Maithili Language

Movement
Maithili: The Language o Mithila
Brief History of Struggle
• Controversy over Vidyapati
• opposition to Hindi and Bengali’s claim of Maithili being its ‘dialect’ or the
ambivalent relationship between the two
• Little Support from Colonial Authorities or Darbhanga Maharaja
• Maithils became far more assertive about the rightful place for the status of their
language, Maithili, from the early 1920s
• Several journals and magazines were published solely to furthering the cause of
Maithili and Mithila.
• Maithili Sahitya Parishad was established exclusively for the promotion of Maithili
language and literature.
• fighting against the appropriation of several Maithili literary figures, such as
Vidyapati and Govinda Das, by Bengali scholars.
Brief History of Struggle
• in the 1920s and 1930s a class of Maithils become far more assertive;
through cultural celebrations, such as Vidyapati Parva, Kavi Sammelans,
and Janaki Navami
• Support for the Maithili movement was increasing along with the rise of a
modern educated middle class in Mithila.
• an attempt to use a symbolic figure—in the form of Janaki (Sita, wife of
Rama and daughter of King Janaka of Videha)—to which all inhabitant of
Mithila could emotionally connect.
• 1920s witnessed a phenomenal growth in Maithili journals and magazines
• produced many towering figures in Maithili journalism and literature—Babu Bhola
Lal Das, Bhuwaneshwar Singh ‘Bhuwan’, Surendra Jha ‘Suman’, Ramanath Jha
Brief History of Struggle
• Many magazines like Mithila Mihir, Mithila Moda, and Maithil Hit Sadhana
were published
• the very existence of Maithili was being threatened
• English, Urdu, and Hindi consolidated itself in all public places while
Maithili was negated to the households. This led to the belief about Maithili
being a household language with very little or no relevance in public-
political life. Even in the household it was increasingly believed to be a
language of the womenfolk.
• Against such appropriations, these journals and magazines and their editors
reasserted the rich and older literary traditions of Maithili.
• Mithila Sahitya Sabha formed in 1930
Mithila Movement in Independent India
• The Maithili movement entered a phase of increasing politicization in
post-Independent India. It was no longer led by the literary elite alone.
Many political leaders and activists also joined and worked for the
progress of Mithila and Maithili.
• 4 phases
• the separate statehood demand for Mithila became the central mobilizing
factor immediately after Independence of India in 1950
• The second phase of the movement was highlighted by the issues regarding
recognition of Maithili as a modern Indian language in the Sahitya Akademi
and the correct enumeration of Maithili speakers in the census.
Mithila Movement in Independent India
• The third phase was about the demand for inclusion of Maithili in the eighth
schedule of the Indian Constitution. This phase also witnessed many protests
and demonstrations due to removal of Maithili from the Bihar Public Service
Commission (BPSC). Also, recognition of Maithili as an administrative
language in the state of Bihar, especially when Urdu was made the second
official language in the state under a Maithili-speaking chief minister,
Jagannath Mishra.
• The fourth and contemporary phase of the Maithili movement has witnessed
the reassertion of separate statehood demand particularly after the recognition
of Maithili in the eighth schedule of the Indian Constitution in 2004. In this
contemporary phase, this demand for separate statehood is not based on
distinct language and culture alone but on poor economic development.