Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Our Earlier Letter: Changing the name: Udis(h)a should be accepted like Odis(h)a

Nov 4, 2010

Dear Honorable Chief Minister Sri Patnaik,


In the coming winter session there will be a discussion for changing name to Odisha[1].

I do not have problem of changing of Orissa, but why to change that of Udisha or Udisa?

Whether it is a dialect form of Odia (Udia) or Kosli language [2] (prevalent in Western part of the state) is not a serious concern here, since many people in the present state still use Udis(h)a, it should not be called wrong. If we can accept Utkal/Kalinga as Odisha/Udisha then why not Udisha as local name of Odisha?

We write Biswanath (Odia/Udia form) instead of Viswanath (Hindi/Sankrit form), are we accepting Biswanath as incorrect? I will say Biswanath is correct as per our language as we pronouce in the same way.

Similarly, in pure Odia/Udia we say KUADE, in Westen part of the state it is pronouced KENE, are we not accepting KENE as a local version or saying KENE is wrong?

I was reading few folklore from Western part of the state, most of the folklore mention Udisa/Udia rather than Odisha/Odia. Are we not marginalizing those hidden rich culture in folklore and their language?

Officially changing Briitish given name to local name make sense, but changing a local name to another local name seems political. By undermining our local dialect (Kathit bhasha) or language are we not culturally marginalizing our people further? Such cultural dominance and/or marginalization slowly divides the society and some of them are being witnessed.

Rather Odisha and Udisha both should be accepted as it is.

I hope you and your Government will look into this matter to take appropriate action.

Thanking you

Best regards

Digambara Patra

[1] http://www.orissasambad.com/news_article.php?id=39342
[2] http://www.dailypioneer.com/149202/Week-long-Kosli-drama-fest-in-Balangir-from-Jan-14.html

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