IMPORTANT Facts Every Bhojpuri Voter Citizen Must Know

Dear Bhojpuri Citizens & Netizens -


Please see the list of Bhojpuri facts below and an appeal from Shri. Onkareshwar Pandey, Executive Director of Bhojpuri Association of India (BHAI). Together as a bhojpuri community, this is our best chance to raise the pitch and demand for inclusion of Bhojpuri as an official language in the Indian Constitution and pressurize the Government of India and its elected representatives, whom we vote, to yield to the demands of Bhojpuri population in India.

Please pass this message to every Bhojpuriya so they understand all facts, know how to fight for their "rights" and remind all our to-be-elected Indian leaders of their "responsibilities" towards our Bhojpuri society. This is the least we can do to create awareness of Bhojpuri, no matter whom we elect for Lok Sabha in 2009.

!! *** I VOTE FOR BHOJPURI AND THOSE WHO STAND FOR IT *** !!

Sailesh Mishra
President, BANA
www.Bhojpuri.us

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Dear Bhojpuri Members

Today, I want to request you all to spare a moment for Bhojpuri --

- The Parliamentary Elections are going to be held in India next month.
- Political Parties are busy in selecting Candidates and writing their Election Manifestoes. Some of them have already released their manifesto hoping to get elected soon.

This is the high time to write a Letter to all Political Parties, Leaders, MPs from Bhojpuri speaking areas and others with following appeal. Hope you all will support together.


Regards,
Onkareshwar

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An open letter to all Political Parties, Leaders, MPs from Bhojpuri speaking areas and others.

Bhojpuri is the second largest among Indian languages after Hindi. When would the Indian Govt. recognize Bhojpuri as an official language ?

The history of Bhojpuri language dates back to 7th century. More than 1000 years old !!!

Guru Gorakh Nath had written Gorakh Bani in the year 1100.

The birth of Saint Kabir Das (1297) has been accepted as Bhojpuri Diwas in India and celebrated as World Bhojpuri Day.

Bhojpuri had its own script namely “KAITHI”.

It was the official Script from the Moghul era.

“KAITHI” was the official Script of Bihar under British Govt. in 1880.

At that time users of “KAITHI” script were many more than Devnagri.

The books / reports were being published in “KAITHI” from Lucknow, Patna, Kolkata.

It was being taught in the Chicago University, USA.

“KAITHI” is very close to Devnagri & looks beautiful like Gujrati.

Bhojpuri is the language & mother tongue of more than 180 million people spread over five Continents of the Earth.

Ranking by numbers, it is at the 10th position after Japanese and German among world languages.

In fact, Bhojpuri is the first Indian language which has got a significant speaker population and language potential to get the recognition in half a dozen countries apart from its mother land India.

Bhojpuri Samaj has given many great leaders up to the level of Presidents & Prime Minister, not only in India but in some other countries also.

The Hindi Literature is incomplete without the names of Bhojpuri writers.

The fact is Bhojpurias are rated among at least 8 out of Top Ten Hindi writers in India.

While Bengalis contributed in the India’s freedom movement by Pen, Bhojpurias faught this war through LATHIS in there hand. The Bhojpuri Mati has the honour to produce Freedom Fighters like Mangal Pandey, Chandrashekhar Azad and Veer Kunvar Singh.


I on behalf of BHAI, THE SUNDAY INDIAN,Bhojpuri and all Bhojpuri speaking people of the world, request and demand the following.

Plz. Show your sincerity towards our thousands of years old Mother Tongue BHOJPURI.

Plz. Include the issue of recognition of Bhojpuri Language in your Manifestoes. (The issue of inclusion of Bhojpuri language in the 8th schedule of the Indian Constitution is pending with the union Govt. since very long.)

BHOJPURI should be included as a separate language in the next preparation of Census Report. This will show the exact number and the condition of Bhojpuri speaking people in our country.

The fact is most of the Bhojpuri speaking people write Hindi or Urdu as their mother language. This is evident in the census report of the Govt. of India.

A committee on the lines of Justice Sachhar should be constituted to study the plight of Bhojpuri speaking people in the various parts of the country. The fact is large number of Bhojpuri speaking people are going out of UP & Bihar as migrant laborers to find the ways and means of their livelihood. About 160 years ago, they had been compelled to go to countries like Mauritius, Surinam, Fiji, Trinidad and others. The entire Bhojpuri speaking areas of UP, Bihar, Jharkhand & MP are far behind in terms of development in India. The fact is these areas are deliberately ignored and has been kept out of development map of India. And the result is a volcano that is brewing in this area and has surfaced to the ground now. The migration of Bhojpuri did not stop even within the country. The not-so-rich Bhojpurias migrated not only to Metros like Kolkata, Mumbai & Delhi but also to the far-flung and disturbed areas of Assam, Manipur, Punjab and even Jammu-Kashmir to survive for a living.

Now these innocent and poor Bhojpurias are being humiliated, harassed and kidnapped & killed by anti-social elements. Sikhs in Punjab have also launched campaign to oust Bhojpuria migrant laborers from Punjab. The anti Bihari agitation led by MNS leader Raj Thackrey in Mumbai is basically against poor Bhojpuria people . They are not welcomed even in the National Capital Delhi where Politicians & bureaucrats treat them with disrepect. These poor Bhojpurias were worst sufferers when the Court ordered the ouster of Small Scale Industries / Factories from Delhi. So there is a deep and growing resentment and feeling of alienation among the Bhojpuria people all over the country.

We demand the union Govt. to plz. ensure the security(suraksha) and respect (samman) for Bhojpuria people living in various parts of the country.

The union Govt. should ensure complete justice and should review the compensation offered to the violence affected Bhojpurias in Assam in the past few years and also from natural disasters like Bihar Floods.


Although the Nitish Kumar led Govt. of Bihar has tried to stand up with Bhojpuria people in the hours of crisis, leaders like Lalu Prasad Yadav have just been doing politics and nothing serious for the Bhojpuria junta. The issue of recognition to Bhojpuri language would not have been hanging since so long if the leaders like Lalu Yadav would have made any serious efforts to get it done.

Baring Prabhu Nath Singh of JDU and a few others, no big senior leader has made any serious effort in this direction. We, as bhojpuriyas, need to remind all senior leaders that BHOJPURI deserves its due credit.

The chief Minister of Delhi Mrs. Sheila Dixit has surely done something concrete by at least constituting the Maithili–Bhojpuri Academy in Delhi. But why Maithili-Bhojpuri academy jointly? Are Punjabi & Sindhi Academies formed jointly anywhere? If not, then why is this back door policy for Bhojpuri ?

The formation of joint Maithili – Bhojpuri Academy is not enough and will not do justice either with Maithili or with Bhojpuri. So, we strongly demand separate a Bhojpuri academy in Delhi.

The Bhojpuri academy in Bihar is in dire consequences. It needs urgent attention of the State Govt. and sufficient funds for the development of Bhojpuri language.

Bhojpuri academy should also be formed in Uttar Pradesh & Jharkhand where Bhojpurias are having a sizeable population.

The Gorakhpur Station of Aakashvani has done a remarkable job by launching the Bhojpuri News Bulletin. But keeping in view the nationwide presence of Bhojpuria people, this should be introduced at national level and to other stations of AIR in Bhojpuri areas also.

Although there are at least four private TV Channels in the sky today, the National Broadcaster Doordarshan has so far ignored the Bhojpuri language community completely. We must say - No Bhojpuri, No DD

We demand a complete & separate Infotainment Channel of Doordarshan in Bhojpuri language. This is to remind them that all the major languages have separate Channels of DD in their respective languages.

The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (I&B) has given special benefits in terms of advertisement released through DAVP for promotion of Print journalism (Newspapers & Periodicals) in some Tribal, Pahari & Maithili language also. Bhojpuri should also be included in this list of DAVP.

Bhojpuri films have become a big hit after Hindi Cinema in the country. However, there is no support for proper development of Bhojpuri Cinema either by Central Govt. or the State Governments.

From West Bengal and Assam to the Southern region, state Governments are supporting the regional language films in their states by making them Tax Free and also funding them. The PATHER PANCHALI is the Classic example of this, which was fully funded by the West Bengal Govt.

But unfortunately not only Bhojpuri dominated states, but in fact the entire Hindi heart land lacks the policy to support the regional Cinema in Bhojpuri and other local languages by the state Govt. It will not be improper to say that this region needs to learn how to promote the Language, Art, Culture, Theatre and Films from other regional languages.

The fact is that the only Film City established in the entire Northern Region, which was set up at NOIDA in UP has become the Channel City now and no films are being shot here.

The movers and shakers of Bhojpuri Cinema have no other choice but to go to Mumbai, face the humiliations by MNS & Raj Thackrey and make the films on their dictates.

Thus we demand a comprehensive policy and immediate steps to support the regional Cinema (in Bhojpuri, Awadhi Maithili, Magahi and other local languages) in states like UP, Bihar, MP, Chhattisgarh & Jharkhand.

We also urge United Nations Secretary General and the head of UNESCO to constitute a high level committee for the survey of Bhojpuri speaking people all over the world. We also request to make a separate department for the development of International Languages in UNESCO that is focused on regional languages like Bhojpuri.


Regards,
Onkareshwar Pandey
Executive Director, ASIA Region, BHAI
Bhojpuri Association of India (BHAI)
Website : www.BhojpuriIndia.org