The birth of a magazine in a tribal dialect in India’s northeast state of Tripura has proved to forge tribal identity and restore dignity and faith among its readers.
It all started way back in 2012 when the Salesians of Don Bosco working among the people for some 20 years launched a monthly magazine in the Kokborok language of Tripura.
Visiting General Councilor for Social Communications of Don Bosco Society, Rome, Filberto Gonzalez, released the pilot issue of the 36-page socio-cultural and literary magazine, Aitorma (Morning Star), at Don Bosco Peace Centre, Agartala, the state capital.
“Engaging the masses through media has been a modus operandi of the Salesians in Tripura right from the start,” says Fr Joseph Pulinthanath founder-director of Sampari Pictures, an EIMPA (Eastern India Motion Picture Association)-registered film production company that made two award winning full length feature films (Mathia [Bangle] & Yarwng [Roots]) in Kokborok language.
In addition, over the last 20 years, Sampari Pictures took up 14 film projects including documentaries, and two commissioned tele-serials – one entitled Pariwar (family) in Hindi (13 episodes) and another entitled Swami Kwthar in Kaubru (two episodes).
Aitorma is a socio-cultural monthly, now in the 4 th year of publication – the only monthly publication in the Kokborok language that has a phenomenal circulation of over 3000 copies.
Today in its fourth year of publication, Aitorma has for its tag line ‘Tripura awakening’ and “signals the resurgence of a state whose indigenous people have been relegated to the sidelines of history,” says Public Relations Officer of Agartala diocese Fr Pulinthanath.
“There aren’t many regular publications in Kokborok that have the common man in mind. Aitorma is our effort to address this acutely felt lacuna among Kokborok speakers,” says its editor Binod Debbarma.
Salesian Father Pulinthanath, an award winning Kokborok film director considers culture and language as “unavoidable areas that need looking into if one is to engage meaningfully in the development of a people.”
Magazine publisher Salesian Father Benny Moshahary says that the venture proves to be “a rallying point” for Kokborok language and its practitioners.
Alongside the monthly, Aitorma also has initiated a series of socially and culturally important programs like Aitorma Ter – a much awaited annual festival of culture featuring Indigenous food festival, and the Annual Aitorma Awards including the coveted Miss and Mr Aitorma.
Awards are also given out to the winners of Interschool General Knowledge contest, and achievers among the differently-abled persons, women, upcoming writers, upcoming entrepreneurs, and forgotten legends. The 10 awards are sponsored by different organizations to promote social and cultural causes and carry award money in addition to the citation and trophy.
Aitorma Maharaja Bir Bikram Memorial Annual Lecture began last year as a tribute to the most prominent king of Tripura.
His grandson, the present king, ‘Maharaja Pradyut Debbarman Manikya’ inaugurated the series in the presence of a host of luminaries including Dr. George Maliekal, Salesian provincial of Shillong. Jesuit scholar Dr. Walter Fernandez delivered the first lecture on ‘Present day challenges before the indigenous Communities of Tripura,’ on 26 January 2016.
An interactive website with possibility of online subscription will be soon launched.
As an annual outreach program of a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) nature, the magazine reaches out to far flung interior villages and engages in relief and welfare activities. It also conducts seminars on other relevant social and cultural issues of the community.
Diocesan Communication officer Fr Pulinthanath says, “The monthly has, to an extent, already enhanced collective consciousness of the community, given rise to new writers, enhanced reading habit, given greater exposure to the tribe, and resurrected forgotten legends and achievements of tribesmen.”
Twenty five years of Don Bosco presence in the state is marked by some significant ventures in this direction, including production of mainstream cinema, which gave world exposure to Kokborok language and to some problems suffered by its speakers.
With every issue, the socio-cultural monthly, the publishers say, keeps adding to the meager corpus of Kokborok literature.
Over the years, unresolved linguistic issues of Kokborok language have spilled over into social, political and economic realms and adversely affected the lives of Tripura’s indigenous communities.
The beleaguered Kokborok language has over 1 million speakers in Tripura and in parts of adjoining Bangladesh.