The Union defence ministry has approached the Centre for Studies in Languages of Dibrugarh University in Upper Assam to teach Thai to army personnel.
The centre, which runs short and long- term courses on various Indian languages and Thai as well, has collaborative ventures with universities of Southeast Asian nations.
Tai is spoken by several communities in Upper Assam and neighbouring northeastern states, who have their roots in Southeast Asian countries, and the language has a lot of similarities with the languages spoken by several ethnic groups with variations in parts of Myanmar, China, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.
The language study centre, had a few years ago undertaken a three-month course on Thai, but was not able to continue it because of lack of students.
Two years ago, a 12-month course on Chinese was planned to be launched in view of the Centre’s Look East (now Act East) policy and the possibility of increase in trade in the region following demands from many quarters to open Stilwell Road connecting Upper Assam via Arunachal Pradesh with Myanmar and China.
However, because of “poor response” (only two students enrolled) the course has not been launched in the past two academic years.
Sources in the university said recently the defence ministry wrote requesting them to run a course to teach Thai to several batches of army personnel. The letter reportedly stated a batch would comprise 45 army personnel.
Sources said the university was actively considering the request to teach Thai as there will be “no problem” because scholars from Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand, visit the language study centre from time to time to attend workshops and assist in the teaching of Tai courses.
The director of the Centre for Studies in Languages, Bhimkanta Boruah, confirmed to The Telegraph that they had received a request from the defence ministry to teach army personnel.
Boruah said the request was under “active consideration”. He said once the decision is taken, the course will be prepared by customising it according to the requirements of the army.
Boruah, however, said he did not know the objective of the ministry’s decision to teach Thai.
A defence official posted in the region, whose view was sought over the matter, said the most likely reason for teaching foreign languages to the armed forces, including the paramilitary, was to prepare them before sending them on United Nations peace missions abroad, The Telegraph reported.
The official said the Indian armed forces, which includes paramilitary and state police personnel, have been serving in different missions across the globe and knowing foreign languages is a requisite for such purposes.
The official said as missions are deployed mostly in backward countries in different continents – in Africa and Asia – languages of those continents are taught.
French and Spanish, apart from English, are also taught to the armed forces as those countries had colonies the world over.
He said the other reason to know a foreign language of a neighbouring country could be for intelligence gathering as several militant outfits of the Northeast operate from Myanmar and use Thai and Tai for communication.
As Assam and the Northeast is in proximity with China, Myanmar and Bangladesh, there is a sizeable presence of Indian defence forces (including the air force), Assam Rifles, and Indo-Tibetan Border Police in the region.