Manipuri Language Festival

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Meitei language festival

Meitei language festival
Native name	Manipuri Lon-gi Kummei; Manipuri Bhasha Utsav
English name	Manipuri language festival
Date	2008; 16 years ago (2008)[1]
Venue	Kamalganj, Moulvibazar[2] Bishganj[3] Bhanuganj[3] Jhotamaiz[3]
Location	Bangladesh
Also known as	Manipuri Language and Culture Festival (Bengali: Manipuri Bhasha o Sanskriti Utsav)[2]
Type	annual event
Theme	Meitei language (officially called Manipuri language)
Target	preservation and development of Meitei language,[4] indigenous Meitei script[a] and Meitei culture[b] in Bangladesh
Patron(s)	Bangladesh Manipuri Sahitya Sangsad
Organised by	Bangladesh Manipuri Sahitya Sangsad[6]
Participants	Meitei people (AKA Manipuri people)[7]

The 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.^[8] The event is organised by the Bangladesh Manipuri Literary Society (Bengali: বাংলাদেশ মণিপুরি সাহিত্য সংসদের, romanized: Bangladesh Manipuri Sahitya Sangsad).^[9][10]

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,^[5][11] and a meetings, including cultural programs and prize-giving.^[5][11]

Students in the 1st-8th grade (A branch) and 9-10th grade (B branch) students in the festival, had the opportunity to take a written test in their mother tongue.^[12]

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 Professor Saurabh Sikdar of the Linguistics Department of Dhaka University, Mathura Vikas Tripura, Executive Director of the Jabarang Welfare Organisation (Bengali: জাবারাং কল্যাণ সমিতি, romanized: Zabarang Kalyan Samity) 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.^[5][11]

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,^[13][14] and N Ratan Meitei.^[15][16]

"Meira" (Meitei: ꯃꯩꯔꯥ; মৈরা, romanized: /mə́i.ra/, lit. 'torch'), the cover of commemorative collection of the festival was released in the 2023 Meitei language festival.^[17][18]

• Meitei language movements
  • Meitei classical language movement
  • Meitei associate official language movement
  • Meitei linguistic purism movement
• Directorate of Language Planning and Implementation
• Sahitya Akademi
  • List of Sahitya Akademi Award winners for Meitei
  • List of Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize winners for Meitei
  • List of Yuva Puraskar winners for Meitei
• Manipuri Sahitya Parishad
• Manipur University
• Manipur University of Culture