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Meeting Urges Tai-Ahoms to Record Taoism and Tai-Ahom as Mother Tongue in Census

By AT News |

Sivasagar, March 6: A meeting of organisations associated with the religious and intellectual affairs of the Tai-Ahom community was held on Thursday (March 5) at the public auditorium of Bakata Parijat Panchayat in Sivasagar district. The meeting was chaired by Jibeshwar Mohan Deva, founding principal of Tingkhang College.

Several prominent personalities attended the meeting, including Manaranjan Baruah, president of the Mohan-Deodhai-Bailung Sanmilan; Vidya Phukan, president of the Mohan-Deodhai-Bailung Pandit Parishad; former president of Phra-Lung-Moung Assam Golap Gohain; secretary Pranjal Mohan; noted Tai cultural researcher Kamal Jyoti Mohan; Tai-Ahom scholar Nripen Mohan; Assam Tao Council secretary Laukhri Baruah; Rajiv Bailung; Taoist Foundation of India president Priyabar Konwar; and indigenous affairs advisor and writer Nilambar Gogoi, among others.

During the meeting, speakers expressed their views on the distinct language and religious identity of the Tai-Ahom community. Participants emphasized that while the commonly spoken language of the community today is Assamese, their mother tongue remains Tai-Ahom.

The gathering discussed preparations for the upcoming ethnic census and urged members of the Tai-Ahom community to record Tai-Ahom as their mother tongue.

On the question of religion, various viewpoints were presented. After extensive discussion, a majority of participants argued that the traditional faith of the Tai-Ahoms is Taoism rather than Hinduism. The meeting unanimously resolved that in the forthcoming census the Tai-Ahom community should record their religion as “Taoism” and their mother tongue as “Tai-Ahom.”

To spread awareness and mobilise the community on the issue, a 31-member committee was also formed. Jibeshwar Mohan was appointed president, while Anup Arandhara, chief secretary of Indigenous Peoples of Moung-Dun-Chun-Kham, Assam, North East India, and Tai Khun Chao, general secretary of the Tai-Ahom Indigenous Protection Council, were appointed as joint secretaries. The committee will work to promote awareness and outreach within the community regarding the decision.

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