After countries like Fiji, Surinam, Mauritius and several others Bhojpuri finally got academic recognition in the India too. IGNOU has become first open university in the country which started course in Bhojpuri language and literature.
Though Bhojpuri is widely spoken in the several Indian states of the country, especially north Indian states but no formal course had been introduced in the universities. Last year, Delhi government had formed a state-level Academy (Maithili-Bhojpuri Akademy) for growth of the language. But this too had been done after lot of efforts and pressure from the Bhojpuri-speaking communities.
Launching the course few days ago, Meira Kumar, Speaker of Lok Sabha, said “Bhojpuri is like the Pacific ocean, it has a lot of depth and emotion inside it. It is not just a language but a lifestyle”. She further said that Bhojpuri is one of the major languages of India. 20 crore people of our country speak Bhojpuri. They constitute the largest speakers among Indian languages, after Hindi and they are spread not only in states within the country but also in different countries of the world like Mauritius, Surinam, Fiji, Trinidad and Tobago”.
The course has been launched under IGNOU’s School of Humanities and it shall be taught as a part of the School’s Bachelor programmes. It is available to students from July 2009 session onwards. Work has also begun for launching of Certificate and Diploma programmes in Bhojpuri, as well.
Speaking on the launch, IGNOU Vice Chancellor, Professor VN Rajsekharan Pillai said,” This launch is a beginning of a Centre of Bhojpuri Language, Literature and Culture as well as of a new School of Indian Languages within IGNOU.”
It is notable that Bhojpuri is still not a scheduled language in the constitution.