by our Govt. and, this language should be given constitutional recognition and be included in the eighth schedule of the Constitution of India.             2.      The reasoning and justification for grant of constitutional recognition to Kamtapuri language w