At an immensely interesting event at the House of Lords of the British Parliament recently, 18 languages of India including Nepali were presented and highlighted marking the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. The program was organised by Sanskruti Centre for Cultural Excellence in association with the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Modern Languages supported by the Chartered Institute of Linguists.
Parliamentary host Rt. Hon. Baroness Garden of Frognal spoke on the significance of languages and commended the organisers for conceiving and presenting such meaningful content. Poems, mostly self-authored by the diaspora members in the UK, were presented in Sanskrit, Assamese, Bengali, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Marathi, Odiya, Punjabi, Sindhi, Telugu and Nepali. Rare scripts such as Takri, Sharda, and Mithilakshar were highlighted. Founder of Sanskruti Centre Ragasudha Vinjamuri spoke about endangered languages, and the declining Tai Khamti language of Arunachal Pradesh, work of NGOs such as Tai Khamti Heritage and Literature Society on language preservation. An age-old rhyme Koh-aui-Koh translated into English by Chow Kalingna Mannoi, and a Meitei poem by Leina Moirangthem were also included in the booklet Ramaneeyam- The Beauty of Expression brought out on the occasion.
The love of the mother language brought together diverse people who presented their expressions- doctors, writers, Councillors, university educators, members of the British armed forces, Chartered Accountants, artists, and IT professionals.
Dr Nandita Sahu, Attache (Hindi and Culture) from the High Commission of India has given concluding remarks. In attendance were Prof. Terry Lamb (Professor of Languages at the University of Westminster) and Philip Harding-Esch (Secretariat, APPG- Modern Languages).
