The tradition & historical record
2 min read · 2 sourcesThe Manipuri Language Festival (Meitei: Manipuri Lon-gi Kummei), also known as the Meitei Language Festival or the Manipuri Bhasha Utsav, is an annual language festival dedicated to the promotion and the development of the Manipuri Meitei language, Meitei script, and Meitei culture in Bangladesh. The event is organised by the Bangladesh Manipuri Literary Society (Bengali: বাংলাদেশ মণিপুরি সাহিত্য সংসদের, romanized: Bangladesh Manipuri Sahitya Sangsad). 1
Festival activities
The festival is held at Adampur Tetaigaon Rashid Uddin High School premises in Kamalganj, Moulvibazar. It includes an opening address and colourful procession and rally of Meitei students and guests, a payment of tribute at the local Martyrs' Monument to those protestors who died during the Bengali language movement of 1952, and meetings, including cultural programs and prize-giving. Students in the 1st-8th grade (A branch) and 9th-10th grade (B branch) in the festival, had the opportunity to take a written test in their mother tongue. 1
2022
In 2022, AK Sheram, the president of the Bangladesh Manipuri Sahitya Sangsad, and Shahena Begum, the then-acting principal of Teteigaon Ramid Uddin High School, opened the Manipuri Language Festival. Later, a meeting attended by Saurabh Sikdar of the Linguistics Department of Dhaka University and Mathura Vikas Tripura, executive director of the Jabarang Welfare Organisation and member of the International Indigenous Languages Decade National Committee, was held to discuss the practice and promotion of the Meitei language and culture in the school. 1
2023 event
The main meeting was chaired by poet and essayist AK Sheram and the organization's general secretary, Nambram Shankar. Special guests included Parimal Singh, the secretary of the National Sports Council of Bangladesh, and N. Ratan Meitei.