| Puru Subedi |
Posted
on 10-Aug-02 11:07 AM
Taken from KOL.
-Puru
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Bhanubhakta makes a comeback in West Bengal
KOL Report
KATHMANDU, Aug 9 – India’s West Bengal government has decided to revive the Bhanubhakta Puraskar that it had discontinued under pressure from Gorkha National Liberation Front leader Subhas Ghising some 15 years ago.
Our correspondent Sanjay Pradhan, quoting West Bengal officials, reports from Darjeeling that noted critic Indra Bahadur Rai, who was in the forefront of the movement for inclusion of the Nepali language in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, has been selected for this year’s award. The Puraskar holding Rs. 25,000 as cash prize is given to people engaged in the fields of literature, music and art.
The controversy over Bhanubhakta first arose when Ghising tried to rename the Nepali language as Gorkha bhasa (language). He argued that the rejection of Nepal-born Bhanubhakta and adoption of Gorkha as the name of the Nepali race and language in India would give Nepali-speaking Indians an identity distinct from that of the people of Nepal.
However, Poet Bhanubhakta is revered as the greatest of all great Nepalis in the Darjeeling hills where his first statue was installed way back in 1949. His birth anniversary on July 13 is celebrated here as a national festival. In reverence to the 19th century bard, the communist government in West Bengal has declared July 13 as an official holiday in Darjeeling district since 1982.
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